Housing & Real Estate Active Updated Aug 20, 2026
The pied-à-terre tax
New York City's new pied-à-terre tax on non-primary homes worth $5 million or more began mailing notices this week to roughly 13,500 property owners, mostly condos and single-family homes. Comptroller Mark Levine's office now projects it will bring in $1 billion a year, double Gov. Hochul's original estimate when she proposed it in April. Owners face an Aug. 30 billing deadline and a 30-day appeal window before the surcharge locks in for two tax years.
The story so far
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Aug 20, 2026 Latest
City Council Speaker Julie Menin's committee held another pied-a-terre tax oversight hearing that no Mamdani administration official attended, and Menin has still not used the subpoena power she promised against no-shows.
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Aug 19, 2026
Mayor Mamdani's Finance Department skipped its own City Council oversight hearing on the pied-a-terre tax rollout, citing pending litigation after the Council refused to postpone, and lawmakers read eleven pages of questions to empty chairs over seventeen minutes. The city had approved 2,318 of 9,884 exemption applications as of Tuesday, with a Sept. 18 deadline for the rest, after roughly 17,000 property owners received notices.
City & State New York - All Content 
Gothamist 
Politics | Spectrum News NY1 
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Aug 18, 2026
Mamdani's administration said it will skip Tuesday's City Council oversight hearing on the pied-a-terre tax rollout and submit written testimony instead, citing ongoing litigation, a move Speaker Julie Menin called a break from past practice. Attorney Randy Mastro, Eric Adams' former deputy mayor, pressed his fifth lawsuit against the administration this year, this one challenging how the city identified taxable homes.
City & State New York - All Content -
Aug 16, 2026
A Staten Island judge issued a temporary restraining order freezing the pied-a-terre tax rollout, ordering the Department of Finance to pull its list of roughly 900,000 potentially taxable properties offline and pause collection and appeal deadlines until the Aug. 31 hearing. The suit, brought by Randy Mastro for three homeowners, argues the city skipped legally required steps for identifying second homes; City Hall has filed to appeal, which keeps the freeze from taking effect while the case proceeds.
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Aug 15, 2026
The city's pied-a-terre tax rollout sent warning letters to 4,290 owners this month without first checking their state income tax filings, and by Aug. 13 had already cleared 1,906 of those who contested it, 45%, as wrongly flagged primary residences. The Mamdani administration now projects the tax will raise $500 million a year, against the comptroller's more modest $340 million to $380 million estimate.
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Aug 14, 2026
An appellate judge stayed a Staten Island judge's order that had blocked Mamdani's pied-a-terre tax, clearing the city to keep billing property owners through Aug. 31 on the levy now projected to raise $1 billion a year. President Trump, who would owe the tax on his roughly $6 million-assessed Trump Tower penthouse, posted that he is exploring a federal block, El Diario NY reported.
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Aug 13, 2026
President Trump threatened federal action against the pied-a-terre tax, whose roughly $6 million valuation on his own Trump Tower penthouse would make him a taxpayer under it, as Randy Mastro pressed parallel lawsuits against the tax and the rent freeze in Staten Island court.
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Aug 12, 2026
Gov. Hochul distanced herself from what she called the bungled rollout of the pied-a-terre tax the same day a Staten Island judge's Monday morning block on the tax was reversed within hours by the city's appeal, and President Trump said he is looking into whether Washington can kill the tax outright. The city separately extended homeowners' exemption deadline from Aug. 21 to Sept. 18 amid rollout complaints.
Politics | Spectrum News NY1 -
Aug 11, 2026
Staten Island Judge Wayne Ozzi granted homeowners a temporary restraining order blocking Mamdani's pied-a-terre tax and ordered the city to take down its public list of roughly 900,000 properties, but the city's Law Department appealed within hours and the surcharge stayed in effect pending an Aug. 31 hearing.
Gothamist Politics | Spectrum News NY1 
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Aug 7, 2026
Rachel O'Brien, Carmine Morano and Simon Hedley sued the city in Staten Island Supreme Court seeking to void roughly 17,000 pied-a-terre tax warning letters and force the city to take down its public list of nearly 1 million properties, arguing the Department of Finance should have cross-checked state income-tax records before mailing notices. Attorney Randy Mastro, Eric Adams' former first deputy mayor, said thousands of people who owe nothing were confused and exposed, while a Mamdani spokesperson said the surcharge would fund cleaner parks and safer streets. About 2,600 homeowners had already filed for exemptions.
Gothamist Politics | Spectrum News NY1 
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Aug 7, 2026
New York state began using the city's new pied-a-terre tax rolls to identify residents who dodge state income taxes by falsely claiming residency elsewhere, Gothamist reported, adding a state tax-enforcement angle on top of the levy's rollout that already sent confusing notices to roughly 17,000 homeowners.
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Aug 5, 2026
The City Council said it will hold its own hearing on the pied-a-terre tax rollout after Mayor Mamdani extended the exemption deadline to Sept. 18.
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Aug 4, 2026
The city's pied-a-terre tax warning letters landed on longtime primary residents, including former Mayor Bill de Blasio's Park Slope home and Finance Commissioner's own Flushing home, drawn from a public roll of nearly 900,000 properties. As of Monday only about 2,000 of the 17,000 letter recipients had completed exemption applications and 4,800 more had started them, about 40 percent, while Comptroller Levine's office estimated primary-residence exemptions could cut the tax's projected $1 billion take by roughly 40 percent against the city's $500 million revenue estimate.
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Aug 2, 2026
Mayor Mamdani extended the pied-a-terre tax exemption application deadline from Aug. 21 to Sept. 18 after the city's rollout sent 17,000 warning letters to homeowners and drew backlash. Comptroller Levine's office had already flagged that the 17,000 letters far exceeded the 10,000-13,000 non-primary homes officials first projected would owe the tax.
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Jul 31, 2026
Mayor Mamdani and Finance Commissioner Richard Lee could not say how many of the roughly 17,000 pied-a-terre tax warning notices went to owners who do not actually owe the tax, as the city hired 24 new staffers across the Department of Finance and the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings to field the confusion.
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Jul 30, 2026
Mayor Mamdani and Finance Commissioner Richard Lee could not say Wednesday how many of the 17,000 pied-a-terre tax warning letters went to owners who do not actually owe the tax, as confusion over eligibility persisted days after the city posted a public list of more than 900,000 properties. City Council Member Gale Brewer said she would confront Mamdani directly if she received one of the notices.
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Jul 29, 2026
The pied-a-terre tax rollout swept up longtime homeowners including Council Member Gale Brewer and former Mayor Bill de Blasio after the Department of Finance published a public list topping 900,000 properties, with the surcharge reaching up to 6.5 percent of a property's value and owners facing an Aug. 21 deadline to prove primary residency or pay. Gov. Hochul defended the mass mailing as not out of the ordinary.
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Jul 28, 2026
The city's pied-a-terre tax rollout initially swept up nearly a million property records, including Taylor Swift's Tribeca condo and Anna Wintour's downtown home, before officials could filter the list down to the roughly 24,300 homes that actually qualify.
Hell Gate -
Jul 25, 2026
New York City began mailing pied-à-terre tax notices to owners of $5 million-plus non-primary homes, with Comptroller Mark Levine's office projecting the surcharge will bring in $1 billion a year, double Gov. Hochul's original $500 million estimate. Owners get their exact bill by Aug. 30 with a 30-day appeal window before the tax locks in for tax years 2026-27 and 2027-28.
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