The DAily News reports that as foreclosures and evictions rise all over the city, many of the victims are renters--NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy counts 38,000 were affected. And in many cases, "renters have been given just weeks to find new digs, while unscrupulous landlords collect rents for homes they no longer own." In one case, some tenants told a judge they had no idea their landlord didn't own the building......

A new variation on the apartment rent in cash scam: The NY Post reports a woman was swindled out of $100,000 (meant for two apartments at 410 West 53rd Street) by the broker she met on Craigslist who "legitimately rented her a different Manhattan home two weeks before." Ah, the ol' reel them in and then scam them. The client says broker Leif Lopez showed her the apartments, which she planned to sublet to tourists.......

The Legal Aid Society and Legal Services of New York have filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court to overturn a controversial vote in June by the Rent Guidelines Board to add a supplemental rent hike for tenants who have lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for over six years and who pay $1,000 or less a month in rent. The lawsuit argues that requiring tenants to pay an extra $45 or $85 is a higher......

The Dow Jones industrial average lost over 500 points today, the biggest one-day decline for the Dow since Sept. 17, 2001, when the market reopened for trading after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "You have to throw out the history books because there's really nothing to compare this to," Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Advisors, tells CNN. Stephen Leeb, president at Leeb Capital Management, says, "People are panicked but it's not the end of......

Reuters/NY Times In the first ten minutes of trading this morning, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 300 points, while the major European stock exchanges sank more than 4 percent, the Times is reporting. What color is your parachute? The nosedive is the unsurprising result of several days of increasingly bad news from investment bank Lehman Brothers, which announced its bankruptcy filing after 158 years in business. Today is the first day of......

After twelve years, 5,124 performances and a haul of $280 million, Rent's Broadway run has come to an end. The musical closed yesterday after a final sold-out performance packed with diehard fans (the "Rentheads") and a smattering of celebrities (a couple Gossip Girl cast members). Just before the curtain came down for the final time, members of the show's original company joined the current cast on stage to "Seasons of Love," one of the show's most famous songs, the Associated Press reports....

A party was held Friday night at the Life Cafe in the East Village to celebrate the final weekend of production of Rent after 12 years on Broadway. Throughout most of the show's run, Life has avoided cashing in on its status as a setting for an epic scene in the first act of Rent. But with the play closing this year, the diner has begun selling memorabilia and displaying journals in which fans can......

Rent to get Evicted this Weekend Rent, the rock-musical that did more to force LES hipster culture into that mainstream than anybody would care to admit, will take its final bows this weekend on Broadway. The once acclaimed show, which has been on the stage since 1996, will leave as the 7th longest Broadway run ever, and has built up a devoted following of longtime fans. And, just in case you were dying to get......

Could it really be that Manhattan's obscene rents are becoming ever-so-slightly less obscene? That's the Observer's perception, and they've got market reports from the Real Estate Group New York [REGNY] indicating that rents on studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are lower this summer than last. According to REGNY, in June the average rent for a Manhattan two-bedroom apartment in a non-doorman building was $3,950, 6.5 percent less than in June 2007. All this has the......

After four decades controlling the New York State Senate, political analysts expect Republicans to lose their majority to Democrats this November. And that possibility has real estate executives “really scared,” as one Manhattan developer told the Times, because most Senate Democrats support changes to the rent laws, which were diluted by Republicans in 1997 to favor landlords. Now the real estate industry is scrambling to get the Democrats in their pockets by throwing lots of......

Henry Logue made almost $100,000 in salary and overtime last year, but continued to live in a paint shed at state-run Rockland Psychiatric Center, according to the Journal News. Apparently he had been living there for three years--even registering his car there--all while his wife lived in a home 3 miles away. Though the psychiatric center had told employees they were not allowed to stay on campus past their shifts, Logue managed to make himself......

After the revelation that he rents at least three rent-stabilized apartments (one unit is made up of two previously combined units) and ensuing uproar, Representative Charles Rangel will give up a 10th floor one-bedroom unit at Harlem's Lenox Terrace that he used as an office. The NY Times first reported Rangel's real estate riches last Thurday, and Rangel defended his actions as being legal. However, rent regulations require that, per the Times, "rent-stabilized apartments to......

Two years ago The NY Times visited the changing landscape of Harlem; at the time Maya Angelou told them about her part-time neighborhood, saying, "The hope is there. The minute you look down a street and see a Dumpster, you know that's hope." Earlier this year the paper revisited 125th Street and focused in on long time residents and their apprehension about gentrification and the changes afoot that many cannot benefit from. This was around......

At last night's wild meeting in Cooper Union's Great Hall, the Rent Guidelines Board decided to raise rent stabilized rents 4.5% for one-year leases and 8% for two-year leases. These are the biggest rent hikes in recent years: Last year, rents hikes were approved for 3% on 1-year leases and 5.75% on 2-year leases (in 2006, the hikes were 4.25% and 7.25%). The last time there were higher hikes was in 1989. The meeting......

After the roof over her head burned to the ground, Shaniqua Tompkins found herself in court where a Manhattan judge ruled that she owes Fifty Cent $4,500 for May rent that she never paid (previously a judge ruled she owed double that for past due rents). The NY Post reports that she has until Friday to come up with the cash."She better pay it by the end of the week. Do you understand?" Edmead told......

Brooklyn Paper has it that the smaller, funkier Tea Lounge in Park Slope, on Seventh Avenue and Tenth Street, is to close at the end of July. And you’ll never in a million years guess what the reason is! Turns out an obscene rent hike is forcing the neighborhood hang-out to move along and make room for, most likely, a Corcoran real estate office. Where have we heard this tune before? And so the tumbleweeds......

Today the Post looks at how the turbulent economy is affecting the lifestyle of one family of four on the Upper East Side, and, surprise surprise, reports that it’s not really such a big deal for some people. Sure, their cost of living expenses have risen by $1,000 a month compared to this time last year, but Mr. and Mrs. Gary Foodim aren’t sweating it – they vacationed at Disney World last year and there's......

As tenants and landlords await to see what the rent hikes for rent-stabilized apartments will be, the NY Times looks at a new breed landlords: Private equity firms that buy buildings with rent-regulated apartments. The strategy seems to be for the firms to "recapture" the rent-regulated apartments by somehow increasing the vacancy rate from the more typical 5% to 20-30%. And tenants' advocates indicate equity firms do that by making tenants' lives hell to the......

Photo courtesy jenie212. Woodhaven Lanes, the classic Forest Hills bowling alley, will close in less than two weeks, NY1 has learned. But this latest loss of a beloved NYC institution wasn’t due to the obscene rents that are sucking all the character out of our city, but rather a multiplying swarm of radioactive scorpions that have nested in the lanes’ shoes and balls. Kidding, of course it’s the obscene rent. Owner Jim Santora tells......

Last night, the Rent Guidelines Board recommended to increase rents for rent-stabilized apartments by 3.5-7% for one-year leases and 5.5-9.5% for two-year leases. This figure was deemed too high by tenants and not high enough by landlords. This proposed increase is higher than last year's (3% for 1-year, 5.75% for 2-year leases), reflecting the rising costs landlords face. The Post noted the meeting last night followed "a well-worn script" with tenants asking for a rent......

On the heels of Florent's closure comes news that another one of the Meatpacking District’s pre-millennial hang-outs will walk the plank: The Hog Pit, a Southern dive bar and BBQ joint that opened in the late '90s, is the latest casualty of the neighborhood’s astronomical rent increases. Co-owner Felisa Dell sent an email to Eater today confirming the closure, which was brought on by a triple rent increase to 40K per month. The Hog Pit’s......

Florent, the beloved Meatpacking District hangout set to close this summer after almost twenty three years in business, will at least be going out in style, according to Frank Bruni, who spoke with owner Florent Morellet yesterday. The bistro's long goodbye will last five weeks, with each week dedicated to one of the Kubler-Ross stages of grief. Week One, starting Monday, May 26, will be Denial, with the remaining four weeks themed as Anger, Bargaining,......

For those who want more time with a furry friend than a visit to a dog park can provide, and less of a commitment than a full-time pet would bring, enter: FlexPetz. The company rents out real dogs and opened in New York last October...and yesterday's NY Times article has proof that people are actually using it.Ms. Stevenson explained why she was a customer: “I’m single and moved here from Scotland two years ago, and......

The Observer, keeping with their trend-watching, is reporting that 20-somethings are moving back in with their parents after college...that is, if the parents own prime New York real estate (aka: Brownstone Boomers). Didn't we all see this coming with The Royal Tenenbaums? One Carroll Gardens family, the Eisenbergs, have seen their three daughters return for varying amounts of time -- they are, of course, just one small section of a new generation of kids returning......

The owners of four Manhattan Burger King franchises are locked in a nasty legal battle with their royal overlord. Luan Sadik and his sister, Elizabeth Sadik, rebelled against the mandatory 99-cent menu and the recent dollar Value Menu because the prices couldn’t cover the obscene Manhattan rent and the fast food monarch roared. According to the Daily News, their rent at a Fifth Avenue restaurant is $9,000/month and $18,000.month at a 47th Street location. The......

After news spread that Upper West Side institution Cafe La Fortuna would close today, many people came by to bid farewell. The restaurant was packed last night and this morning and afternoon, as people enjoyed the sandwiches, Italian coffee drinks and opera music one last time, lamenting the closing of another standby. One woman arrived with a bouquet of flowers and a card for the staff. Owner Vincent Urwand explained that the West 71st......

It would a bit too simplistic to blame the impending closure of La Fortuna, the Upper West Side café that first opened in 1976, entirely on the skyrocketing rents of a turbo-gentrifying neighborhood. While the ever rising rental tide was certainly a factor – the building was taken over by a real-estate group after the previous landlord died – three years still remained on the lease. According to amNY, the closure has more to do......

They’ll deny it, but most college students who write plays harbor some secret fantastic hope that their new opus will be hailed as the arrival of a fresh new voice and open on Broadway to triumphant acclaim. It obviously never happens, except when it does: 28-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, originally from Washington Heights, conceived the musical In the Heights as a sophomore at Wesleyan. After graduating, the show, a hip hop and salsa-inflected homage to his......

A total no-brainer: The family of 17-month-old boy who was shot in the arm by an off-duty police officer has filed a notice of claim against the city. The Porcellini family will also pursue action against the NYPD and 24-year-old police officer Patrick Venetek. Last week, Venetek's service pistol fired through his Brooklyn apartment floor - right above the Porcellini's. The bullet passed through the Porcellini's ceiling and through the left forearm of little Jonathan,......

Patrick Venetek, the cop whose service weapon wound up shooting through the ceiling of his downstairs neighbors' apartment and striking an 18-month-old's arm, gave further details on how the incident occurred. Perhaps to the relief of Porcellini's six brothers and sisters, Venetek has been stripped of his badge and gun at this time and is on modified duty. Apparently, Ventek was going to start cleaning his 9 mm semi-automatic pistol in the dwindling natural light......