What do Comptroller Brad Lander and President Donald Trump have in common?
I’m sure if I asked Lander, whom I have known since he ran the nonprofit Fifth Avenue Committee in Park Slope from 1993 to 2003, he would say, “Absolutely nothing.”
But there is one thing, actually: Both proposed declaring a housing emergency so they could take steps not otherwise possible to improve affordability.
Lander did so during his Democratic primary campaign for mayor, in which he finished third behind Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo. Then Scott Bessent, Trump’s treasury secretary, said early this month that the administration might declare a housing emergency this fall.
“We’re trying to figure out what we can do, and we don’t want to step into the business of states, counties and municipal governments,” Bessent said.
That’s an unfortunate caveat. Without fixing local zoning, regulation and sludge that drives up housing prices, a Trump emergency declaration would produce little besides a day’s worth of headlines.
“Overriding, or at least standardizing, local laws on zoning would be a great step toward allowing builders to deliver the inventory needed by the American people,” Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner told Newsweek.
Lander’s emergency would have helped him “take certain executive actions to, for example, increase funding for housing-focused agencies and eliminate time-consuming budget office reviews of certain affordable housing deals,” the New York Times reported.
He also proposed letting certain projects skip Ulurp, the public review process that takes five to seven months, and instead go through a 90-day review. But he would have first formed a committee to decide what kind of projects would qualify. Lander’s preamble would surely have taken many months.
Needless to say, Lander doesn’t want Trump to declare a housing emergency because he doubts Trump would put any new powers to good use. In a statement to The Real Deal, Lander said Trump’s policies so far have been bad for housing.
“His erratic tariff policies and cruel mass deportation regime are driving up the costs of building new homes,” Lander said. “He’s cut housing subsidies and proposed to eliminate far more. He’s declared war on America’s cities and deprived them of funds. And Project 2025 calls for opposing any efforts to weaken single-family zoning, the biggest single impediment to denser housing construction.”
What we’re thinking about: Goldman Copeland principal Daniel Colombini engineered his own home’s construction in Westchester County, spending $300 per square foot, or 8 percent more than traditional construction would have cost, to achieve passive house standards — a cost that energy savings will make up in 10 to 15 years. But he says the indoor air quality has already cured his allergy-induced asthma. Do you plan to build or buy a passive house? Send thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Home refinancing is coming back as interest rates decline along with the number of homes that still have pre-2022, low-rate mortgages. Over the past year, about 42 percent of home loans were refis. Last week, 49 percent were, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Elsewhere…
— A new Public Policy Polling survey shared with City & State shows Zohran Mamdani leading the New York City mayoral race with 39 percent of the vote, ahead of Andrew Cuomo at 25 percent. That lead is smaller than other recent polls, like a recent Times/Siena poll that found Mamdani at 46 percent.
— Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to scale back New York’s Essential Plan could cut off free government health insurance for about 450,000 New Yorkers, Gothamist reported. It would reverse last year’s expansion that raised the income eligibility limit for the Essential Plan to 250 percent of the federal poverty level (the limit had been 200 percent). Hochul blamed the rollback on federal funding cuts, saying that the move will allow for emergency funds to safeguard coverage for most of the 1.7 million current enrollees.
— The Adams administration is advancing a plan for Related Companies to keep operating Central Park’s Wollman Rink, sidelining the Trump Organization’s bid to retake the concession, according to The City. The Parks Department has sent Related’s bid to the city Department of Investigation for a required background check.
— Quinn Waller
Closing time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Thursday was $12.1 million for a 7,100-square-foot townhouse at 171 East 73rd Street on the Upper East Side. Chase Landow of Serhant had the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $49.5 million for a 53,439-square-foot, nine-story, mixed-use property at 640 Broadway in Noho. Acadia Realty sold the building to German investor Pamera North America.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $21.5 million for a 6,000-square-foot co-op unit at 895 Park Avenue in Lenox Hill. John Burger of Brown Harris Stevens has the listing.
— Matthew Elo
