A standard Manhattan real estate adage holds that prewar co-ops can be great buildings saddled with an outdated ownership structure dating back to the 1880s.
The impacts of this can include months-long board approval processes, restricted subletting and onerous flip taxes. For the better part of a decade, this list of peccadillos has been reason enough for buyers shopping for homes above $2 million to walk past the co-op board and into a glass condo tower with a rooftop plunge pool. The prevailing story has been that condos represent the future, while co-ops belong to the past.
But recent data complicates that story. Since 2019, prewar co-ops have appreciated slightly faster than post-2000 condos and reduced their time on market by a wider margin. More recently, co-op sales volume has risen while post-2000 condo volume has slipped. Condos still win on total sales, aided by a more flexible ownership structure and a housing stock that can continue to expand, but in a twist few saw coming, co-ops are increasingly nipping at their heels.
The flight to quality
Bond investors have a term for what happens when markets become less certain: flight to quality. Capital shifts away from assets more exposed to leverage, speculation and rapid changes in sentiment and toward those supported by stronger balance sheets and more stable ownership.
Manhattan co-ops have a built-in version of that stability. Their boards typically scrutinize buyers’ income, liquidity, debt and post-closing reserves, while many buildings restrict investors, pied-à-terre ownership and subletting. The result is an ownership base composed largely of well-capitalized primary residents. Slow money, in Wall Street terms.
Condos offer greater flexibility. They can be purchased as investments, second homes, or rental properties, broadening their appeal but also making the sector more sensitive to shifts in investor demand. That distinction became clearly visible during the Great Recession in 2008/2009, when Manhattan condo prices fell about 25% from peak to trough, compared with roughly 17% for co-ops. Note that while co-ops were not immune, their more permanent ownership base cushioned the decline.
Today, the shift is less about downside protection and more about assigning greater value to qualities that cannot be easily reproduced: established buildings, proven addresses and generous floor plans. In that sense, renewed interest in prewar co-ops reflects both the financial stability of the ownership structure and the lasting appeal of scarce, well-located real estate. Sales data suggests buyers are beginning to recognize both.
Momentum is the story. While condos still outsell prewar co-ops in this price tier by a wide margin, the developing trend is the most interesting, especially given the hurdles co-op buyers need to jump. In 2025, prewar co-ops gained transaction share in Manhattan’s $2 million-plus market for the first time since the pandemic, rising from 20.3% of closings in 2024 to 22.7% in 2025. Meanwhile, the number of condo sales of units built in 2000 or later decreased. This is where the conventional wisdom that condos are the future while co-ops are the past breaks down.
Under the hood: price and days on market
While overall volume is the headline number, it is heavily influenced by supply. The universe of newer condos can expand through new construction, but the stock of prewar co-ops is essentially fixed. Nobody is building more from 1929. So perhaps the better test of a shift in buyer sentiment is what happens at the unit level. Are prewars selling faster? Are they holding value?
The chart above shows the median number of days it took Manhattan apartments priced at $2 million or more to go into contract, comparing prewar co-ops with post-2000 condos from 2019 through 2025. Over that period, the median days on market for prewar co-ops fell from 92 days to 71 days, a 22.8% improvement. Post-2000 condos also sold faster, but by a smaller margin: their median time on market declined from 123 days to 103 days, an improvement of 16.3%. In short, prewar co-ops sold faster than post-2000 condos in both years and also closed the gap more quickly over the period.
Raise the price floor to $4 million, the accepted luxury threshold, and the gap between prewar co-ops and post-2000 condos becomes more pronounced. The prewar co-op median DOM went from 123 days in 2024 to 77 days in 2025, down 37.4%, while post-2000 condo DOM at that price point moved in the opposite direction, from 108 days to 126 days in that time frame, up 16.7%. Of course, it’s worth noting the sample thins out at this altitude (a couple hundred sales a year on each side), so it’s more of a signal to watch rather than a settled trend. Still, a market where the priciest co-ops are selling faster while the priciest condos are stalling is not the market anyone penciled in this year.
Laying those charts on top of each other (below) brings the divergence between prewar co-ops and post-2000 condos into focus. Since 2019, prewar co-ops have appreciated a touch faster than newer condos and have compressed their time on market by a wider margin. While condos still win on volume aided by a more flexible ownership structure and a housing stock that continues to expand, that’s still not what a dying asset class looks like. Despite all the complaints about intrusive board packages and opaque requirements, buyers are still showing up. In growing numbers, no less.
Why it’s happening now
This does not appear to be merely the result of an indiscriminate luxury-market boom where a rising tide lifts all ships. Buyers who can get past the co-op’s ownership peculiarities are being rewarded with something newer construction can’t replicate: geography. A classic six on Park Avenue, which also has 10-foot ceilings, herringbone floors, and a wraparound Manhattan skyline view, sits on land that was fully built out generations ago, in a location no zoning variance will ever recreate.
The timing might also reflect a shift in the definition of value. Buyers may be less willing to pay a premium for newer finishes and an extensive amenity package that tends to go unused. At the same time, some buildings once marketed as new development are aging into the resale market, where the initial novelty premium becomes harder to sustain.
The “co-op tax”, the price buyers pay in patience and paperwork for that kind of building, hasn’t gone away, and shows no sign that it will anytime soon. But data indicates that a growing number of luxury buyers are deciding the trade-off is worth it. Like a subtle shift in the financial markets, the flight to quality isn’t something really announced. It tends to show up quietly, one contract at a time. Just like the numbers above.