The only time I’ve ever heard of a Co-op building in Seattle was on the show Fraiser.
Of course, Seattle is begining to look like Tokyo, with high-rise apartment/condo building going up everywhere. Soon, you won’t be able to see the Space Needle from the freeway.
Yes, exactly. For me a flat = an apartment that covers an entire story or most of one in a multistory dwelling. Mostly I think of large old homes converted into multiple apartments, especially Victorians.
Moderator Note
I get the pun, but let’s confine jokes involving abuse of women to “offensive jokes” threads. No warning issued, but let’s keep this kind of thing out of GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
In New York, I believe the term for an apartment that occupies the entire floor is a “floor-through apartment.”
To expand on the “regionalism” angle of this, since the SF usage was mentioned, in Chicago there are buildings that are called “two-flats” and “three-flats.” These are stand-alone, multi-family units. They typically have identical (or very similar) floor plans on each floor, with separate entrances, usually through a common hallway/stairway. The idea was that a family would buy the two-flat, and rent one floor out, while living in the other floor and using the rent to pay or help offset the mortgage. I don’t ever recall anyone saying they lived in a “flat,” though, but rather that they rented out a unit in a 2-flat or something like that. (Here’s the Chicago Public Radio story on it.)
Wrong link there…
Whoops. That was in my clipboard for the pixie haircut thread. I meant this one.
That’s not unique to Chicago. In college one year, I lived in an off-campus apartment in upstate New York that was in a house that was like this. And I think you’re describing what in New England is called a triple-decker.
I’m not saying the arrangement was unique, but rather commenting on the word “flat” and how it is used in Chicago. Was the lingo similar? (It wouldn’t surprise me if it was, but for the sake of the thread and cataloging regional usages of the word “flat” it would be useful to know.)
That would be only a small fraction of condominiums. Most are in buildings that resemble rental apartment buildings in every physical respect. And of course it’s quite common for rental apartment buildings to be converted to condominium ownership.
I looked at a bunch when I was looking for a place (I ended up in a condo). In Seattle, co-ops tend to be older buildings in older parts of the city.
And I’m pretty sure Frasier lived in a condo building. Remember the epic American flag fight with Cam Winston, or Martin running for president of the condo board?
In Florida, the (legal) distinction between condominiums and apartments is (1) individual ownership, and (2) an ownership board which holds title to the common areas and is responsible for maintaining them. We don’t use flat here.
Many condos are former apartment buildings that were converted, and the individual units were sold off. Purpose-built condos (at least around here) are usually townhouse-style constructions, with individual entrances, and often individual garages.
The only place I’ve ever heard of owning an apartment is in the real estate Hell that is NYC. Before reading this thread, I had no idea that any other city did this. It certainly isn’t a common arrangement anywhere else.
ETA: As others have said, “flat” is almost never used in the US, except to mean “not bumpy” 
I don’t know about elsewhere in the US, but it’s very common here in Panama. My apartment is a condo that I rented from the owners before buying it last year. There have been dozens of new hi-rise condos buildings built in the last few years.
Never heard of ‘flat’ being used in New England, except by a native Britainner.
Triple deckers are all over the urban areas of New England (three floors, near-identical floor plans, doors open onto common stairwell and individual front and back porches). Most are owned as a whole building and rented, but in gentrified areas quite a few have been converted to condominium ownership.
I wouldn’t be surprised if co-ops exist in the fanciest high-est priced sections of Boston, but normal people don’t live in them here.
As mentioned, New Yorkers referring to owning an “apartment” is a confusing regionalism meaning they own a multi-family dwelling unit under condominium or co-op ownership. Individual units within a multi-dwelling building are apartments if all owned by a single owner, or are condos or co-ops if individually owned.
As mentioned above, fee simple, condo and co-op are legal rights of ownership, not dwelling styles.
Yes, as I understand it - condominiums are legal constructs where the “condominium corporation” owns the land title and the common areas and is responsible for their upkeep. Typically these are apartment buildings, and the common area beside the grounds is parking, lobby, corridors and stairwells, etc. I have seen newer condo developments where the units are townhouses, or even sets of duplexes (semi-detached buildings, a series of houses where each pair shares a common wall.) Originally, the builder runs the condominium corporation, but turns it over to the owners once it has sold enough of the units.
Essentially, a condo owner owns their living space, possibly a parking space, and a share in the condominium corporation. They also owe a monthly fee to maintain the common spaces. (A recent situation I recall was where everyone had to chip in a special levy to repair the leaky apartment roof, even though it was mostly a problem for the top floor owners.)
I’ve always thought of “flat” as a British-ism, not normally used in North America… or at least not in Canada or the areas of the USA I’ve encountered. I’ve supposed that there’s a certain amount of pretentiousness if someone uses the term “flat”.
In fact in Canada typically a separate living area in the basement of a house is referred to as a “basement apartment”. There are plenty of bylaws for restricting how and where tehse can legally be constructed and rented.
It’s certainly a common arrangement in Chicago.
Apartments sold as condos are also quite common in Chicago. Condos both in Illinois and SC, which I have been familiar with, are not set up as posted here. There is no “condominium corporation.” A declaration of condominium is set up by the owner/developer, who proceeds to sell units. An owner of a unit also has a divided interest in all the common elements, both general common elements (common to all units) and special common elements (which only the unit owner can use, such as a storage place). When all the units are sold, the developer no longer is in the picture, and the condominium development is usually then managed by a professional real estate manager. (In SC, the condominium is referred to as a “horizontal property regime.” The property manager manages the property (surprise). He hires contractors to maintain the common elements (lawn care, pond care - if any -, etc.), A board is set up, consisting of owners who volunteer their time, to see to the day to day care of the development, and it usually meets monthly. An annual meeting for all the unit owners is set up, to vote for new officers for the board (president, veep, secretary/treasurer, etc.). A new property manager can then be selected if the owners so desire. These requirements are by a state law stating the requirements for a horizontal property regime.