,Tenants: Innocent Victims of the Nation’s Foreclosure Crisis 

Tenants: Innocent Victims of the Nation’s Foreclosure Crisis 


 

Publication Date: February 2009

Publisher: Furman Center for Real Estate

Author(s): Vicki Been; Allegra Glashausser

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: mortgage foreclosures; renters; Affordable Housing

Type: Article

Abstract:

Renters are innocent victims of the foreclosure crisis, losing their homes through no fault of their own when their landlord goes into foreclosure. Until lately, the national discussion on the foreclosure crisis largely focused on owner-occupied homes, but recent analysis reveals that the crisis is significantly impacting renters across the country. New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy found that in New York City, well over half of all foreclosure filings in 2007 were on two to four family or multi-family buildings, and a growing body of data and anecdotal evidence indicates that the problem is not isolated to New York City; heart wrenching stories of renters losing their homes have appeared in newspapers nationwide.