[Sca-cooks] apartments

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Ted Eisenstein wrote:


> If I remember the Manhattan real estate market correctly, there are
> regular apartments you rent, there are regular houses you can either
> rent or buy, and there are condos (ditto)


Condos are generally apartments, but not always so, and you can either
rent them from their owner or buy them; deed agreements last, I believe,
for either 99 or 100 years, I forget which, after which they revert to
some nebulous company or other. Gee, I'd hate to be forced out of my
home at age 137.

> and co-ops (memory is
> fuzzy: sort of buyable but there's also a regular building- and common-
> area-maintenance payment, so it's sort of renting as well). But co-ops
> are rare.


They've become more rare in Manhattan, but are still fairly common in
the rest of New York. We own two, actually, and the way it works is you
opt in by buying shares in the co-op, which is set up as a corporation.
You may or may not do this by getting a mortgage. You also pay a
maintainence bill which supports expenses of the co-op: real estate
taxes, some utilities, liability insurance, maintenance (painting,
electrical work and plumbing, etc.) of both common areas and anything
inside your walls, floors and ceilings. Generally if you take out a
mortgage, the monthly payment, combined with the monthly maintenance,
work out to about the same as the average rent on a comparable
apartment. When your mortgage is paid off (if you have one), you own the
shares free and clear, and you pay your maintenance, which would be
significantly less than renting, and your real estate taxes, gas, water,
  and liability are taken care of. When properly managed, it's not a bad
setup. And, of course, unlike a rental, you can sell or bequeath your
shares.


> Most other places, near as I can tell, have houses and condos, rentable
> and ownable, and apartments, rentable, none of this co-op stuff.
>
> Alban, house owner and glad of it

Having done both, I don't think the headaches connected with living in
an actual house are any less, just slightly different.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98