---
title: "A Murray Hill Co-op With Townhouse Charm, Not a Townhouse"
description: "This $2.295M Murray Hill co-op sells 1862 brownstone living. What it last sold for, what the flip tax and maintenance cost, and what a townhouse costs."
url: "https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/guides/23-east-37th-street-murray-hill-coop-townhouse-buyer-analysis"
source: "Real Estate Rebate Team"
datePublished: "2026-09-14"
dateModified: "2026-09-14"
---

# A $2.3M Murray Hill Co-op Sells Townhouse Charm. Here Is What It Actually Is

Luxury Co-ops · By Régis Roumila · September 14, 2026

6sqft calls 23 East 37th Street "historic townhouse living without the price." I pulled the building’s records to see what a buyer really gets: the apartment’s own last sale, the flip tax, the maintenance, and what a real Murray Hill townhouse costs.

![The Beaux-Arts De Lamar Mansion anchors the Madison Avenue end of East 37th Street, the co-op’s own landmark block. Photograph courtesy of AnahitaR, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.](https://realestaterebatesnewyork-bucket.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/97957be4-6f94-451f-89c4-a18501bea77a.jpg)

*The Beaux-Arts De Lamar Mansion anchors the Madison Avenue end of East 37th Street, the co-op’s own landmark block. Photograph courtesy of AnahitaR, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.*

## The pitch, and the part it leaves out

On 11 September, 6sqft ran a nice piece on a two-bedroom co-op at 23 East 37th Street in Murray Hill, asking $2,295,000. The framing is right there in the headline: "historic townhouse living without the price, upkeep, and daily stair-climbing." It is a lovely apartment on one of the best blocks in the city, across from the Morgan Library.

That framing is also the reason to look closer. A listing describes what an apartment feels like. It does not tell you what the apartment last sold for, what you pay to close on it, what you pay every month to hold it, or what the thing it is being compared to actually costs. All of that is on the public record, so I pulled it.

This is a co-op, and a co-op is not a townhouse. You are buying shares in a corporation that owns an 1862 brownstone, plus a proprietary lease on one of its ten apartments. You get the eleven-foot ceilings, the two marble fireplaces and the restored Otis elevator. You do not get the land, the building, or the right to do as you please with either. The gap between those two things is the whole story, and it is a gap you can put numbers on.

### What this apartment has done on the public record

1. Prior sale: **Bought for $1,340,000** (February 12, 2016) [Important]
   The current owners bought units 4F and 4R on a single transfer, verified in the City’s ACRIS records at 100% interest. This is the apartment’s own last arm’s-length trade.
2. Renovation: **Combined and gut-renovated** (After 2016)
   Two previously separate apartments were merged into one floor-through and restored, the work the listing describes. The cost of that work is inside the number below, not on top of it.
3. Now: **Asking $2,295,000** (Listed September 8, 2026) [Important]
   Up 71% on the 2016 price over roughly ten and a half years, a 5.2% compound annual rate before the renovation spend is netted out. The typical two-bedroom co-op in Murray Hill sells for about $923,500.

**The current owners bought the two combined units in 2016 for $1,340,000 and, after a gut renovation, now ask $2,295,000. That 71% step-up includes the renovation, so read it as the cost of the finished apartment, not as pure market appreciation.**

The 2016 purchase is the number the listing will not show you, and it is the honest anchor for the asking price. The owners paid $1,340,000, renovated, and now ask $2,295,000. Whether that is a fair price turns on the quality of the renovation, which is genuinely high, and on how the finished apartment compares to the market it sits in. On that second question our data is blunt: the median two-bedroom co-op resale in Murray Hill over the past year was $923,500, and the 75th percentile was $1,070,000. This apartment asks more than double the median. It is bigger and better than the median, so a premium is warranted. Whether it is a premium of that size is the negotiation.

## What "townhouse living" costs when it is an actual townhouse

![Front door of a single-family brick townhouse at 128 East 38th Street in Murray Hill](https://realestaterebatesnewyork-bucket.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/27edc0c6-5dc9-4b29-91c4-0f8a1e14d4b2.jpg)

*A single-family townhouse entrance one block north, at 128 East 38th Street. Whole-house ownership on these blocks starts around $3.6 million. Photograph courtesy of Beyond My Ken, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.*

The article sells this co-op as townhouse living for less than a townhouse. The first half is atmosphere and it is fair. The second half is a price claim, and a price claim is checkable.

Right now there are genuine single-family townhouses for sale in Manhattan, several of them on these Murray Hill blocks. The cheapest whole townhouse in the neighborhood on our books asks $3,595,000, for 4,250 square feet. Above it the ladder runs to $4.45 million, $4.495 million for a 5,735-square-foot house, and up past $7 million. The entry price for an actual Murray Hill townhouse is roughly $3.6 million, about 57% more than this co-op’s $2.295 million ask.

So the co-op is cheaper than a townhouse, which is the article’s point and it holds. But the discount is not free. What the extra roughly $1.3 million buys in a townhouse is the land, the whole structure, no board, no flip tax, and the freedom to renovate, rent or sell on your own terms. The co-op price gets you the look of that life inside a corporation that controls it.

### The co-op against actual Murray Hill townhouses for sale

Active single-family and small townhouse listings in Murray Hill on our books, against the subject co-op. Per-foot figures use the listings’ own stated interior areas; the co-op discloses no square footage, which is normal for a co-op.

| Property | Asking price | Interior | Per foot | You own |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 23 East 37th St #4F/R (this co-op) | $2,295,000 | Not disclosed | n/a | Shares + lease, 1 of 10 apartments |
| 115 East 35th Street | $3,595,000 | 4,250 sf | $846 | The whole house |
| 128 East 38th Street | $4,450,000 | 2,400 sf | $1,854 | The whole house |
| 118 East 37th Street | $4,495,000 | 5,735 sf | $784 | The whole house |
| 131 East 39th Street | $6,995,000 | 4,574 sf | $1,529 | The whole house |

**The co-op undercuts the cheapest whole townhouse by about $1.3 million. That gap is the price of the difference between a share in a building and the building itself.**

*Source: REBNY RLS active listings via our database, 14 September 2026 — Townhouse square footage and per-foot figures are as stated on each listing and are approximate. The subject co-op states no interior area, so no per-foot figure is shown for it; co-op listings rarely disclose square footage and the City does not record it per apartment. Median asking price for a Manhattan townhouse is currently $5,275,000.*

## Ten apartments behind one 1862 facade

![Marble lioness sculptures flanking the steps of the Morgan Library on East 37th Street](https://realestaterebatesnewyork-bucket.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/9561d865-cd85-4c9c-8ddd-aceaebf7a75c.jpg)

*The Morgan Library’s lionesses sit directly across 37th Street from the co-op, the view from its south-facing windows. Photograph courtesy of Beyond My Ken, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.*

23 East 37th Street is a 25-foot-wide brownstone, one of three Italianate houses the builder David Robins finished on the block between 1860 and 1862. The City’s tax file lists it as 6,576 gross square feet holding ten co-op apartments, which is the number that matters: you are buying one of ten, not the house. The building records show four apartments trading in the past decade, and they tell you how this small co-op actually prices.

The subject apartment is the top of that range by a wide margin, which is what a combined, renovated floor-through should be. The one-bedroom on the fifth floor, also for sale right now at $659,000, is the floor of the range. Both are on the same share ledger and the same maintenance formula, and that formula is where a co-op stops behaving like a house.

### Every recorded sale in the building, newest first

Arm’s-length transfers at 23 East 37th Street from the City’s ACRIS records, with the two apartments currently for sale shown against their own last sale.

| Apartment | What | Price | When |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 4F/R (2-bed, for sale) | Asking now | $2,295,000 | Sept 2026 |
| 4F/R | Last sold | $1,340,000 | Feb 2016 |
| 1F/R (1-bed) | Sold | $950,000 | May 2023 |
| 5F (1-bed) | Sold | $955,000 | Sept 2022 |
| 5R (1-bed, for sale) | Asking now | $659,000 | Sept 2026 |
| 5R | Last sold | $425,000 | July 2011 |

**The 5R one-bedroom last sold in 2011 for $425,000 and now asks $659,000, up 55%. Our own sales mirror had missed that 2011 trade; the City’s ACRIS file has it, which is why we check every price against ACRIS before publishing it.**

*Source: NYC ACRIS (Real Property Legals 8h5j-fqxa, Master bnx9-e6tj), pulled 14 September 2026 — All rows are RPTT&RET transfer-tax filings at 100% interest, which is how a co-op sale is recorded because shares, not a deed, change hands. The 2016 sale of 4F and 4R appears on a single document, the combination the listing describes.*

## The maintenance is a tax bill in disguise, and it is rising

Maintenance on the two-bedroom is $3,268 a month, and the listing notes it "includes taxes." That phrase is doing real work. A co-op does not send you a property-tax bill; the corporation pays one bill for the whole building and splits it, along with heat, staff, insurance and repairs, across the shareholders by share count. So yes, a NYC co-op absolutely pays property tax, you just pay your slice of it inside the maintenance rather than as a separate line.

For this building that slice is heavy and getting heavier. The City taxes 23 East 37th Street as a whole: its total property-tax bill has climbed from about $65,000 a year to about $115,000 over the past decade, a rise of roughly 77%, while the City’s market valuation of the building has drifted sideways in a $2.4 to $3.9 million band with no real trend. The tax bill nearly doubled while the assessed value went nowhere. That is the engine under a rising maintenance charge, and it is a co-op-wide cost no single shareholder can opt out of.

There is a second thing the maintenance formula does that a buyer should see plainly. Because the charge tracks shares, which track size, it barely moves with price. Set each apartment’s maintenance against its asking price and the smaller, cheaper unit carries the heavier load.

### Maintenance as a share of asking price, the two apartments for sale

Monthly maintenance annualised and divided by the asking price, for both units currently listed at 23 East 37th Street. Maintenance includes the apartment’s share of the building’s property tax.

| Apartment | Asking price | Maintenance / mo | Per year | Share of price / yr |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 4F/R (2-bed) | $2,295,000 | $3,268 | $39,216 | 1.71% |
| 5R (1-bed) | $659,000 | $1,678 | $20,136 | 3.06% |

**The one-bedroom’s maintenance eats nearly double the share of its price that the two-bedroom’s does. In a co-op the monthly cost follows the size of your stake, not the price you pay, so the cheaper apartment is proportionally the more expensive to hold.**

*Source: Listing maintenance figures via REBNY RLS; percentages our calculation — Maintenance is $3,268.08 a month on 4F/R and $1,678 on 5R. Both include the apartment’s share of the building property tax. A co-op does not carry a per-apartment market value in the City’s records, so a second-home surcharge, which reads off a Department of Finance market value, cannot be computed for either apartment from public data. The building does allow pied-a-terres.*

## What you actually pay to close, including a flip tax the buyer eats

Here is where a co-op has a sting that condos and townhouses usually do not. The building charges a flip tax of 2% of the price, paid by the purchaser. On the $2,295,000 two-bedroom that is $45,900, handed to the co-op at closing, on top of everything else. It is stated in the listing, and it is easy to read past.

Stack it with the mansion tax, which a buyer also pays. At $2,295,000 the apartment sits in the 1.25% mansion-tax band, so that is another $28,688. Flip tax plus mansion tax alone is $74,588 out of the buyer’s pocket at closing, before title, legal and the usual co-op fees. The one-bedroom at $659,000 escapes the mansion tax entirely, because it is under the $1 million floor, and its 2% flip tax is $13,180.

This is exactly where we come in, and it is worth being precise about how. The commission is the seller’s to offer, not ours to set. Whatever it turns out to be, we share half of it with you at closing. At a 3% commission your share is 1.5%, which on this apartment is $34,425. Put that against the closing stack above and it covers about 46% of the flip tax and mansion tax combined. It does not erase the cost of buying into a co-op, but it is a real check written back to you, and on a $659,000 one-bedroom the same math returns $9,885.

## The two-bedroom: 23 East 37th Street, #4F/R

- [23 East 37TH Street #4F/R, New York, NY 10016 — $2,295,000, 2 bed, 2 bath](https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/buy/newyorkcity/manhattan/10016/23-east-37th-street-4fr-ny-10016)

The floor-through the article is about: two bedrooms, two baths, two original marble fireplaces, eleven-foot ceilings, and south-facing windows over the Morgan Library. Asking $2,295,000, maintenance $3,268 a month, 2% flip tax on the buyer, pied-a-terres allowed. Listed by the Corcoran Group.

## The one-bedroom in the same building: #5R

- [23 East 37TH Street #5R, New York, NY 10016 — $659,000, 1 bed, 1 bath](https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/buy/newyorkcity/manhattan/10016/23-east-37th-street-r-5R-ny-10016)

If you love the building but not the price, the top-floor one-bedroom is the other way in: $659,000, maintenance $1,678 a month, 80% financing allowed, its own fireplace and skylights over the same townhouse gardens. It last sold in 2011 for $425,000. No mansion tax under $1 million, and the flip tax here is $13,180. Listed by Brown Harris Stevens. If neither fits, it is worth scanning the wider field of Manhattan co-ops for sale.

### Is this co-op the right buy for you?

What are you really trying to buy on this block?

- **The 1862 brownstone feeling, at the lowest price that buys it** — You want the fireplaces, the ceilings and the landmark block, and you accept a board and a corporation to get them affordably.
  This is a strong fit (Potential exemption): At $2,295,000 the two-bedroom delivers the atmosphere for roughly $1.3 million less than the cheapest whole townhouse nearby. Budget the 2% flip tax and the $3,268 monthly maintenance, and negotiate against the 2016 purchase price of $1,340,000.
  [Read our condo vs co-op guide](https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/guides/condo-vs-coop-nyc)
- **Actual townhouse ownership: the land, the house, no board** — You want to own the whole structure, renovate freely, and never ask a board for permission.
  A co-op cannot give you this: Whole-house ownership on these blocks starts near $3.6 million. That is a different budget and a different asset. If the house itself is the point, the co-op is not a smaller version of it.
  [See a townhouse buyer analysis](https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/guides/2-east-70th-street-maisonette-buyer-analysis)
- **A part-time New York home** — You will not live here full time and need a building that permits that.
  The building allows it, with a caveat (Review required): 23 East 37th Street permits pied-a-terres, which many co-ops forbid. A non-primary buyer should still check the pied-a-terre tax debate and note that a co-op’s second-home surcharge cannot be pinned down from public data.
  [Read the pied-a-terre tax explainer](https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/guides/nyc-pied-a-terre-tax-september-18-deadline)
- **Price growth and easy resale** — You are weighing this mainly as an appreciating asset you can sell or rent without friction.
  Go in clear-eyed (Potential exposure): Co-ops appreciate more slowly than condos and boards restrict subletting and resale. The two-bedroom’s 5.2% annual step-up since 2016 includes a full renovation. This is a home-first purchase, not a liquid investment.
  [Run the mansion tax numbers](https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/calculators/nyc-mansion-tax-calculator)

**The co-op is an excellent buy for the person who wants the brownstone feeling and will accept co-op ownership to afford it. It is the wrong buy for anyone whose actual goal is the townhouse, the land, or an easy-to-trade asset.**

## My assessment

I like this apartment, and I think the 6sqft framing is fair as far as it goes. The block is as good as Murray Hill gets, the renovation is real, and $2,295,000 for a combined floor-through with two fireplaces and eleven-foot ceilings is not a crazy number. If you want that life, this is a clean way to buy it.

What I would not do is buy the word "townhouse" without pricing it. You are buying one of ten apartments in the brownstone, not the brownstone. That comes with a board, a 2% flip tax you pay on the way in, a maintenance charge driven by a building tax bill that has risen 77% in a decade, and slower appreciation than a condo. None of that is hidden, but none of it is in the headline either, and together it is the difference between the pitch and the asset.

On price, the anchor I would take into a negotiation is the 2016 sale at $1,340,000 and the renovation on top of it, not the asking number and not the townhouse comparison. And on the closing costs, which are heavier on a co-op than people expect once you add the flip tax, here is the part we control. The commission is the seller’s to offer. Whatever it is, we share half of it with you. At 3% that is $34,425 back to you at closing on the two-bedroom, roughly enough to cover the mansion tax with change left over. That is money that offsets the exact costs this analysis just walked through.

If you want to see either apartment or talk through the numbers on a specific offer, get in touch.

## Sources and methodology

This article was written by Régis Roumila, a licensed real estate broker in New York and New Jersey and the founder of Real Estate Rebate Team, with more than 25 years in the New York City market.

Methodology. The asking prices, maintenance figures and flip-tax terms come from the active REBNY RLS listings for 23 East 37th Street and from the townhouse listings named in the comparison, read on 14 September 2026. Every sale price was verified against the City’s ACRIS records rather than taken from our own sales mirror, which had missed the 2011 sale of unit 5R; co-op transfers record as RPTT&RET transfer-tax filings at 100% interest, not as deeds. Building facts, the tax class and the property-tax history come from the Department of Finance and PLUTO; the City’s files date the structure to 1925 while its history and this listing date it to 1862, so I have used 1862 for the build and noted the discrepancy. The mansion tax is computed from the published bands, the Buyer Commission Share from our own rate rule of half the commission received. A co-op carries no per-apartment market value in public records, so a second-home surcharge cannot be computed for these apartments and none is claimed.

Primary sources

- 6sqft, the original feature on 23 East 37th Street, 11 September 2026

- Our listing for 23 East 37th Street #4F/R, with the full gallery and rebate estimate

- NYC ACRIS Real Property Legals and Master, the transfer records for BBL 1-867-26

- NYC Department of Finance valuation and assessment data, and PLUTO for the building

Photography

- Hero: the De Lamar Mansion at 233 Madison Avenue, by AnahitaR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

- Morgan Library lionesses, by Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

- 128 East 38th Street townhouse entrance, by Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

- The two apartment cards carry the brokerages’ own photography through the REBNY RLS feed, credited on each card

Related on this site

- Condominium versus co-operative in New York

- A co-op maisonette buyer analysis, where the flip tax runs even higher

- The NYC pied-a-terre tax explainer

- The 2026 NYC mansion tax guide

Questions about either apartment or a co-op board package: contact the team.

This article is general information about specific listings and the New York City co-op market. It is not legal, tax or mortgage advice, and it is not a promise about any commission. Confirm maintenance, flip-tax terms, board rules and closing costs with your attorney and the managing agent before you sign anything.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is the difference between a townhouse and a co-op?

A townhouse is real property: you own the land and the building and answer to no board. A co-op is not real property at all. You own shares in a corporation that owns the building, plus a proprietary lease on one apartment, and the board governs what you can do. At 23 East 37th Street the co-op sells the feeling of a townhouse, an 1862 brownstone with fireplaces and eleven-foot ceilings, but you are buying one of ten apartments, not the house. Genuine single-family townhouses on the same Murray Hill blocks start around $3.6 million against this co-op’s $2.295 million.

### Do NYC co-ops pay property tax?

Yes. A co-op does not send each apartment a separate tax bill, but the corporation pays one property-tax bill for the whole building and divides it among shareholders through the monthly maintenance, which is why co-op maintenance "includes taxes." At 23 East 37th Street the building’s total property-tax bill has risen from roughly $65,000 to about $115,000 a year over the past decade, and your share of it sits inside the $3,268 monthly maintenance on the two-bedroom.

### What are the closing costs on this co-op?

The two that stand out are the flip tax and the mansion tax, both paid by the buyer. The building charges a 2% flip tax, which is $45,900 on the $2,295,000 two-bedroom, and the mansion tax at that price is 1.25%, another $28,688. That is $74,588 before title, legal and the usual co-op fees. Our Buyer Commission Share returns half of whatever commission the seller offers: at 3% that is $34,425 back to you, covering roughly 46% of those two taxes.

### Is it worth buying a co-op in NYC?

It can be, if you want the building and understand the trade. Co-ops usually cost less than comparable condos and often sit in the most characterful older buildings, as this 1862 brownstone does. In exchange you accept board approval, subletting and resale restrictions, a flip tax in many buildings, and slower price appreciation. For a buyer who wants a long-term home on a landmark block, the 23 East 37th Street two-bedroom is a strong fit; for someone who wants a liquid, freely rentable asset, it is not.

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**Have Questions Before You Buy?** Whether you are just starting your search or ready to make an offer, connect directly with Régis for high-level guidance, custom market reports, or to discuss the Buyer Commission Share.

[Schedule a consultation](https://realestaterebatesnewyork.com/contact)