Apartment buildings across New York City are being abandoned when property owners can no longer pay their mortgages, leaving entire buildings vacant and vulnerable to anybody who walks in. Most of these buildings, which can be found on the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s annual list of the most poorly maintained buildings in New York City, are owned by landlords who can no longer afford rising mortgage payments or the necessary building repairs. Another reason for this uptick in poorly maintained buildings is overleveraging, which is when a building’s rental income no longer supports its debt. International investors are scooping up these overleveraged buildings, which are usually inhabited by low-income tenants in rent-regulated units, and renting them out to higher paying tenants.