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A mail carrier crosses an empty Wyloff Ave. in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn in April.Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

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By Prashant Gopal, John Gittelsohn, and Oshrat Carmiel

January 26, 2021 at 4:05 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

New York’s apartment investors are suddenly waist-deep in distress.

By December, they were behind on $395 million of debt backed by mortgage bonds, almost 150 times the level a year earlier, according to Trepp data on commercial mortgage-backed securities. Tenants in rent-stabilized units owe at least $1 billion in rent and wealthier ones are fleeing the city, leaving behind vacancies and pushing newly-built luxury towers into foreclosure.