WOULD A CO-OP BOARD APPROVE ME?
A co-op board decides on arithmetic before it decides on anything else, and every figure in that arithmetic is knowable before you make an offer. This runs it. It will not tell you that you are approved — no honest tool can, because each building sets its own thresholds and a board need never explain a rejection. What it will tell you is which kind of building you comfortably clear, which kind you do not, and by exactly how much.
First, the question that decides whether any of this applies
Are you buying a co-op or a condo?
The apartment
What you would offer, or the asking price.
100% if you are paying cash. The building, not your bank, sets the floor.
From the listing. If you do not know it yet, the estimate below is the Manhattan co-op average for this price — but check the real number, because it moves the answer more than your income does.
A temporary charge on top of maintenance, usually for a capital project. Boards count it, and buyers routinely forget to.
Your finances
Before tax, and everyone who will be on the application.
Cash, stocks, bonds, anything you could sell this week. Do not include retirement accounts — most boards will not count them, and neither does this.
Student loans, car payments, credit card minimums, any other mortgage. All of it counts against you.
Your plans
On these numbers
These numbers clear a typical Manhattan co-op.
51.1 months of post-closing liquidity and a 28% debt-to-income ratio, on 25% down. The bands above this one are where it stops working, and the table shows by how much.
What the board is measuring
Post-closing liquidity is listed first because it is what ends most reviews. It is measured after the down payment and closing costs have left your account, and most buyers calculate it before.
Post-closing liquidity
51.1 months
$900,000 of liquid assets, less $375,000 down and $24,000 of closing costs, leaves $501,000 — which covers 51.1 months at $9,797 a month.
- The most flexible buildingswants 12 months · clears
- A typical Manhattan co-opwants 24 months · clears
- The strictest buildingswants 36 months · clears
This is the test that ends most board reviews, and it is measured after every closing dollar has left your account — not before. Boards are not asking whether you can afford it today; they are asking whether the building still gets paid if you lose your job or the roof needs replacing. Retirement accounts usually do not count.
Debt-to-income ratio
28%
$10,397 a month of total debt service ($9,797 on the apartment plus $600 of other debt), against $37,500 of gross monthly income.
- The most flexible buildingswants 33% or less · clears
- A typical Manhattan co-opwants 28% or less · clears
- The strictest buildingswants 20% or less · short
Note what is inside it: maintenance counts as debt service here, which is why a co-op with a high maintenance can fail a buyer that the same price with a lower maintenance would not. Student loans, car payments and card minimums all count too.
Down payment
25%
$375,000 down on $1,500,000, financing $1,125,000.
- The most flexible buildingswants 10% minimum · clears
- A typical Manhattan co-opwants 20% minimum · clears
- The strictest buildingswants 50% minimum · short
The building sets this, not your lender, and it caps how much you may borrow no matter what a bank approves you for. It is also the one input here you can change quickly, by shopping at a lower price rather than by earning more.
What would have to be true for the next band up
To sit comfortably in the strictest buildings on this apartment, you would need:
- Income at 20% debt service$623,804
Or the same income against a smaller monthly obligation — a lower price, a lower maintenance, or clearing other debt all move this. You have $450,000.
- 50% down$750,000
Rather than $375,000. Note this raises the cash you need at closing and lowers the mortgage, which helps the other two tests at the same time.
The same numbers, against three kinds of building
No law sets any of these thresholds — each board sets its own, and the strictest are not obliged to publish them. What follows are the documented market bands. Treat them as the shape of the market rather than as three specific buildings, and ask the managing agent for the real figures on any apartment you are serious about. A good broker knows most of them already.
The most flexible buildings
10% down · 12 months of reserves · debt service under 33% of income
Smaller buildings, Upper Manhattan, and much of Brooklyn and Queens. Fewer units, a shorter waiting list of buyers, and a board that would rather fill the apartment than hold out.
A typical Manhattan co-op
20% down · 24 months of reserves · debt service under 28% of income
The middle of the market, and the band most buildings you will actually see fall into: 20 to 25% down, roughly two years of carrying cost in reserve, debt service under about a quarter of income.
The strictest buildings
50% down · 36 months of reserves · debt service under 20% of income
Fifth and Park Avenue, and the white-glove prewar cooperatives. Some want 50% down, some three years of reserves, and a handful will not permit financing at all — where a building requires all cash, no lender can bridge the gap.
What this page cannot see
- The interview. It is usually brief and usually a formality, but it is not always, and it is where a board decides whether you will be a problem.
- The building's own thresholds, which it need not publish and may apply inconsistently.
- Whether the board thinks your price is too low. Boards have blocked sales for undercutting their own comparables — you can be a perfect buyer at the wrong number.
- How your income is earned. Two buyers with the same figure are not read the same way if one is salaried and the other is self-employed, on commission, or holding equity that has not vested.
- Anything about the building's finances — its reserves, its underlying mortgage, its assessment history. That review runs in the other direction, and it matters as much as this one.
- A co-op in New York City may reject you without giving a reason, and there is no appeal. That is exactly why this arithmetic is worth doing before you sign a contract rather than after.
THE PART THAT NEEDS SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS THE BUILDINGS
The ratios are the easy half. The half that decides your search is which buildings actually apply which thresholds, which ones allow a guarantor or a gift, which ones quietly want more than they say, and which ones will not care. That is not published anywhere. Send these numbers over and we will tell you what they mean for the buildings you are looking at — and, if they do not work yet, exactly what would have to change.
Thresholds and market figures verified August 2026 against the sources listed below. No law fixes any of them — each board sets its own, and this page is arithmetic on what you entered rather than a prediction of any particular building's decision.
Sources
- Brick Underground — minimum down payment and asset requirements in NYC co-ops and condos
- Hauseit — how post-closing liquidity is defined and calculated for co-ops
- Prevu — how much cash co-op buyers need, and target debt-to-income ratios
- StreetEasy — buying a co-op in NYC, board approval and financial requirements
- The Real Deal — co-op boards and the City Council bill that would require them to give reasons
The numbers are the easy part
Everything on this page is public, computable, and on the page for free. What no calculator has is the part that actually moves a New York number: what a specific board has approved before, why the line above just traded 12% under, which seller will take a February closing. That is the conversation.