I think it's more that condos are more common in some places and co-ops in New York others.

There's may be other financial reasons, but my understanding is that co-ops are set up to basically let the people who live in a building control who lives there, hence the interview that Jess had to have.

Usually it's around 20% downpayment that cuts out the PMI (though there are programs that you can use that can cut it out without the large downpayment, usually for lower-income first-time homebuyers). It can add just a little or a lot to a house payment, and can sometimes be a barrier to people who have neither enough for a %20 downpayment or the extra hundered a month for the mortgage payment. OTOH, at least it's a way to get a house without the huge downpayment.

I know nothing of co-ops as we don't have many (any?) of those here.

Jessica, thanks for explaining that. I've always been curious, but forget to look it up when I'm near a computer.

Here there is a big fuss over ground rent. You own the structure, but pay rent on the lot. It's usually not much but people can lose their homes over past-due rents that are much, much less than the value of the home (like a few thousand.) And the system is antiquated, so records are really sketchy. It's all fascinating.

I love the assistants on Ugly Betty.

Why am I so cruel to commas? I don't know.

Here there is a big fuss over ground rent. You own the structure, but pay rent on the lot.

Fascinating. Around here, that's something you'd only see with temporary structures (e.g. trailer parks) -- but in that case, there's a development with a clear owner, not scattered individual lots or sketchy old records. In those cases, who generally owns the lot?

(Yes, I'm a dork about all these regional oddities.)

I think it's more that condos are more common in some places and co-ops in New York others.

Heh -- yep, NYC is co-op-land all right. (The book we have on "how to buy condos, co-ops, and townhouses" is all full of paragraphs on why you should avoid co-ops, mostly due to the fact that your bank will have no idea how to deal with one if you don't live on the East Coast. But most older owner-occupied buildings in NYC are co-ops -- if you move into a condo, it's probably a newer building.)

Co-ops came first, right?

I don't know, but given that co-ops outnumber condos in NYC (where most of the country's oldest apartment buildings are), it wouldn't surprise me.

In those cases, who generally owns the lot?

Um, I'd have to go look. I think there are companies that go around buying up these lost/unclaimed lots, which adds to the confusion.

The Baltimore Sun did a whole series on this topic at [link]

Anyone watching Earl?