New York City Rent Is Too High!

NYC Skyline

It’s been more than two decades since I decided to give up the humble and often humiliating life of a struggling New Yorker and move out of the city.  I was living in a tiny basement apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens, working in Manhattan, but with an income that made living on America’s most fabulous island impossible.

From a May 18, 2023 CNN article:

"... The median cost of renting an apartment in Manhattan was $4,241 in April. That’s up 8% from a year ago and up 1.6% from March, when rents hit a record high of $4,175.

A one-bedroom apartment had a median rent of $4,200, up 5% from last year; while a two-bedroom apartment had a median rent of $5,500, up 11% from a year ago. A studio apartment rents for a median price of $3,235, up 13.5% from last year..."

So, on this two-decade anniversary of me moving out of NYC Housing Hell, here is my top 10 list of reasons why I don’t like NYC:

1)  >>  The Rent Is Too Damn High!  <<

2)  There is dog poo EVERYWHERE!  Why do New Yorkers think it’s OK to leave feces all over the place, so that we can all step in it and drag it into our homes?  DISGUSTING!  Sometimes I think I’m the only one who hates this.

3)  NYC Subway I:  It’s way too crowded during rush hours.  If you can’t find a seat, you’ll stand.  And if you’re lucky, the guy or gal who is packed into a subway car and standing next to you -- and I mean so packed that they are right in your face -- didn’t bother to brush their teeth that morning…

4)  NYC Subway II: In the dead of winter, the air in underground platforms is colder than the air outside, and hotter than the outdoors during the oppressive heat of mid-summer.  Lovely.

5)  NYC Subway III: Rats and Roaches.  Nice.  And the rats are brazen.  One time, I caught one literally spitting in my direction, and looking me dead in the eyes while doing so…

6)  NYC Subway IV - More disgust: I was moving between subway cars one morning, trying to find a seat, and found a MASSIVE pile of human feces in-between the cars. Almost stepped in it. Awesome.

7)  Residential and Commercial Roach Problems: Trying to eradicate cockroaches is pretty much pointless.  They are too hardy. Too resilient. Too evil. I’ve gotten a free meal in my favorite restaurant on more than one occasion, because they couldn’t get rid of them.

8) I love the city, but not the people.  The typical New Yorker is a negative, rude, nasty, putrid piece of junk.  Too much schadenfreude.  Not enough community (with the exception of the 9/11 terror attacks, when, during a long mountain-bike ride around three boroughs, I witnessed thousands of ordinary city folk gather at their local fire house to cheer and salute the heroism of New York City’s intrepid firefighters.)

9) The cops: Not all bad, of course, but enough are so bad that they engender much displeasure for all the cops.

10) When my mom retired from her job, and bought herself a new car as a retirement preset, she donated her old diesel workhorse to yours truly.  And I was quickly reminded how bad NYC roads are.  On one beautiful spring morning, I wasn’t able to avoid a huge pothole, and BANG!  Had to replace a rim.  With labor, it cost me $400 to replace, and the replacement was used! 

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Eviction Moratorium Ends July 31, 2021: Could Millions Become Homeless?

Eviction Moratorium

by Gary D. Halbert, of the Forecasts & Trends E-Letter

In March of 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the so-called “CARES” Act) which included an eviction moratorium preventing landlords from evicting tenants who were delinquent in paying their rent. The moratorium was originally set to expire at the end of July 2020 but was extended four times to July 31, 2021. That’s this Saturday, and the Biden administration says it will not be extended further.

It remains to be seen how this all plays out. Some forecasters predict we’ll see millions of new homeless people wandering the streets over the next several months. Others think landlords will be reluctant to oust their tenants, especially if they believe those renters will soon get federal or state assistance with paying their unpaid rent. We’ll see.

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In March of 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the so-called “CARES” Act) which included an eviction moratorium preventing landlords from evicting tenants who were delinquent in paying their rent.

The national moratorium has been challenged in several courts and its expiration date has been extended four times. It is currently set to expire this Saturday, July 31, and federal officials (including President Biden) have indicated there are no plans to extend it again.

Throughout the moratorium, there has been confusion among renters and landlords regarding federal rent assistance. Landlords complain that some tenants have abused the moratorium by not paying rent, even if they have the money to do so. Tenants complain about the complicated paperwork and the long wait to receive rent assistance funds.

More than 11 million Americans -- 16% of renters -- are still behind on their rent payments, according to analysis by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities. Some believe the numbers are far higher. And the moratorium ends this Saturday!

Congress approved more than $46 billion in rental assistance between last December and March for both tenants and landlords, but getting the money into their hands has proved hard for both the federal government and state and local agencies.

Exact amounts of assistance renters and landlords can receive depend on their income and where they live, but renters could get enough to cover rent from as far back as March 13, 2020, unpaid utilities and even, in some cases, future rent. The problem is, the assistance is just not getting to where it needs to go.

The Treasury Department claims that more than $1.5 billion in assistance was delivered to eligible households in the month of June alone — nearly triple the amount distributed since April. Administration officials point to this as a pivotal sign of progress in the program and an indication that once local communities establish a system for handling the money, they will be able to distribute it quickly. That’s good news but, again, the eviction moratorium ends in four days!

The White House announced last week it will convene a meeting of over 2,000 local officials, landlord and tenant advocates, legal experts and other participants from 46 cities to answer questions and raise awareness about emergency rental assistance and eviction prevention strategies tomorrow (Wednesday).

Yet how is that going to help with the deadline looming for landlords to commence eviction proceedings starting next week? I don’t know. With such a big pow-wow at the White House tomorrow, I would think there would be a lot of media coverage on this dire situation on the Wednesday evening news. But we’ll see.

Bottom line: There is a definite risk that millions of renters could be evicted and put on the street just ahead. Now I understand the eviction process is a complicated one, including in most cases going through courts. So, it’s not going to happen immediately after the deadline this Saturday. Yet this could be an economic nightmare over the next several months.

Finally, given the economic magnitude of the start of mass evictions for millions of delinquent renters, and the psychological impacts it would have on the country at large, I could see this throwing stocks into a major correction just ahead.

Hopefully, federal and state agencies can get up to speed muy pronto and assure landlords that the money is coming and convince most not to initiate the eviction process a few weeks longer.

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by Gary D. Halbert, of the Forecasts & Trends E-Letter

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Renting On The Rise Due To Surging Home Prices

From the good folks at Nightly Business Report: Rising home prices lead to increase in renting...

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Rentometer.com

If you're still renting (as I am) it's a good to know what comparable apartments are renting for, as this knowledge will help you to negotiate the best possible deal on your rent. I recently stumbled upon http://www.rentometer.com, as site where you simply enter a few tidbits of information, and the site will show you how your situation compares to others in your area. Cool stuff.

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An Unexpected Dip for My Credit Score: FICO Score Now at 753

Two weeks ago, I logged into my Citibank consumer credit card account -- the only consumer credit card account I have with a balance right now -- to find that the good folks at Citi had recently given me a credit line increase, and a substantial one at that. My credit limit was around $13,000; now it's close to $22,000. 22K is the highest credit limit I've ever been granted. Not even my strongest business credit card has a credit limit that high.

Of course, I was very pleased about the credit increase, because it means that the balance on this particular card is now a smaller fraction of the account's credit limit, and that looks good to my current and potential creditors.

Funny thing is, my FICO® credit score (provided by Transunion), which had been hovering at 760 for the past two months, has dropped to 753. Now, I realize that the best way to get my FICO score to rise is to pay down my consumer credit card debt: the bigger the payment, the bigger the bump to my score. But since the balance on my Citi consumer credit card is now close to a third of my total credit line, my thinking was this would cause at least a small increase for my score.


Unexpected Decline for My Credit Score: Must Be Identity Theft!

Since I was expecting a small rise for my FICO score this month, as soon as I noticed the lower score, my immediate reaction was to order a free credit report from each of the 3 credit bureaus. I had to rule out the possibility that someone had gained my sensitive info and used it to open one or more accounts in my name. Under federal law, you are entitled to one free copy of your credit report (also known as a "credit file disclosure") every year from the 3 majors -- Transunion, Experian and Equifax. I had never exercised my right to a free report, so it seemed like the perfect time to take advantage of the new law.

I stopped by the www.Annualcreditreport.com website to order my free reports (Congress mandated that the 3 bureaus create the Annualcreditreport.com website. It's the site you need to use to get your free annual credit report from the 3 majors, or you can call 877-322-8228. If you contact any of the credit bureaus directly, you'll probably be asked to pay a fee.) After bypassing all the extra stuff the credit bureaus tried to sell me, I was able to get a free copy of my report from each agency quite quickly. I reviewed all the data carefully, and found nothing out of order.

Was I being paranoid for assuming that someone had stolen my identity? I don't think so! And here's why: Last month, I performed a virus scan on all my computers and the virus scanner found a keylogger installed on my primary workstation. A keylogger! I was floored by the discovery. With all the precautions I take -- virus scanner, firewall, etc. -- someone was still able to get a keylogger program installed on my computer. Unbelievable. I am not going to do the idiots who create these programs any favors by posting the name of the trojan here, but I will share this: the trojan almost succeeded at collecting many of my usernames and passwords -- and the corresponding website URL's! Had the trojan succeeded, it would have sent my many credentials to the criminals who probably know exactly how to exploit them for maximum gain, or maximum damage.

So remember to run a virus scan regularly, and remember to keep your virus definition files up to date!

A Downgraded Credit Score: It Feels Like I Failed A College Midterm.

So, why did my FICO score regress? I haven't opened any new accounts, or performed any balance transfers lately. For all my personal spending, it's been all cash (or debit card) for some time now. My understanding was that as your accounts age and you pay down your balances, you score goes up. Maybe the scoring algorithm was recently modified in some way. Maybe it was a simple correction. Whatever the reason, the decline in my score has certainly rubbed me wrong, and I plan on making a $900+ payment to my Citibank consumer credit card next week, which I'm hoping will boost my FICO score above 770. Wish me luck!


Always Negotiate -- Even Your Rent!

I do have some good news to report. I recently renewed the lease for my apartment and was able to get a favorable deal. The folks who manage my apartment complex wanted to raise my rent by $250 per month. I realize that a rent increase is quite normal for a place like mine, but $250 was simply not reasonable. I met with the property manager and negotiated (I brought my baby girl along to the negotiating table; gotta' use all the tools God gave me!) In the end, the property manager agreed to raise my rent by $20, which I calculated to be considerably lower than the rate on inflation, so I was OK with it. It's like Frederick Douglass said, "Power cedes nothing without a demand."

Here's an updated image of my charted credit score:

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