Smokers looking for an apartment rental that doesn’t require them to leave the comfort of their unit to enjoy a cigarette are finding fewer and fewer options. A recent Craigslist.org search conducted by the New York Times found just four apartments in the five boroughs that advertise that smoking is permitted. [more]

Manhattan residential rents increased 1.82 percent in May, but vacancies have also increased nearly 3 percent as the summer turnover begins, according to a May Manhattan rental market report released today by MNS. The average rent now sits 6 percent above its average in May 2010. Harlem, long the cheaper option for renters reluctant to leave Manhattan, has keyed much of the price gains, as non-doorman and doorman studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments all experienced rent growth in May. Doorman two-bedroom apartments in the neighborhood, for example, rose 7 percent in monthly rent to $2,966. Soho and the Financial District also experienced large gains in rents, but their average rents sill paled in comparison to Tribeca, the city’s priciest neighborhood, the report shows. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

The Obama administration plans to use $4.25 billion in economic
stimulus money for the creation of subsidized rental housing units in
cities across the country. The money would pay for both the
construction of new apartment buildings and the refurbishment of
foreclosed homes. An additional $4 billion of the $14 billion that the
Department of Housing and Urban Development received from the federal
stimulus package will go toward repairing the nation’s current public
housing stock. The program marks a drastic shift from former President
George W. Bush’s “ownership society,” the idea that the ultimate goal
for all Americans should be home ownership. But opponents of the Obama
administration’s proposal warn that sometimes rent can be more
expensive than a mortgage. [more]

Federal officials at the Treasury Department are considering a plan
that would allow borrowers who are behind on mortgage payments to avoid
eviction by renting their homes instead. Under the plan proposed by
economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research, a
bankruptcy judge would help determine a fair rent for the property.
Banks would be able to sell the occupied homes, but the lease would
remain in effect even if the ownership changed. Officials are still
figuring out how to replace a loan with a rental lease without
disrupting the overall mortgage market. Two possible methods that are
being considered by government officials are paying cash to
mortgage-service companies to take part in the new program or selling
homes to a third party that would write rental agreements. [more]