Updated May 2026 by Corey Cohen, The Roebling Team The right time to sell your Manhattan apartment depends on three things, in this order: Your life timeline. If you need to sell within 6 months because of a job, divorce, downsize, or estate situation, the market timing question is moot. You sell when you need to. Manhattan's actual seasonality. Manhattan has two real selling windows (mid-January through May, and after Labor Day through November). Summer and December are dead

Updated May 2026 by Corey Cohen, The Roebling Team If you're trying to figure out what your Manhattan apartment is worth, three things matter more than any automated estimate: Floor, light, layout, line. Two apartments in the same building with the same square footage can vary 20% in value based on these factors alone. No automated tool captures this. Recent in-building comps. A real valuation starts with what's actually sold in your building in the last 12 months — not the n

Updated May 2026 by Corey Cohen, Roebling Team TL;DR If you're a non-U.S. buyer purchasing a Manhattan apartment, three rules cover 90% of the decision: Buy a condo, not a co-op. Most Manhattan co-ops will reject you. Condos almost universally accept foreign buyers with a clean financial package. 2. Structure the purchase carefully. The choice between buying in your personal name, an LLC, or a trust has significant implications for U.S. tax exposure — especially U.S. estate t

TL;DR Before you sign a contract on any Manhattan co-op, you (or your attorney) should read three documents: the audited financial statements for the last two years, the building's current operating budget, and the last 12 months of board meeting minutes. From these, five numbers tell you almost everything you need to know: per-unit reserves, operating margin, underlying mortgage status, maintenance trend, and assessment history. Most buyers don't bother. The ones who do save

Rough rule for a Manhattan co-op: your gross household income needs to be roughly 3 to 4x the all-in annual housing cost (mortgage P&I + maintenance) to clear most boards. For a typical $1.5M co-op with 25% down at current rates, that's roughly $300K to $375K of household income. Condos use the lender's debt-to-income standard, which is more permissive — closer to 2.5 to 3x housing cost — so the same apartment might be financeable at $225K to $275K of income. Boards also want

A "sponsor unit" is an apartment owned by the original developer (or a successor sponsor) that has never been sold to an individual owner. They show up in both co-op and condo buildings, and they come with one big upside — typically no board approval — and one big downside — buyer often pays the transfer taxes the seller would normally cover. Whether a sponsor unit is a good deal depends on three numbers: the price, the closing-cost shift, and how the unit's condition compare

421-a is a NYC property tax abatement designed to incentivize new residential construction. For buyers, it's a meaningful benefit — but only for as long as it lasts, which is usually 10, 15, 20, or 25 years from when the building was completed. When 421-a phases out and expires, the building's property tax bill jumps to the full unabated amount, often 3 to 5x what owners had been paying. If you're buying a new condo, you need to know two numbers: how much the abatement is cur

The FARE Act (Fairness in Apartment Rentals) is a NYC law that took effect in June 2025. The bottom line: if a landlord hires a broker to list an apartment, the landlord pays that broker — not the renter. For decades, NYC was an outlier in pushing 12-15% one-time broker fees onto renters who never asked for the broker in the first place. That's largely over for landlord-listed units. Renters who hire their own broker still pay that broker. Here's what's actually changed and w

In most Manhattan neighborhoods at today's mortgage rates and rent levels, buying breaks even with renting somewhere between year 4 and year 7 — assuming you stay put, the apartment doesn't sit on the market when you sell, and you actually use your tax deductions. Below that horizon, renting almost always wins. Above it, buying almost always wins. The decision isn't the calculation; the decision is whether you can confidently say you'll be in this apartment past your break-ev

The right Manhattan broker is not the one with the most Instagram followers, the most billboards, or the loudest team brand. The right broker is one who closes regularly in your price band and your neighborhoods, will tell you "no" when you should walk away, knows building-level details (board reputations, financial health, recent flip taxes), and has time to actually pay attention to your deal. Below are the questions to ask, the answers to listen for, and the red flags that

The "mansion tax" is a buyer-paid tax on residential real estate sales in New York State of $1,000,000 or more. In NYC, it stacks on top of the original 1% state mansion tax, ranging from 1.0% on a $1M sale up to 3.9% on $25M+ sales. It is a cliff tax — cross a bracket by even one dollar and the new rate applies to the whole purchase price. Plan accordingly when you're near a threshold. The full bracket table Under $1,000,000: 0%, no tax. $1,000,000 to $1,999,999: 1.00% ($10,

From the day you sign a contract on a Manhattan co-op, expect 8 to 12 weeks before you have keys. The big chunks: 2 to 3 weeks to assemble the board package, 2 to 4 weeks for the managing agent and board to review it, 1 to 3 weeks to schedule the interview, and 1 to 2 weeks for the final decision and closing. Some deals close in 6 weeks. A few drag past 16. The two things that determine where you land are how organized your package is and how quickly the board meets. The high

Buying a Manhattan apartment costs about 2 to 3% of the purchase price in closing costs if you're buying a co-op, and 3 to 6% if you're buying a condo with a mortgage. The biggest line items: NYC and NY State transfer tax (sellers usually pay, but watch out on new development), mortgage recording tax (only on condos), title insurance (only on condos), the mansion tax (kicks in at $1M and up), and your attorney. Below is the full breakdown with worked examples at $1M, $1.5M, a

In Manhattan, roughly three out of four apartments for sale are co-ops, and the rest are condos. Co-ops are usually 10 to 40% cheaper for the same square footage, but they come with a board approval process, stricter financial requirements, and tighter rules about subletting. Condos cost more, charge higher closing costs and property taxes, but you can close in weeks instead of months and rent out your unit with far fewer restrictions. If you're paying with cash and plan to l

What Paris, Vancouver, and London tell us about the proposal now moving through Albany. The Roebling Report · Issue No. 135 · April 29, 2026 · Corey Cohen On April 15, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed the pied-à-terre tax: a recurring surcharge on luxury second homes valued above $5 million — a version of a proposal first introduced by then-State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal more than a decade ago and pronounced dead and revived across several budge

Q1 2026 Manhattan contracts are down but prices held. Deals aren't breaking on price — they're breaking on buildings, boards, banks, and momentum.

Housing affordability is back at the center of the conversation in Washington. The proposals vary—allowing retirement funds like 401(k)s to be tapped for down payments, directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase hundreds of billions in mortgage-backed securities to push rates lower, floating 40- and even 50-year mortgage terms, and restricting large investors from buying existing homes.

In today’s Upper West Side and Upper East Side prewar market, the definition of a “turnkey” renovation has quietly shifted. Post-2022, buyer tolerance for renovation disruption has collapsed while board approval timelines have elongated, creating a stark divergence between assets that are ready to live in and assets that are merely ready to work on.

Two competing visions are shaping New York’s future. On one side, the business community - anchored by JPMorgan Chase, major law firms, global tech firms, and a surge of AI startups - is doubling down on Manhattan. On the other, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani proposes an aggressive affordability agenda: rent freezes, fare-free buses, and higher corporate and high-earner taxes. The tension between these forces will determine how the city grows, who it attracts, and how its real es

Across Manhattan’s most coveted corridors—from Central Park West to Billionaires’ Row—a quiet recalibration is underway. Between July 2024 and July 2025, nearly one in three condominium resales traded below their previous purchase price, marking a decade-long repricing of luxury. Eight notable addresses reveal how today’s market is rewriting assumptions about appreciation.