Another element, yet to be factored in, is the recent contract settlement for the building workers' union. We have to protect tenants against aberrational increases and still make the owners whole. It's a balancing of the equities. We had a low inflationary environment, and that has changed. Costs have gone up, and they have to be passed along.
Someone has to pay for it.
A lot of people are doing quite well out there. Not a lot of people will get excited by that. But Mr. McKee said that basing permanent rent increases on temporary spikes in fuel oil prices was illogical and unfair and had proven costly to tenants. Fuel prices started dropping almost as soon as the decision was made for 5 and 7 percent rent increases, and prices dropped to lower than they were before, but the rents were locked in forever. A rent board study released two weeks ago showed that in 1998, the latest year for which figures are available, landlords recorded the highest net operating income and lowest cost increases of any year since the city began tracking those numbers nine years ago.