Nearly 60% of the 15,000 foreclosure filings in New York City in 2007 were on 2 to 4 family or multi-family buildings, leaving a significant number of renters threatened by foreclosure. A conservative estimate puts the number of renter households impacted at about 15,000.

A new analysis by NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy finds that a majority of the nearly 15,000 mortgage-related foreclosure filings in New York City in 2007 were on multi-family buildings, and only about 40% were on condominiums or single-family homes. The analysis shows that over 30,000 households (or about 76,000 New Yorkers) are living in properties that entered the foreclosure process in 2007. The Center estimates that more than 15,000 of these households (or some 38,000 New Yorkers) were living in rental units. This is a conservative estimate, because the analysis assumes that an owner lives in one of the units in all 2-4 family buildings, but in all likelihood, some of those buildings are completely occupied by renters.