For years, people talked about how the housing market in New York City was “recession-proof;” how buyers' desire to live in New York City would always trump any housing problems the rest of the country was experiencing. But as the calend…
It seems like only yesterday when “condo-mania” was sweeping many neighborhoods, and developers couldn’t wait to build one condo development after another. Every other week or so, another open house was held, and developers competed to a…
At the beginning of 2009, the New York real estate market was as frozen as the ice at the Rockefeller Plaza skating rink. The collapse of Bear Stearns and bankruptcy by Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008—a day still mentioned in hush…
There's no question about it: economically speaking, it's been a very weird couple of years here in Gotham. While the outright market collapse so many feared seems to have been largely avoided, sellers who have seen double-digit declin…
Finally, the big day has arrived: it's The Cooperator's 23rd annual Co-op & Condo Expo. Yale Robbins, Inc. and The Cooperator welcome you again to the Hilton New York for the biggest, most all-inclusive trade show of the year. Since it'…
Q I'm having an ongoing problem with the water pressure in my co-op apartment and the board's response (or lack thereof) to it. I'm on the top floor of a 25-story building, and water pressure became an issue after I did a full bathr…
Q What do you do when a board/board member rejects you as a prospective buyer for self-serving gain? My husband and I were in contract on an apartment where we were paying in cash, had no mortgage, could easily pay the maintenance ev…
Energy efficiency and green improvements to existing buildings have often received less public attention and political play than “sexier” green initiatives such as renewable energy generation with solar panels and windmills or LEED-cert…
With the economy struggling and thousands of unemployed Americans looking high and low for work, you might wonder why anyone should care about something like dryer lint. Fair enough—but here’s why: According to the U.S. Fire A…
Concrete is the most prevalent building material in existence today, though most people probably don’t notice how widely used the material is until it begins to break up in front of their homes, or falls off of their buildings, roads an…