The Post says that "two distressed luxury condo buildings -- one in Harlem and another in Downtown Brooklyn -- are in talks with the city to unload their unsold units at fire-sale prices as affordable housing." Hey, if luxury condos can become homeless shelters, why not? While it's unclear which condos are being eyed, apparently the city is negotiating with the banks that foreclosed on the properties. And the city's housing commissioner Rafael Cesetro said the condo developers/banks "would have to take significant losses"—a $500,000 condo could be purchased by the city for $300,000 (plus the developer/bank would get a $50,000 subsidy). Cesetro added that developers were only thinking about the bubble, "Some of the sales assumptions seemed like a stretch in any kind of market. In Downtown Brooklyn, and not on the water, they had buildings underwritten to sell for $800 to $900 a square foot." Will more luxury condos be turned over to the city? more ›

Last week, the Daily News reported how, at one Brooklyn building, luxury condo apartments were being used to house homeless families, prompting some others to head to the Crown Heights to see if they could score a swank pad. However, Mayor Bloomberg warned that the fancy setting should only be considered a temporary home; he said on Friday, "We're not going to let people just sit there. This is a transition thing. We want to move them out. And if they say, 'Oh, I love this here, I don't want to try something else,' I'm sorry, that's not the whole intent here." The billionaire also added, "When I saw the place I felt like I was on a TV show. I thought this is crazy. It has marble counters and marble bathrooms, the floors are brand new...It tells you about the [real estate] market. Somebody built the building. They couldn't rent it. So they rented it to us for our standard thing." It's unclear how much that "standard thing" is, but the city is paying the Bushwick Economic Development Corp. $2700 per family for housing and counseling services. more ›