NEW YORK CITY

That the Federal National Mortgage Association, popularly known as Fannie Mae, is cracking down on housing loans isn't news to co-op and condo apartment buyers. But some fine print might be: If there's a lawsuit against the co-op or condo building for an unspecified amount, and the building's insurance can't or won't cover it, Fannie Mae will not back your loan — and you can say goodbye to that apartment. So what exactly's going on?

A co-op / condo price overview in BrickUnderground.com, pulling together facts and figures from a multitude of reports, finds the median price of a Manhattan apartment is now $910,000. It's hard to compare that with the other boroughs, where single-family houses figure far more into the mix. So keeping that in mind, the median sales price of a Brooklyn home jumped 4.5 percent from a year ago, to $575,000. Queens, oddly, actually dropped 9 percent, to $355,000 from $390,000. So where do Staten Island and The Bronx fit into this? Nobody seems to be mentioning them, so that may be were apartment-hunters' true bargains await.

Many buildings battered by superstorm Sandy have begun to consider installing flood doors, flood gates and other forms of flood barriers to prevent surging water from entering. Yet some New York cooperatives and condominiums, among others, have been stymied by the fact their buildings extend out to the property line — and so any flood barrier would have to be on a City-owned sidewalk. Local Law 109 / 2013 allows certain aspects of that, but the entirety of it now hinges on a pair of rule changes proposed by the City's Department of Transportation.

Surprisingly, no it isn't, according to BrickUnderground.com's "Ask the Experts" column. In this particular instance, a condominium doorman signed for a UPS package, which both that delivery service and the retailer confirmed was delivered to the building. Yet between the front desk and the purchaser's apartment, it vanished. A real estate broker at Time Equities and an insurance broker at Gotham Brokerage offer suggestions on what to do next. 

A READER ASKS: Our board is seriously considering installing a playground in an empty lot next to our building. I'm concerned about what it will mean for myself and the other residents that don't have children. How will this addition affect us? Should we be trying to stop it?

Do you live in the apartment on W. 109th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue where young actors Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall were roommates? Or how about the one on W. 89th Street that Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito shared in the '60s? Maybe it was the spot of a murder or another newsworthy event. Inquiring minds want to know. And now you can do, advises Amy Zimmer in DNAInfo.com, where she recommends a host of resources from the old standby — phone books — to New York City databases to more obscure ports of call. Will it make your apartment worth more? Probably not. But it could make it a lot more interesting.

Sometimes you just know when you're found your dream apartment. Unfortunately, it may be someone else's dream apartment as well. Will contacting the seller directly improve your chances of beating out fellow buyers, all else being equal? Possibly, according to the home-hunting website Zillow.com. But a lot depends on the "all else being equal" part. And even a beautifully written missive might fall short of the mark(et) unless you've researched what the buyer may want to hear.

A BUYER ASKS: The lobby in our co-op looks terrible. It’s dark, outdated, and even Goodwill won’t take the couches. The board is afraid of starting a war by jumping headlong into such a controversial upgrade, but something needs to be done. How can we, as owners, convince the board to redo the lobby? And after that, what should be done by the board to make this process as painless as possible?

Pet policies are set in stone in co-ops — except when they're not. In her latest "Ask Real Estate" column, Ronda Kaysen answers a question from a beleaguered owner whose board made an exception to their two-dogs-only pet policy. The writer claims that the three small dogs bark incessantly, and polite discourse with the owner has proved useless. Ronda's advice, starting with documentation of the annoyance and ending with a complaint to the city, appears to work equally well for any noise complaint — as long as cool heads prevail. 

Co-ops may still be less expensive than condos, but that doesn't mean that costs aren't going up. In the last year, Brooklyn co-op prices skyrocketed 71 percent; Manhattan prices rose as well, but only 34 percent. According to DNAinfo, the reason for the price increase is actually the unattainable prices of condos in New York City. Compared to condos, co-ops are currently more competitive, particularly in Brooklyn, where units are more scarce – although, one expert said that available units are up everywhere, as long as buyers are willing to compromise.