The hell of it is that those landlords can't lower the rent to attract renters without having to shell out hundreds of thousands to their financiers. Property values in New York are estimated based on rental rates. If a rate goes down the property value goes down and the owner has to immediately pay down the balance of his mortgage in order to maintain the collateral to loan balance ratio.
I didn’t even think about that aspect of the New York housing market initially. You are right. This is one thing that will not be visible immediately, but will very quickly rear its ugly head within a year or so as landlords begin to default.
I have read reports, and based on some of the videos I’ve seen, NYC has seen an increase in structure fires, particularly in commercial Spaces such as restaurants and businesses. I don’t know about all of them, but I suspect many of them are likely arson or “accidental” Left the fryer on overnight with some cardboard box is nearby and oops the restaurant is a pile of rubble.