Co-op & Condo Tax Abatement Analysis

CHPC conducted analysis of Co-op & Condo owners by looking at the 2017 NYC Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS). This analysis shows Co-op & Condo owner income levels by household and by location. The HVS occupied household data files that were used to complete our analysis contain a sample of approximately 13,000 households. While this is a large sample size, when drilling down to the number of Co-op & Condo owners at a sub borough level, the sample sizes become much smaller. HVS data shows the percentage of Co-op & Condo owners at various income levels, but available data sets do not allow us to determine the household income for individual abatement recipients.

How can we ensure that reforms to the Co-op & Condo tax abatement protect low- to moderate-income homeowners but still produce significant savings to help public housing? CHPC conducted analysis of several options for reform that protect low- to moderate-income homeowners but still generate savings to help NYCHA residents. Options include determining a cut-off based on the following:

• By household income
• Co-op & Condo Abatement amount
• DOF Billable Assessed Value amount

Co-op & Condo owner income data is not available at the household level. Without that level of data, there is no way to determine the precise amount of the abatement that would be saved if a cut-off based on income was available.

Another option for reform is to determine a cut-off based on the size of the abatement (removing households that receive the largest abatements). CHPC looked at removing the top 10% of units receiving the Co-op & Condo tax abatement. Removing the top 10% of the Co-op & Condo tax abatement would remove around 30,000 units and would result in $168,000+ million in savings.

A cut-off level could also be established by the DOF determined billable assessed value. Billable assessed values are lower than actual market-rate values and incorporate the phase-in of increased property values (which differentiates between new, high-value units and older units that have had swings in their market value). The table below shows the potential savings and a total number of households impacted by different cutoff levels based on DOF billable assessed values.