161 East 88th Street
161 East 88th Street, New York, NY 10128
Carnegie Hill, Upper East Side
BBL 1015170027 · BIN 1048081
- Year built
- 1937
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 42
- Floors
- 61
- Landmark
- No
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 161 East 88th Street would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.
161 East 88th Street is a 42-unit prewar cooperative at an accessible price point for the blocks between Lexington and Third. It is a 1937 six-story elevator building on an 80-by-100-foot lot. Studios and one-bedrooms make up most of the stock, with a few two-bedrooms and combined apartments at the top of the range.
It became a cooperative the standard way for its era. A 1982 non-eviction plan offered shares to the sitting tenants at an insider discount and let rent-regulated tenants who didn't want to buy stay on as renters. The sale to the apartment corporation closed in September 1983. Nothing about the structure is unusual: one tax lot, one building, share transfers recorded in ACRIS to separate, unrelated buyers since at least 2004.
The detail most buyers never ask about is the underlying mortgage — the building's own loan, which every shareholder carries through maintenance. Here it has never been a bank loan. ACRIS shows the corporation's mortgage has been held privately by the original sponsor's side since the conversion: a purchase-money mortgage at closing in 1983, a consolidation at $1 million in 2007, a modification in 2012 and an assignment in 2019–2020 after the sponsor's estate. A privately held underlying mortgage can have any rate and maturity. Get both from the managing agent before you price the apartment.
Architecture and unit composition
The building is typical of mid-1930s Upper East Side apartment houses. The street front is face brick in beige and red, with brick patterning at the window heads and along the parapet. There is no limestone base or cornice. The engineering report bound into the 1982 plan describes Class 3 non-fireproof construction: masonry bearing walls, wood floor beams, and stone-concrete spread footings on rock. Typical floor-to-ceiling height is about 8 feet 2 inches.
Most apartments are compact. Studios run about 500 to 550 square feet and one-bedrooms about 815 to 860, per listing records; the two-bedrooms and combinations are larger. Because the plan fixed share allocations apartment by apartment, a combined unit carries the shares of both originals, which matters when you compare maintenance across listings.
Building operations
DOB records trace the capital work. Façade repair cycles were filed in 2006–2007 and again in 2016, each under a sidewalk shed. That is the rhythm the city's façade inspection program requires. In 2014 the boiler and burner were replaced with a dual-fuel gas/oil unit, a new gas service went in, and the building moved from No. 4 to No. 2 heating oil. Apartment renovations and combinations are filed individually with DOB and signed off.
The financial statements on file in The Roebling Research Library date from the early 1990s and are too old to underwrite a purchase today. Ask the managing agent for the two most recent audited statements, the current budget, the underlying mortgage terms and maturity, the reserve balance, and any assessment in place or planned.
Recent sales
Co-ops here are priced per room, and pricing is heterogeneous. A renovated two-bedroom or combination trades at a multiple of a studio in the same line, so a building-wide average means little. Studios and one-bedrooms supply most of the turnover; the two-bedrooms and combined units sell rarely and set the top of the range. Floor, light and condition drive most of the spread within each size band. The building trades below the full-service prewar cooperatives on Park and Lexington Avenues and below the condominium conversions on the same blockfront.
Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent transfers at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 23, 2025 | 2E | $1,120,000 |
| Jun 29, 2018 | 6D | $710,000 |
| Mar 14, 2017 | 4D | $729,000 |
| Aug 17, 2023 | 4FG | $1,150,000 |
| Sep 21, 2005 | 3G | $565,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01517-0027) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.
Buying here? Co-op closing costs typically run 2 to 3% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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What to know if you’re buying
Start with the underlying mortgage. It is privately held and has been restructured at least twice. Ask for the rate, amortization, maturity date and refinancing plan. A near-term maturity with no plan behind it is a maintenance risk.
This is share ownership. Expect a full board package — financials, tax returns, references — and an interview. The board sets the financing ceiling, the minimum down payment, and the rules on sublets, pieds-à-terre, co-purchasing, gifts, and trust or LLC ownership. None of these is documented in current public records. Get each from the managing agent in writing before you sign.
Ask about a flip tax. A flip tax is a transfer fee the co-op charges on a sale, usually paid by the seller. None is documented here. Confirm whether one exists and how it is calculated.
Know the construction. Wood floor beams and 8-foot-2-inch ceilings are normal for this vintage but shape what a renovation can do. Wet-over-dry rules, alteration agreements and board review of plans will apply.
Check for regulated tenancies. The conversion was non-eviction, so any apartment still held by the sponsor or a successor may be occupied by a rent-regulated tenant. For a sponsor or investor sale, ask about occupancy.
What to know if you’re selling
Have the building's paperwork ready. Buyers' attorneys will ask about the underlying mortgage early. A clear answer from the managing agent on rate and maturity keeps a deal from stalling at diligence.
Price against the same size band. Comparable studios and one-bedrooms in this building and on the surrounding side streets are the right anchors. Combination sales do not transfer to a single-line apartment.
Plan for the board timeline. Allow six to ten weeks from contract to closing, plus the package review and interview.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 161 East 88th Street, also evaluate:
- 141 East 88th Street (Philip House) — a 1928 building a few doors west, converted to condominium in 2013; the condo alternative on the same blockfront
- 153 East 87th Street — a 1928 prewar condominium one block south
- 170 East 88th Street — a 1980 cooperative of similar size across the street
- 444 East 87th Street — a 42-unit Yorkville co-op, mostly studios and one-bedrooms
- 439 East 88th Street — a 32-unit Yorkville co-op from 1915
- 425 East 86th Street — a larger 1929 prewar cooperative on 86th Street
- 180 East 88th Street — a new-construction condominium across the street; the top of the block's price range
More Upper East Side buildings
- 158 East 72nd Street — 1928 co-op
- 160 East 65th Street (The Phoenix) — 1968 co-op by Emery Roth & Sons
- 161 East 79th Street — 1915 co-op by W. K. Rouse & L. A. Goldstone
- 161 East 90th Street — co-op
- 161 East 91st Street — 1941 co-op
- 162 East 80th Street — 1926 co-op
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Upper East Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper East Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at 161 East 88th Street?
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