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I live in a small co op that has seen huge changes since it was created some 35 years ago. It is perhaps the most New York of stories. Find a place no one wants, that people think you are crazy to buy with all the money you have to spend, fix it up and get the c of o (after years of back and forth with constantly changing city ordinances and kafkaesque bureaucracy), make it nice, eventually the neighborhood changes, suddenly other apartments in the neighborhood are selling like crazy, the original people move out and sell for literally millions, and you look like a genius for buying way back when for thousands.
But now the new people are starting to resent the old people because they know what you paid, and it seems like something is unfair. And the new people, who did pay millions for their place feel like they are entitled to expect more-even though there is really no amenity-not even a doorman or a full-time super.
And then the president of the co op, a new person, in a moment of anger, claims that the old people "just don't understand" the problems of the building because they only paid thousands while the new ones paid millions.
And of course the maintenance keeps going up, and the old ones are getting priced out anyway, but it doesn't affect them because, well, they have millions.
Of course when people started the co op no one had money, they only wanted a nice place to live, not just an "investment property", and the sweat equity and dealing with creating the entity that is now the co op took effort that is only now coming back to them in monetary gain-if they sell.
Unfortunately there is now an us vs them situation and the new outnumber the old in both shares and units.
It is really a shame because it is such a small group that just cannot see past their own positions. And I am speaking of Both sides.
I do not naively expect everyone to be best friends, but civility and respect for each other should be a given, and if there are differences they need to be aired respectfully.
But again, this is kind of the history of New York Real Estate.
Artie, truer words were never spoken. We have that in our co-op. When new people come in at a higher price, you are correct, they resent or want to get rid of the original buyers. That is a shame, since the original people bought in to have a home not be pushed out. There has to be some sort of legislation or something to help people who thought they were buying a home to stay in, not be shoved out. This is very disheartening with new people coming into a building that was originally priced for affordability. Let us all find a way to work on this.
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Artie,
Your statement is very refreshing to read. What made New York different form the rest of the country is that co-ops control the market and not condos. As you stated that a group of people, that may not have known each other very well in the beginning , would take a commercial building and transform it into a place to live and raise a family. This is how we have neighborhoods that are now called Tri-Beca, SOHO, NOHO, Chelsea, DUMBO etc. People took pride in their building and neighborhood as well as the people that shared their building with. Now we see less and less of this and more insensitive on how much money you can make off your space or how much it is worth.
It is hard for some people, like your co-op president, to understand what it was like for the sponsors of your building to start from scratch and to transform a commercial building into a co-op. Now if you invested in stock 35 years ago I'm sure there would not be any resentment on their part.
Co-ops have also help to keep New York out of the free fall of the housing bubble that the rest of the country has experience. One reason for this is that co-ops unlike condos, do not encourage speculative purchase in their buildings. I only hope it stays that way.
It sad to see, as some of the contributors of this forum, that they only want the board to contribute, or should we say, control all the functions of the co-op and to deny their shareholders the right to vote or to have a say who they share their building with.
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