Another episode of “you have no idea how common this is.” This apartment just became vacant after 61 years of single-renter occupancy. 61 years. Three bedroom, two bath in the heart of Brooklyn. The rent? $1,468.45. Comparable units in the building across the street start at $3,200. Why does that matter? Because this unit will be cleaned out and never rented again. The current rent will not cover a gut renovation: lead abatement, new wiring, new plumbing, new flooring and fixtures. At $1,468 a month, the owner wouldn’t recoup the cost for decades. So it will sit empty until its $220,000 renovation is subsidized, or, more logically, until the owner is no longer forced to hand the next renter the same below-market rent despite 61 years of cost inflation.