> It's common to pay around $1,500 per month in condo/coop fees on top of your mortgage, and that's for a 1-bedroom.

Maybe in Manhattan, I suppose. That's a pretty broad brush for the rest of NYC. I pay less than $700 in co-op maintenance for my 2-bedroom in Brooklyn.

For the uninitiated, those fees go towards property taxes (which co-op owners don't otherwise pay), some utilities, things like elevator maintenance, groundskeeping, doorman, building superintendent, etc. If the building has an outstanding mortgage that has to be paid down, that comes out of there as well.