[bogomipz]

So during the dot com boom when the city's economy was doing gang busters and the vacancy rate was less than 2%? I don't think so.

[busterarm]

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/NYC-comp-16....

Also, this data does not agree with you. Lowest vacancy rate of any borough was 2.3% in Queens in 2000 and between 3.1 and 4.2 in every other borough.

The economy is doing even better in NYC right now and the vacancy rate is over 11% right now. https://www.6sqft.com/nearly-250000-nyc-rental-apartments-si... Hrmmm....

[bogomipz]

Nice cherry picked data. That's a HUD report. Try checking the NYC Rent Guidelines Report for accurate data:

Manhattan 2.57 and Queens 2.11 [1]

That's from page 2. It also shows a -25% and -35% change for vacancy rates from 3 years prior for those two boroughs.

And you can't seem to produce any citation for your assertion about a piece of the tax code that allows landlords to make more money from empty apartments than renting them at market rate.

[1] https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/rentguidelinesboard/pdf/hsr00.pd...

[busterarm]

As a lifelong NYC resident, I trust HUD a lot more than I trust the Rent Guidelines Board, appointed by the mayor and a total staff of like 9 people.

The Rent Guidelines Board has been an advocate for landlords for as long as I've lived here. Even now: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/4/13/17234694/nyc-rent-stabilizat...

[busterarm]

I can only tell you what I saw from the two seasons that I spent error-checking the tax returns they were sending to the IRS.