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Rent collections are down in New York

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/21/rent-collections-are-down-in-new-york-and-no-ones-sure-why-00966982
27•JumpCrisscross•1h ago

Comments

alexjplant•1h ago
> “There is a subset of people, maybe the smallest subset, who are literally making a choice not to pay rent, and we don’t do well with acknowledging that but there is a subset for whom that is the case,” [...] Others bristle at the notion that some tenants are not paying rent just because they may be able to get away with it.

These people absolutely exist. To pretend that they don't is willful ignorance. They are, however, indeed a "small[est] subset" to quote the gentleman in the article. In the era of $4 McDoubles and $6 gallons of gas I have trouble believing that one in four people is my burnout college roommate who spends on Fireball shots and Xbox games instead of paying rent. Life is expensive these days.

naturalmovement•33m ago
There's entire Reddit communities of these people where they encourage and validate their shitty behavior.

With some of the stories I've read, you'd have to be positively insane to be a small-time landlord these days, especially in these large cities with kooky renter protections that make it nearly impossible to evict someone.

Go watch Pacific Heights with Michael Keaton for a fictionalized account but this stuff absolutely happens every day.

I saw one recently where the renter has not paid rent for six years and is unable to be evicted. It made national news.

So where does that leave the industry? You eventually push out the mom and pop landlords by making the regulations so insane it only leaves behind the large corporate property management companies and their army of lawyers. Who will collude and drive rents up. It's a vicious cycle and these cities are not helping one bit.

rationalist•22m ago
I have friends and coworkers that want to have rental properties, and I advise them it's not worth it.

I don't want to be in a position where I have to pay more to fix damages than I collectected in rent if I accidentally rent to deadbeats. Or in a position where I have to provide services to someone not paying me.

One of those friends has parents that rented out their old house to deadbeats at the top of the housing market instead of selling it. Those deadbeats have been nothing but trouble and yet my friend still wants to be a landlord.

Somehow the idea of owning rental properties became a pervasive notion in the U.S.

8note•12m ago
This is a bit of an intentional result, no?

the goal is for peoppe to own the places they live in

nradov•1m ago
Why should that be a goal?
jen20•12m ago
If you think the Reddit communities of tenants are bad, you should try reading the Reddit communities of landlords (at least the UK ones).
morkalork•17m ago
In my city, and I assume many others, there's an informal landlord's group that shares lists of problem tenants to avoid renting to. While problematic, I wonder if it's made any impact.
seanmcdirmid•7m ago
Usually this is handled with credit reports right? It’s only when the state forbids landlords from demanding credit reports that informal networks are necessary.

In general as a tenant you can only get away with not paying rent once (until eviction happens, no one will ever rent to you again without federal or state assurances), and as a landlord you will only skip the credit report requirement once (because your first tenant is going to be a deadbeat who screw’s you).

djeastm•1h ago
It sounds like an ad-hoc rent strike. Not a great sign for an economy.
JCTheDenthog•1h ago
[flagged]
greekrich92•57m ago
Put the skull calipers down
vannevar•26m ago
The question raised by the article isn't why people don't pay their rent; it is why the number of people not paying their rent has increased. Occam's Razor suggests that the most likely reason is also the simplest one: that prices have risen much faster than wages, making even fixed rents less affordable.
tomhow•6m ago
We've banned this account.

Don't register accounts to post vile comments like this. We don't care about the source; we care about the insinuation and the agenda, and everything it pattern-matches with. We've banned a previous account of yours before for one of the most egregious comments ever seen here. Stop it.

delichon•57m ago
> We have to consider what the unintended consequences are of public policies or practices where there are no immediate consequences for someone who falls behind on rent

> Many [landlords] say they don’t actually intend to evict anyone, but that filing these cases is the most expedient way to get emergency rental aid from the city.

Economics in one easy lesson: incentives matter.

vannevar•37m ago
While that is certainly true, it's a very narrow view disconnected from the reasons for the policies. The most likely explanation for more people not paying their rent is that even fixed rents have become increasingly unaffordable because other costs have risen faster than wages. So yes, people are "choosing" not to pay rent because the consequences of not paying the rent lag substantially behind the consequences of not eating or buying gas. But it's an absolutely rational decision. FTA:

>...plenty of economic indicators suggest worsening financial duress for people already struggling. Costs are going up faster than wages, and inflation that took hold after the pandemic has proven painfully persistent.

hagbard_c•42m ago
I'd say rent collections are down because those who play with the thought of 'rent striking' are more inclined to do so now that a 'democratic socialist' has been voted into power on a wave of 'rent freeze' and 'bad evil landlords versus oppressed renters' rhetoric. I'm pretty sure the Politico writers realise this as well but they seem hesitant to say so, probably because it is a bit too much on the nose. The woman standing to the right of Mamdani (left on the photo) is Cea Weaver, appointed by him to the post of "executive director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants". She's quite a piece of work, a typical 'progressive' activist who has called for the seizure of private property and linked home ownership to white supremacy. With someone like that in the position she now holds it comes as no surprise that more people are thinking twice before signing that rent cheque.
_bohm•12m ago
I can guarantee you that the overwhelming majority of low-income people who are delinquent on their rent have no clue who Cea Weaver is. Nor is there any kind of organized rent strike occurring. Do you live in NYC?
gacgacgac•15m ago
People can't afford to live and food comes before paying your landlord? Economy is fucked right now. Income inequality pushes any gains into the hands of the wealthy.

And frankly, more and more people are willing to stuff their landlord if they feel their landlord isn't holding up their end of the deal.

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