Jackson Heights Life

The Daily News has an excellent article about a coop complex in Bayside that has price floors on sales.  Essentially the coop won't allow units to be sold below certain prices.  The coop thinks this helps the coops keep value.  My co-worker lives in this complex and the rule is preventing the sale of his coop.  His wife recently had twins and he needs a bigger space but realtors have told him that his unit will never sell for anything near the price floor so he is stuck there. I would sue the coop board if this was my apartment. The article mentions a liberal subletting policy but that policy charges the shareholder $2,400 a year to sublet.

I would never buy in a coop like this or one with a flip tax.  Does anyone know of any buildings in JH that have a price floor?

http://bestplaces.nydailynews.com/stories/price-floors-leave-many-new-yorkers-stuck-apartments

Coop boards have a fiduciary duty to protect the interests of the corporation and its shareholders. Therefore, a price floor does not seem unreasonable, as long as it's based on a fair assessment of the market value for the unit. What's a fair valuation in the current real estate market however is the real question, especially when qualifying for a mortgage has become so much more difficult for many people out there. It does not pay for a coop to have units vacant, in default, or in foreclosure either, so the board must weigh one factor against the other.

Likewise, a flip tax can be a very useful tool in helping a coop board to meet its expenses with regard to building upkeep and capital improvements. It rewards those who put down roots and discourages people who buy a property mostly as a form of short-term investment, which admittedly was more commonplace prior to the Great Recession than today.

There are other "games" coop boards play. For example, I'm aware that several historic buildings in JH report artificially low monthly maintenance charges, and make up for the deficits in their operating budgets through an annual "surcharge" or assessment. Whether this helps on the resale value of their units or not, I do not know.

i wasn't aware of the surcharge/lower maintenance trade-off trick.....and i always wondered why some of the nicer buildings had such jarringly low monthly fees. i guess i feel a little better now. 

Is it possible that some of the buildings with the lowest maintenance were original coops from back in the day (and not converted in the '80s) and the building's mortgage is paid off?