Co-op owners feel rental squeeze

From the February issue: When legal recruiter Annie Sud got engaged in 2009, she quickly realized that her 500-square-foot Chelsea co-op was too small for her and her fiancé, so the couple rented a larger apartment together. But in the depths of the real estate downturn, Sud couldn’t find a buyer willing to match what she’d paid for her co-op only two years earlier. And when she approached the board for permission to rent out the unit, the answer was no: The building had already reached the maximum number of units it allows to be rented at any given time.

Sud had no choice but to keep the apartment on the market, sitting empty, while she paid $3,000 for her mortgage each month. It finally sold in October 2011 for less than the purchase price. [more]