161 West 86th Street
161 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024
BBL 1012170006 · BIN 1032189
- Year built
- 1914
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; not in a historic district
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and City Planning records, updated February 2026
- Pets
- Pets permitted with conditions; species not stated
- Doorman
- Doorman (hours not stated)
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 1BR · combo median, 2023
- $605K
- 2 qualifying sales
- Recent range
- $510K – $2.6M
- Listing discount
- 8.7%
- Recorded transfers
- 26
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 161 West 86th 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 West 86th Street is one of the broad-shouldered prewar cooperatives that give the Upper West Side its scale. Completed in 1914 to designs by Rouse & Goldstone, it sits mid-block between Columbus and Amsterdam, beside the Romanesque-revival mass of West Park Presbyterian Church — a stretch of 86th Street that reads as one of the neighborhood's most substantial. The building is paired with its neighbor, 151 West 86th Street, and the two operate as a single cooperative corporation under shared ownership, with separate entrances and lobbies but one board, one staff, and one set of building economics.
What sets the building apart is the apartments themselves. Rouse & Goldstone built for a buyer who wanted a house in the air: the bulk of the line runs to eight- and ten-room layouts, many well over 3,000 square feet, with the kind of room count and circulation — gracious foyers, separate dining rooms, original service wings — that newer construction rarely attempts. For buyers who want genuine prewar volume on the West Side without crossing into the priciest park-front addresses, it is a strong value proposition.
Architecture and unit composition
The exterior is restrained Italian Renaissance: beige brick over a low granite water table, ordered fenestration, and a quiet cornice line that lets the church next door carry the block's drama. Inside, the prewar vocabulary is intact across much of the building — herringbone floors, nine-and-a-half- to eleven-foot ceilings, crown and picture-frame moldings, original mahogany doors with period hardware, and decorative fireplaces in many homes.
With 33 residences across 12 stories — and only a handful per floor in the larger lines — the building lives quietly. The combined corporation with 151 West 86th gives the cooperative more units to spread fixed costs across than its modest individual footprint would suggest; review the current budget, audited statements, debt and any assessments.
Building operations
The cooperative is run as a full-service prewar building: two attended lobbies (one at each address), a live-in superintendent, central laundry, bicycle storage, and private storage bins assigned to apartments. A landscaped roof garden with open city views is the building's social amenity. Pets are permitted with board approval — generally up to two per apartment. The cooperative permits financing up to 65% of the purchase price, and a flip tax of 15% of the seller's capital gain is charged on resale; prospective purchasers should size their offers and budgets with both figures in mind. As with any established West Side co-op, purchases proceed through a board application and interview.
Pets and in-unit washer/dryer
- Pets
- Pets permitted with conditions; species not statedPets are permitted with board approval — generally up to two per apartment.Source: The Roebling Team's building profile
- In-unit washer/dryer
- Not verified
Considering an apartment here? Send Corey the listing to confirm the pet and washer/dryer rules for that apartment.
Own an apartment here? Request an apartment-specific pricing review.
Monthly carrying charges in recent sales
- Maintenance, per room
- $612 per room a monthMedian of 3 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Maintenance, per square foot
- $2.75 per square foot a monthMedian of 3 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
Maintenance as recorded with each sale. A co-op's maintenance already covers the building's real estate taxes and the building's own mortgage, if it has one; add your own loan payment for the monthly outlay. A summary of recorded sales, not a current bill; charges change.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Doorman (hours not stated)Source: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Live-in superintendent
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of City Planning records (PLUTO)
- Amenities noted
- Roof deck, garden, bike storage, storage, laundry roomSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as SWARMP — Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program: the inspector (QEWI) identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair, with repairs due by the deadline stated in the filing. The scope, timeline, and how the building funds the work are building-specific — we review the filings and board materials for you.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — a licensed professional engineer or registered architect who meets DOB’s FISP qualifications and signs the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 2026.
Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 13, 2026 | 2A | 4 BR · 3 BA · 3,000 sf | $2,625,000 | $875/sf | -6.1% |
| Jun 16, 2025 | 7A | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,400 sf | $1,425,000 | $1,018/sf | +9.7% |
| Dec 20, 2023 | 1AW | 1 BR · 1 BA · 723 sf | $510,000 | $705/sf | -11.3% |
| May 2, 2023 | 7DD | 1 BR · 1 BA · 750 sf | $700,000 | $933/sf | -11.9% |
| May 16, 2022 | 4B | 3 BR · 3.5 BA | $3,550,000 | -5.3% | |
| Jul 12, 2017 | 3B | 4 BR | $4,205,000 | +5.3% | |
| Jun 16, 2017 | 7DD | 1 BR · 1 BA · 750 sf | $690,000 | $920/sf | -4.2% |
| Feb 24, 2017 | 7CC | 1 BR · 1 BA | $669,000 | -18.3% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,080/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 3.4% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01217-0006). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
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What to know if you’re buying
This is a building to buy for space and bones. The largest lines are the draw — verify which line a given apartment sits in, since room counts and proportions vary sharply across the building. Budget for the 15% flip tax (it is the seller's cost, but it shapes pricing) and plan financing around the 65% cap. The shared corporation with 151 West 86th means you are buying into a larger co-op than the single address implies; review the current budget, audited statements, debt and any assessments. Expect a traditional board package and interview, and pet owners should confirm the current policy and limit with management before signing.
What to know if you’re selling
The marketing case is square footage and prewar integrity — the apartments are larger than most of what trades on the surrounding blocks, and that scale is the headline. Restoration sells: homes that preserve the original moldings, floors, and proportions while modernizing kitchens and baths achieve the building's strongest results. Price against the larger prewar West Side cooperatives rather than the white-brick and postwar stock nearby. Be candid with buyers about the 15% flip tax and 65% financing cap early, so the economics are baked into expectations before the board stage.
Comparable buildings
If you're weighing 161 West 86th Street, compare these nearby West Side buildings individually for vintage, services and apartment scale:
- 145 West 86th Street — prewar cooperative on the same block
- 2025 Broadway — full-service West Side building nearby
- 2162 Broadway — prewar Broadway-corridor cooperative
- 2373 Broadway — West Side cooperative; verify its construction date separately
More Upper West Side buildings
- Three Lincoln Center (160 West 66th Street) — 1993 condominium
- Westbury House (160 West 86th Street) — 1998 condominium
- 161 West 61st Street (The Alfred) — 1987 condominium
- The Wellston (161 West 75th Street) — 1924 co-op by Rosario Candela
- 164 West 79th Street — 1924 co-op by George F. Pelham
- 165 West 66th Street — 1964 co-op
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West 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 West 86th Street?
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646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com