Number of properties on city’s 90-day lien sales list is falling

Largest concentration of buildings is in Brooklyn

(Credit: Center for NYC Neighborhoods)
(Credit: Center for NYC Neighborhoods)

New data shows the number of properties on the city’s 90-day lien sales list is down from last year.

There are 24,200 buildings on the Department of Finance’s 90-day lien sale list, compared with 27,233 properties last year, according to the Center for NYC Neighborhoods.

Brooklyn had the most properties with 6,458, then 4,557 in Queens, 2,528 in the Bronx, 1,285 on Staten Island and 205 in Manhattan, according to the data.

The list includes more than 15,000 co-ops, condos and one-to-four family homes.

The city places liens on properties that have unpaid debts, which can include property taxes and water bills. The Department of Finance sells the liens every year, but beforehand issues the list to give owners the chance to pay off the debt or enroll in a payment plan, Politico reported.

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Last year, the city sold 4,228 properties off the list, Politico reported.

For properties with an assessed value of less than $250,000, the city charges nine percent with interest compounded daily when the liens are sold to third parties, Politico reported.

Caroline Nagy, a policy manager at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, said Southeastern Queens and the North Bronx were the hardest hit areas.

“These are neighborhoods where we’re very concerned about financial destabilization,” Nagy told Politico. “It can be very difficult to recover from financial shocks and setbacks, so the lien sale is another way where homeowners have relatively small amounts of debts turned into larger amounts of debt.” [Politico]Dusica Sue Malesevic