Finance takes into consideration the sales of similar recently sold properties when valuing New York City properties for tax purposes. As such, to make this process more transparent, the agency makes available a detailed listing of all property sales completed in the five boroughs within the past year, as well as historical data dating back to 2003. This information is a matter of public record.

The files linked to below are indexed by borough and neighborhood to facilitate easy lookups of properties, and are provided in two formats: PDF (smaller, more universally accessible files that require the Adobe Reader) and XLS (Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets for power users interested in creating their own sorts and reports). These listings include all properties sold in the last calendar year including cooperative apartments.

September 23, 2006
Complexes’ Seller Pushes Profits, as Critics Fear Higher Rents
By JANNY SCOTT

Wondering how long it might take a new owner of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village to remove most of the apartments from rent regulation? The seller has a prediction: By 2018, the percentage of stabilized apartments in the complexes could plummet to less than 30 percent from more than 70 percent today.

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MetLife’s brokerage company, which prepared the document, has some tips, too, for potential buyers hoping to appeal to what it calls “the discerning tastes of Manhattan’s market-rate apartment community.” It suggests turning the complexes into gated communities, adding “health club amenities,” selling units, importing doormen and installing “an elite private school.”

The 117-page offering memorandum may paint an overly rosy picture of a new owner’s possible profits in hopes of enticing bidders for what could be a $5 billion sale, but it also suggests strongly that the community’s days as an unpretentious middle-class bastion in increasingly upscale Manhattan may well be numbered.

With “aggressive investigation of potential stabilization violations,” the memo suggests, a new owner could deregulate 1,000 units in both complexes in 2008 alone, “approximately double the current rate.” By investing in major capital improvements, a new owner could speed up rent deregulation and win additional rent increases, even in the rent-stabilized apartments.