8/3/2019 January 2012 Bulletin Board
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20 January 2012 www.TheRealDeal.com
TheBulleTinBoard
Occupy Wall Street and the 99 percentCompiled by Russell
Steinberg
Occupys effort:The Occupy Wall Street movementheld a national
foreclosure actionday last month. Protesters argueforeclosures are
the re-sult of fraudulentlending practices.In New York, about300
people madetheir way to a Brook-lyn home, where theytried to help a
home-less family reoccupytheir house.
Top-heavy:The citys IndependentBudget Ofce released astudy last
month whichfound that the top 1% ofearners in NYC made aminimum of
$493,439in 2009, the most recentyear on record. Half ofNew Yorkers,
meanwhile,made $28,000 or less. Inall, about 10% of earnerspay 71%
of the citys in-come-tax revenue.
Millionaire pool shrinks:Recently released state statistics show
Manhattan house-holds with incomes of over $1 millionfell by a
whopping 24% in2009, the most recent yearon record. In that
sameyear, the IRS reported adecrease of 26% nation-ally of those
high-earn-ing homes, compared to2008. (Journal News)
Not just Zuccotti:There are 516privately owned publicspaces (or
POPS) in NYC, includingZuccotti Park, which was home baseto the
Occupy Wall Street movementand is owned by Brookeld Proper-ties.
The city says the POPS programhas provided over 3.5 million
squarefeet of public space since its incep-tion in 1961.
A tight squeeze:According to a report by the UrbanInstitute, the
average New Yorkerearns barely enough to rent a
two-bedroom apartment.The typical two-bed-room in NYC
requiresrenters to earn ap-proximately $55,000a year, but the
me-dian household in-come is just a tadmore than that, thereport
found.
Neighborhoodin troubleBrooklyns East New Yorkhas the highest
foreclosurerate of any neighborhoodin NYC, as 16.8 per 1,000homes
received lings in2010, according to the NYCcomptrollers ofce.
Na-tionwide, more than 4 mil-lion homes have been takenover by
banks since 2006,according to RealtyTrac.
Foreclosure
disclosure:The 99% had reason forcelebration when thenumber of
homes is-sued foreclosure lingsdropped by 3% from Oc-tober to
November. Fil-ings were also down 14%year-over-year. Homes inNew
York State had theeighth-lowest rate na-tionwide, of just one
inevery 1,587. (RealtyTrac)
Taxing the 1 percent:IRS data from 2008, released in No-vember,
showed that nine of the 10 mostheavily taxed zip codes in the
coun-try are in the NYCarea. Residentsin those ninezip codes,
in-cluding severalon the Upper EastSide, paid$16.5billionin
incometaxes in 2008.(Crains)
