Brownstones and Single-Family Homes Pay Less Tax Than Co-ops, Condos

Oct. 29, 2014 — There is nothing certain but death and taxes. And there are peaceful deaths surrounded by loved ones and miserable, horrible deaths involving ... well, you don't want to know. Similarly, there are fair, reasonable taxes and then there's the tax structure visited upon New York co-ops and condos like a plague upon biblical Egypt. That's cooperatives and most condominiums are "Class 2" residential buildings, which pay ridiculously more in property taxes than do single- to four-family homes and brownstones, which are "Class 1," clearly in every sense of the term. Ronda Kaysen's latest "Ask Real Estate" column in The New York Times answers two reader's questions about this very topic, and concludes, in that oh-so-Timesian way, that, "The potential for baffling inequities is huge." Unfortunately, the potential for a fix anytime soon is miniscule.