In 1882, the developers of the Rembrandt, the first NYC co-op apartment building at 152 West 57th Street, declared they were seeking “people of means and good social standing,” as owners. Today co-ops still make up the majority of the housing stock in NYC. But the age of the co-op is well and truly over: Since 2000, developers have moved to create a mere 75 new co-op projects, and no more than seven total in any given year, according to the analysis by the magazine The Real Deal.
Just two new co-op plans were filed in 2015, and two more so far this year.
Compare that 75 number to 6,155, which is the number of new condominium plans filed over the same period. In 2006, the year of peak activity, developers filed 870 new condo plans.
On top of that, the majority of the co-op plans filed were actually for cond-ops, a legal structure in in which a building’s residential units operate like a co-op, but commercial units are treated as condos, allowing developers to profit off a building’s lucrative commercial space.
So, what’s the deal?
The condominium ownership structure has only been legal in New York since 1964. Many prospective homeowners were initially skeptical of condos. But over time, their less stringent disclosure rules and the fact that they were easier to trade boosted their popularity.