RENTAL FICTIONS: Speculating in Rent-Regulated Housing in New York City

During his 2013 campaign for mayor, Bill de Blasio lamented New York City’s expanding economic divide as a “tale of two cities”: a resurgent financial sector generating spectacular affluence alongside a significant remainder of the city languishing in neglect. This tale of two distinct and disconnected segments of the city resonated electorally, but elided a more complicated and intertwined relationship between the “two cities.” In New York City, inequality is most acutely produced and experienced through the housing market. A flood of investment has been pouring into the city’s luxury residential market since the 2008 financial crisis (Story and Saul