Bill Morris

New Jersey

Managing and Online Editor at Habitat Magazine

Habitat builds, rehabs & preserves affordable owner occupied homes with families & community, provide opportunities for volunteers & operates a ReStore .

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Articles

Co-op surcharge on subletting: Is it legal and reasonable?

1 week ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

Q: After buying into a Queens co-op about 35 years ago, a shareholder began subletting the apartment. About 15 years ago, the co-op board imposed a 10% surcharge on the monthly maintenance fees for apartments that are rented out. That increased to 20% about five years ago. Should the apartment have been grandfathered in, exempting it from the surcharge? Does a co-op board even have the right to impose this extra fee?
Compass's secret listings: A strategy to bypass MLS

1 week ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

They're called whisper listings — co-ops and condos and other homes available for sale only to those in the know, before they're added to a public multiple listing service, known as an MLS. One brokerage, Compass, has taken the concept to a new level, Crain's reports. The brokerage has rolled out a curated, Compass-brokers-only website that potentially allows the brokerage to keep the buyer- and seller-side brokers’ fees in-house.
New York's renewable energy challenges and looming electricity hikes

2 weeks ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

Even as the cost of producing electricity comes down, the cost of delivering it goes up, resulting in higher bills for New Yorkers — with double-digit increases looming. And even though renewable energy is on the upswing, the state faces major headwinds in its drive to power its electric grid with renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
Baby boomers regain home buying lead over millennials

2 weeks ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

Home buyers are getting grayer — and richer. Millennials — people aged 27 to 45 — have been the generational group making up the largest percentage of homebuyers for most of the past decade. Not anymore. Their parents — cash-flush baby boomers aged 61 to 79 — stormed back to retake the lead last year, according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report.
Report seeks reform for New York City's property tax system

3 weeks ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

A new voice has joined the growing chorus calling for reform of New York City's inequitable and unloved system of levying property taxes. This new voice claims that the owners of high-end co-ops and condos are benefitting unfairly at the expense of less well-off New Yorkers.
Injunctions halt Trump's freeze on climate funding

3 weeks ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

Good news for co-op and condo boards striving to wean their building systems from fossil fuels and power them with electricity from renewable sources. Two federal judges have ruled that the Trump administration over-reached when it tried to freeze funds for clean energy projects approved by Congress during the Biden administration.
NYC halts fines for composting violations until 2026

4 weeks ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

Even though a flurry of fines was increasing compliance with mandatory curbside organics collection, Mayor Eric Adams has suddenly reversed course, announcing that the Department of Sanitation will stop issuing fines to most buildings that fail to obey the law until next year. The law remains in effect, but the teeth of enforcement have been greatly reduced. The city offered no explanation for the reversal.
Co-op board's licensing agreement raises legal questions

1 month ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

Q: I was considering buying a co-op on the Upper East Side with a private back yard that was included in the offering plan. The seller and I agreed on the price, but then the co-op board introduced a licensing agreement that imposed a monthly charge equal to 18 shares to use the yard — though the buyer would not get those shares. The board also imposed rules regarding how and when the back yard could be used. Potential buyers had to sign the agreement to be considered.
Uncertainty over tariffs and mortgage rates freezes New York real estate market

1 month ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

Buyers of New York City co-ops and condos are frozen on the sidelines, waiting to assess the economic fallout of President Trump's ever-evolving tariffs on imported goods. Meanwhile, with mortgage rates likely to rise, city rents remain at record high levels. For buyers and renters alike, it's a lose-lose scenario.
Organics recycling fines issued by NYC Sanitation Department

1 month ago | habitatmag.com | Bill Morris

The brown bin has New Yorkers paying green and seeing red. Since mandatory recycling of organic waste went into effect citywide on April 1, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has issued nearly 2,000 tickets to building owners, including co-op and condo boards, who have failed to comply with the new law, Gothamist reports.