Standard co-ops in the Bronx

Which co-op buildings of this kind are actually in the Bronx?

• Pre-war and post-war elevator co-ops along the Henry Hudson Parkway, in Spuyten Duyvil and through central Riverdale
• Large complexes in Pelham Parkway, Parkchester’s surrounding blocks and along the Grand Concourse that converted from rentals
• Garden-style co-op groups in Throggs Neck and Country Club that read as low-rise rentals from the street
• A number of corporations that still carry substantial sponsor holdings from a 1980s conversion

What do board approval and financing look like in the Bronx?

• Underlying mortgage terms deserve more attention here than the purchase price: the balance, the maturity date and whether the corporation has refinanced recently all set the maintenance trend
• A high proportion of sponsor-held rentals inside a corporation narrows the lender pool for a share loan and can raise the down payment a lender will accept
• Boards in the Riverdale belt commonly ask for post-closing liquidity, though the multiple is generally lower than a comparable Manhattan building would apply
• Reserve levels in older converted complexes are frequently thin, so an assessment history over several years is the more useful document

Which taxes and recording steps apply in the Bronx?

• No mortgage recording tax and no ACRIS instrument for the purchase, the same as any co-op
• New York State transfer tax and the New York City real property transfer tax apply to the share transfer
• The mansion tax is reached on very few Bronx co-op sales, so the flip tax and the transfer taxes dominate the closing figures
• Judgment and lien searches run against Bronx County records, and the corporation itself is searched in the co-op lien search

What pattern does a purchaser meet in the Bronx?

• Facade and parapet work under the City’s periodic inspection program is a recurring source of assessments in the older Riverdale buildings
• Some corporations own adjoining land, garages or a second building, which changes both the financials and what a shareholder is actually buying into
• Where a sponsor still holds a block of units, the sponsor’s arrears or its refusal to fund reserves shows up in the financial statements rather than in any search
• Flip taxes exist but are less uniform than in Manhattan, and several Bronx corporations adopted theirs by shareholder vote within the last decade

What else should you read before closing on one of these?