Years ago, casino magnate Steve Wynn, sporting a net worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars, was rejected as a tenant by the board of directors of a leading residential building in the Big Apple. The reason, he was told: his association with gambling. “Those snooty SOBs, they can all go to hell,” Mr. Wynn told me at the time.

If anything, board approval in many city buildings – both co-ops and condos – is getting much tougher, even if you can afford the price of an apartment, several top real estate brokers tell me.

Deanne Esses, senior vice president at Bellmarc Realty, a leading New York City realtor, captures this latest wrinkle in the city’s ongoing torrid city real estate market.

When the market is good – “actually it’s fabulous now and getting stronger ever day” – building boards, especially on Fifth and Park avenues, have gotten much tougher about who they’ll let in, Ms. Esses tells me. “From what I see right now, they’re as tough as hell.” She notes more and more boards insist would-be buyers possess lots of liquid cash, at least three times the value of the apartment, and no debt. The reason: They want the elite, thinking it will increase values in the building.

Elayne Reimer, a top broker at Coldwell Banker who sold the east side apartment that former Mayor Giuliani occupied during his marital woes, echoes this thinking and observes she has actually lost sales because of pickier boards. People who were acceptable a year ago, some with impeccable credentials, are now being rejected outright by co-op and condominium boards that prefer much wealthier tenants who can enhance values.

She notes, for example, that some Park Avenue boards are actually setting up for brokers’ specific guidelines, which call for “incredible assets” from potential buyers, some five to seven times the purchase price in liquid assets

Ms. Esses tells me co-op boards are also increasingly anti-celebrities and anti-politicians. They don’t want hoopla, the press and cameras, but a dignified, quiet environment. “I’m sure Donald Trump, Madonna, and maybe Bill Clinton, too, would probably be turned down by some boards,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Esses observes that her business with foreign buyers, largely reflecting the cheap dollar, is going through the roof. “A year ago, they were 5% of sales; today, they’re 25%,” she said. “Foreigners are grabbing up New York City real estate like it’s going out of style.”

Ms. Esses, pointing to such catalysts as limited availability of property, low interest rates, and a massive amount of mortgage money (“any jerk can get a loan,” she said), notes there’s no letup in housing demand in the city. “People talk of a real estate bubble, but there are no signs of one here. It’s just the reverse,” she said.

As an example of what she refers to as “frantic activity,” she observes that about six months ago she sold a studio in an East Side apartment for $320,000. A month later, she sold another studio in the same East 62nd street building for $330,000. During the recent snowstorm, she held an open house at yet another studio in the very same building and drew a fairly sizable turnout. The end result: a sale (still pending) at $365,000. “Things are just crazy,” she said. Indicative of this, she adds, is a resumption of bidding wars.

Ms. Reimer predicts it’s going to be much more difficult for retirees – even those who can afford the purchase price of a city apartment-to actually get the green light from the board to buy it. She cites examples where retirees, even those with about $150,000 of annual income and decent assets, are getting thumbs down from boards that seem to fearful that retirees may have problems coping with rising maintenance costs and the sudden need to ante up big bucks for major repair.

“It’s the law of supply and demand, this is a seller’s market, and some boards view the retiree as a liability,” she said.

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Bowled over: Speaking of real estate, some residents of Jacksonville, Fla., home of Sunday’s Super Bowl XXXIX at the Alltel Stadium, are trying to score their own pre-game touchdown by offering their homes up for rental during the annual sports event at outlandish prices. In some cases, Jacksonville realtors tell me, the rental price is a substantial portion of what some owners actually paid for the home. One rental, still available, is a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom waterfront home with a pool table, wet bar, exercise equipment and a view of the stadium, which is about 5 to 10 minutes away. The price: $6,000 a day for a minimum 4-day stay. To get to the stadium, the owner suggests driving to a local shopping center where you can park your car and then take a bus to the football field. If you’re interested, good news: the owner tells me she’s flexible and might consider a rental at just $5,000 a day.