[TheMole]

Did you notice those "maintenance" payments? About $500 a month for these chicken coops? That's not part of the mortgage. Then there will be property taxes, which in NYC won't be going down any time soon. They add up to something near $10k a year forever. That and the joy of negotiating with your co-owners or buiding managers or whatever (these aren't detached single-family homes) should set you right up for life in cement city.

[lowbridge]

Then there will be property taxes, which in NYC won't be going down any time soon.

Recently raised 18 percent by the mayor and the city council.

[brianl703]

Even an attached single-family home (townhouse) doesn't require $500 maintenance fees, negotiations with building managers or co-owners if it's not a condo (most around here are not).

Negotiating with the HOA might be a different story, but that can affect detached single family homes too.

[CarmelValleyite]

They may as well forget about owning something and just stay in a hotel...

[proxy_user]

Coops are an only-in-NYC phenomenon, and many people don't understand the financial structure.

The maintenance fee includes property taxes, building expenses, and paying the building mortgage. Property taxes are usually not too bad in the city. On these tiny studios, they should be less than $100/month.

The big costs are the building mortgage and salaries, particularly in a doorman building. It costs about $200,000 a year for four shifts of doormen. This is not too bad if there are 300 apartments in the building, but it's a big expense for smaller buildings. You also need a live-in super and a staff of from 2 to 20, depending on the building size.

The building mortgage can be large, especially if the sponser cashed out in a big way.

I bought my studio, 440 square feet, in 1985 for $75,000. It turned out to be a good deal, but there was a time when it was unsalable.

The guy who posted about rent stabilization is right. The market for these apartments would collapse if rent stabilitization were eliminated. But that is not going to happen, short of a revoluation.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Did you notice those "maintenance" payments? About $500 a month for these chicken coops? That's not part of the mortgage. Then there will be property taxes, which in NYC won't be going down any time soon.

In a New York co-op, the maintenance includes the real estate taxes.