NYC Affordability

What maintenance actually covers

A co-op corporation owns the building, and the building has bills. Monthly maintenance is how those bills get passed to the shareholders who live there. According to Brick Underground’s rundown, it covers, among other things:

• The building’s underlying mortgage. Many co-ops carry a loan on the building itself, separate from your share loan. A big balance or a high rate pushes maintenance up; older co-ops commonly refinance to pay for capital improvements, which can raise it too. See underlying mortgage.
• Property taxes. The co-op pays the real estate tax bill for the land and building, then credits shareholders for exemptions and abatements it receives, such as the co-op/condo property tax abatement.
• Staff. Building payroll is a major line. Union buildings cost more to run, and smaller buildings spread the payroll across fewer payers.
• Insurance, utilities, and upkeep. Heating, cooling, snow removal, landscaping, the lobby, the laundry room, and whatever amenities the building has.

Other things can push the number around: commercial space that does or doesn’t pay its way, a land lease, and plain mismanagement, such as a board that doesn’t contest an unfair tax assessment.

How it gets divided: shares

Maintenance isn’t split evenly by apartment. It’s allocated in proportion to the shares tied to your unit under your proprietary lease: the building’s annual budget, divided by total shares outstanding, times your shares. How many shares each apartment got in the first place is, as one broker told Brick Underground, an “inexact science” based on things like the view, whether it’s a corner unit, and how close it is to the trash compactor. That’s why two neighbors with similar layouts can pay noticeably different amounts.

A special assessment is a separate, temporary charge for something outside the regular budget. It’s usually split by shares too, but it isn’t maintenance, and it ends when the money is raised.

The tax-deductible part

Part of maintenance can be deductible on your federal return, because a chunk of it is really your share of the building’s property taxes and mortgage interest. The rule is Internal Revenue Code § 216: a tenant-stockholder can deduct amounts paid to the co-op to the extent they represent a proportionate share of the corporation’s real estate taxes and of the interest on debt used to buy, build, or maintain the building or buy its land.

IRS guidance spells out the mechanics:

• Real estate taxes (Pub. 530): divide your shares by total shares outstanding, then multiply by the corporation’s deductible real estate taxes. The corporation generally tells you this number. Your deduction drops by your share of any tax refund the co-op receives for an earlier year.
• Mortgage interest (Pub. 936): your share of the corporation’s deductible interest is figured the same way. The co-op should send a Form 1098 showing your share.
• The building has to qualify. The IRS conditions include having only one class of stock and each stockholder being entitled to live in a unit, plus at least one of three tests: 80% of gross income from tenant-stockholders, 80% of square footage available to them, or 90% of expenditures going to the property.

The rest of maintenance, the staff, insurance, and boiler, isn’t deductible. And both deductions help only if you itemize; the property-tax share also sits inside the federal state-and-local-tax cap, which Pub. 530 lists as $40,000 ($20,000 married filing separately) for 2025. This is general information, not tax advice; check your own situation with a tax professional.

How boards and lenders count it

Maintenance hits your qualification math twice.

Co-op boards look at debt-to-income, and maintenance is in the numerator. A National Cooperative Bank executive described it to Brick Underground as “all monthly liabilities—including new potential loan and maintenance fees—divided by your gross monthly income.” Brokers quoted there put a moderate building’s bar around 25% and the ideal range at 22% to 24%, with tough boards below that. This site’s Co-op Calculator uses 28% as its default ceiling, a long-standing convention you should adjust to the building. See DTI and how board approval works.

Lenders count it too. Fannie Mae’s definition of monthly housing expense includes “any monthly co-op corporation fee,” alongside principal and interest, taxes, insurance, and special assessments.

Because the board’s cap applies to maintenance plus your mortgage combined, every extra dollar of maintenance is a dollar you can’t spend on a mortgage payment.

Worked example

All building figures here are hypothetical. The $1,200/month maintenance matches this site’s illustrative citywide default, not a measured median.

The allocation. A building needs $1,440,000 a year from shareholders and has 20,000 shares outstanding: $1,440,000 ÷ 20,000 = $72 per share per year. An apartment with 200 shares pays 200 × $72 = $14,400 a year, or $1,200 a month.

The deductible slice. Say the building pays $500,000 in real estate taxes and $280,000 in interest on its underlying mortgage. Per share, that’s $25 of tax and $14 of interest. For 200 shares: $5,000 + $2,800 = $7,800, or about 54% of the year’s maintenance, potentially deductible if you itemize. Your building’s percentage will differ, sometimes a lot; ask the managing agent for the figure.

The DTI hit. A buyer earns $150,000 ($12,500 a month). At a 28% cap, the board allows $3,500 a month for housing. Subtract $1,200 of maintenance and $2,300 is left for principal and interest. At 6.95% (the Freddie Mac 30-year average as of September 17, 2026), that supports a loan of about $347,000, and with 20% down, a maximum price of about $434,000, calculated with this site’s co-op engine.

Same buyer, building with $1,600 maintenance: only $1,900 is left for the mortgage, and the maximum price drops to about $359,000. That $400 a month of maintenance costs roughly $76,000 of purchasing power. Plug in a real building’s numbers on the Co-op Calculator, or see income needed to buy in NYC and co-op vs condo costs for the bigger picture.

Since maintenance is paid with after-tax dollars, it’s also worth knowing what your paycheck actually nets as an NYC resident; see NYC city income tax explained.