Rebecca Poole testifies on co-op affordability, valuation issues, and retroactive concerns

Good afternoon, members of the Committees on Finance and Governmental Operations.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

My name is Rebecca Poole, and I'm the Director of Membership and Communication for the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums.

CMYC's membership includes over 100,000 co-op and condo homeowners

across all generations living in member buildings ranging in size from two apartments to well over 6,000 units in 47 of the 51 council districts.

As outlined in CMYC's recently released report on co-op and condo affordability issues,

co-op and condo homeowners are struggling with escalating housing costs and well understand the city's need to close the budget gap without further increasing expenses for the majority of New York City's homeowners and residents.

Therefore, CMYC does not oppose a surcharge on luxury second homes that have sold for more than $5 million.

CMYC appreciates the difficulty in implementing this type of surcharge and believes that several changes to the state legislation would help resolve the strain that the surcharge will place on New York City homeowners, particularly in co-ops and condos.

We have attached our comments on the state legislation and rules, but I will highlight three key issues that concern us.

Co-ops and condos, as Mary Ann mentioned, are not set up to collect these substantial sums, such as a PAT surcharge, from individual shareholders.

and the requirement that the co-op take on this responsibility could be devastating, particularly to a small co-op where the PAT charge may be larger than the entire co-op's real estate taxes for the year in a four- or five-unit co-op.

The $1 million imputed market value of the co-op or condo as used in the legislation does not equate to $5 million sales price or market value, particularly in Class 2C co-ops and condos.

Our analysis of Class 2C condominiums that sold between 2021 and 2026 show that 68% of these apartments with an imputed market value of $1 million

actually sold for less than $5 million in the past five years.

There are issues with the definition and proof of primary residency, who qualifies as family members, and what happens upon the sale and or alteration of an apartment, or the death of the existing shareholder.

CMYC's recommendations regarding these issues are clearly laid out in our comments on the rules in state legislation, which you'll be provided with.

Lastly, I'd like to add that our concern over the retroactive nature of this surcharge,

what it did was remove options from some longtime homeowners who have resided in New York City for over 40 years and purchased their home in the 1970s,

and now found out that because they were not primary residents on January 5th of 2026, already passed, they owe $80,000.

We welcome the opportunity to work with the Council, the MAMDONI administration, and state legislature in ensuring there's a solution that works for all parties.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I want to say that Councilmember Arola is on Zoom and Brooks Powers is here with us.

People may have questions for this panel.