Depending upon where you live in America, you may or may not be well familiar with co-operatives as a form of housing that is available for your residency. While in many respects, condominiums and co-operatives sound as if they are virtually the same thing, there are important structural differences between the two, which may make one of these options a far better choice for a particular individual. For instance, co-op owners are actually shareholders of the corporation which owns the complex, therefore as shareholders they hold partial ownership of the entire complex as well as having bought the right to live in one of the units, whereas condo owners own their own unit, and have rights to the common areas as permitted by the Board of Directors and the bylaws of that condo association. Additionally, each condo unit owner has their own mortgage, whereas in co-ops, there is typically one mortgage that covers the entire complex, and any financing a proposed shareholder wishes to get comes from a share loan application to which the approval will often necessitate not only meeting the financial requirements of the co-op such as the down payment percentage, but also a face-to-face meeting with the co-op board, meaning that the overall vetting of shareholders for co-ops is often more thorough than a condo mortgage loan.
Then there is the fundamental difference in outlook between condo owners as compared to a co-op shareholder. For most condo owners that are not members of the board, and perhaps also don't ever bother to show up or vote at board meetings, there is more of an attitude that my condo is my castle, and if you don't really mess with me, I won't in turn run riot on condo common property. While the condo owner certainly does want to see his particular unit appreciate in price, it mainly doesn't occur to him, that there is much that he can do that will affect that price, one way or another. Whereas, on the other hand, co-op residents, are shareholders, and if there is one thing that people understand from owning common shares in an equity that trades on the stock exchange, or by virtue of having options and knowing their actual exercise price, is that most shareholders, have a real and vested interest in seeing that share prices increase over a period of time, and thereby there is more of a mindset that we are all in this together.
Overall, on a comparison basis, co-ops are cheaper than purchasing a similar size condo, to which some of the reasons for that being so are the typically more stringent restrictions co-ops have in regards to sub-letting the unit, the higher down payment needed to qualify for the co-op, and the overall qualifications to purchase a co-op are more extensive and may also require skills in both communication and diplomacy.
It's a good thing that co-operatives exist, and if anything, major cities should encourage the development or conversion of more apartment buildings into co-ops, as the best and most conscientious owners in any endeavor, are those that have skin in the game, such as the shareholders in co-operatives.