2010 April
Focus on... Real Estate Market/Expo

 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'…

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…

 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…

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…

 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…

New York City's real estate market has certainly seen its bumps and bruises over the last couple of years, but according to sales agents in the Manhattan luxury market, buyers are still buying – but their faces have changed, and they're…

Abraham Lincoln once said: “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.” Certain…

The investment represented by your co-op or condo unit is likely your greatest asset—and protecting and cultivating that asset is important, especially in the current turbulent economic times. So why are so many shareholders and unit o…

 If you lived in New York in the summer of 2003, chances are you know exactly  what you were doing on Thursday, August 14th, at 4:15 in the afternoon. That’s when the ripple effects of the failure of an Ohio power plant caused most of  the…

In today’s difficult economic times, more and more co-op and condo owners and boards are constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve their bottom line. It’s one of the many reasons that more and more renters are moving into co-op a…

Home may be where the heart is, but these days, it’s also the source of enormous anxiety and concern for a great many co-op and condo owners. With the economy mired in recession and unemployment still hovering near the 10 percent mark, …

Condominium boards and managers are often frustrated by unpaid common charges. Once a unit owner falls more than 60 days behind in his or her common charge payments, it is recommended that this problem be turned over to the condominium …

New York City takes understandable pride in the many beautiful parks studding the concrete rigidity of its urban grid. This makes it somewhat ironic that one of the lovliest of these green spaces is locked up—accessible only to those lu…

They're the reason you feel safe entering your office or apartment building, the reason you can see across all of New York City out a shiny Empire State Building window, and the reason you receive that package of important papers on ti…

Every day, New York's court system hands down verdicts and decisions that impact the day-to-day operation of co-op and condo buildings. Some decisions are far-reaching, precedent-setting game-changers; others affect building administra…

Q I live in a neighborhood where there’s an association. When we first moved to the area it was still under construction. There was only one security company for 250 homes, and there were a lot of robberies. We live on a house with …

Q I am a shareholder of a co-op apartment building. I have a mold problem, which stems from water damage coming through the outside bricks. I had a mold assessment company take air samples and material samples. It was determined th…

Q When a management agent of a condominium in New York City receives a complaint from a unit owner about another unit owner, is he or she allowed to tell the other party the name of the complainant. Is this ethical and is there a re…

Q I own a co-op. A husband and wife live in a neighboring unit that is owned by their son. Many years went by without incident. But in the last couple of years, the woman has started verbally abusing me to the point that I have had …

Q What is required to add my wife's name to my residential co-op stock certificate if I still have a mortgage on the unit in just my name? I am not trying to re-finance, but to just add my wife's name to the stock certificate. …