for co-ops..are RE taxes part of maintenance?

yes

didn't you just buy an many-hundreds-of-thousands apt? Hmm.

now Im startin to look at coops in yorkville...they're deflating quite nicely

Yes

Yes. But to elaborate...

Co-ops: You have maintenance which covers building related fees and your taxes. There will be a 'tax deduction' listed (on a broker's website or in printed material you get at a showing) and that will be what you can write off. Another way to look at it is if you have a $1000 maintenance with a 50% tax deduction, your building is taking $500 from you for building stuff and you have $500 in taxes.

Condos: You have Common Charges and Real Estate Taxes. As you could imagine, the CC's just go towards running the building and the real estate taxes go to our good friend the City of NYC.

The reason I'm clarifying this is because, simply put, I frequently hear brokers say 'Maintenance' in reference to condominiums, which is just incorrect.

MRussell, actually the tax deductable portion of maintenance can be both re taxes and the interest payments on an underlying mortgage.

ok how about this situation. i pay a low maintenace, and none of it is tax-deductible, since we have a 20 yr tax-abatement and also no underlying mortgage on the building. correct logic?

sounds correct, yes - your maintenance is just building upkeep + heat/water and staffing

what many people forget, when the maintenance is high, once the taxes kick in, your property will be worth significantly less. also to consider that in 20 yrs, your taxes will be significantly higher then the properties that were built prior to the boom.

so, my maintenance is not tax deductible because
1) we pay no property tax, or
2) we are not paying a mortgage on the building?

Yes, both. Only the portion of your maintenance attributable to re tax and mortgage interest are deductible.

AB_11218, that's a reasonable assumption, but it's by no means certain. The way taxes are structured currently is so nonsensical that it's entirely plausible that the entire system gets overhauled in the future. That possibility makes future taxes impossible to predict.

i would expect that the people who got the benefit, should not pay for those 20 yrs. so, in 30-40 yrs the taxes can get restructured. the reality is, the older the structure, the lower the taxes. i have a friend who lives in a 1 br condo (900 sq ft) built in 1995 who pays 2/3 tax of the free standing house next door.

sorry 'not' = 'now'