Eliot Spitzer: Fortunate Son
With thanks to Insta, here’s candidate for NY Governor Spitzer’s stand on housing in NY State:
New York State’s housing crisis threatens to strangle our potential for economic growth and crush the dreams of many families. New York State consistently ranks among the five worst states in the nation on housing affordability, with more than 1.6 million households spending more than 35 percent of their income on housing. We are in this situation because, over the past decade, our leaders in Albany have failed to make affordable housing a priority.
Starting on Day One of the Spitzer administration, we will begin work to develop a comprehensive plan to increase the supply of affordable and quality rental housing and expand homeownership opportunities throughout the state.
…Finally, we should partner with local communities to encourage reform of zoning laws and permitting and approval processes to allow for higher densities of residential housing and make it easier for sites to become buildable.
Via the Taxprof, it seems that Eliot certainly has found affordable housing:
Interesting article in the Sunday New York Daily News: Empire of the Son, by Douglas Feiden:
Spitzer has lived rent-free with his family at 985 Fifth Ave. for 13 years. The 25-story tower off 79th St. has just two apartments per floor and terraces that look down at the Metropolitan Museum of Art….Thanks to his dad’s generosity, Spitzer, his wife and three daughters have lived in a home graced with at least three bedrooms, four baths, a balcony, library and sweeping vistas of Central Park….
Vetted by lawyers and accountants, the living arrangement is both lawful and proper, said Darren Dopp, Spitzer’s communications director: The father pays an annual gift tax on the present he gives his son. “These and other financial matters are handled by professionals who ensure that everything is done in strict accordance with city, state and federal law,” Dopp said. The market value of the gift is reported annually on real estate tax filings and on Bernard Spitzer’s tax returns. But citing privacy, Dopp declined to disclose the apartment’s rent, the gift’s value or the amount of the gift tax paid. Three real estate brokers familiar with the building say that a spread of comparable size could lease for $16,000 to $20,000 a month. That puts the gift’s current value at an estimated $192,000 to $240,000 a year.
I wonder if he’s willing to share that arrangement with other citizens of NY if he wins? At the very least, since he’s in favor of “higher densities” in residential housing, I’m sure he’ll subdivide his free apartment so that a few disadvantaged families can move in, no? What better way to “partner with local communities”?
Nanny State | tree hugging sister | 
October 30, 2006 1:31 pm
Subscribe
I know in my heart Bingley…that you are seething with jealousy. I had a nice pad I was willing to share with you, but since this little display of pique, I don’t think you deserve it. It goes back in the closet with the other Republicans when I get home.
One thing he can legally do to impact the market forces without damaging the market is put a stop to lenders extending credit 3 – 5 times the annual income of the buyer (the maximum was 2.5 when I bought my house), and / or allowing the buyer to take out a second mortgage at the same time as the first to cover the astronomical asking price. That’s a big part of what’s fueled the real estate bubble in NY, and I’m ticked off that the FDIC hasn’t been calling lenders on that.
Oh yes, and make speculating instruments such as interest-only mortgages illegal.
Of course, since he moves with the big money crowd, he’ll never get beyond something stupid like this high-density housing crap.
They can change the jargon all they want, it still means high-rise ghettos where the cost of living goes up while the chances of living go down.
High density housing = Cabrini-Green.
Want a residential building boom in NYC that’ll drive prices down? It’s pretty simple: end rent control.
FYI, Eliot Spitzer had his name changed to Eliot Snoozer .
http://lawyersunregulated.blogspot.com/2006/11/eliot-snoozer.html
Hey Logman.
Yeah, you can tell by the people he goes after and by who he doesn’t go after where his priorities lie.