At the hearings, no one talks about recent sales, or co-op prices per square foot.

The median co-op price rose 14 percent, to $125,000.

In some markets, co-op prices have fared a little better.

And co-op prices took a bounding leap - 30.1 percent - from $47,211 to $61,458.

The median co-op price was $135,000, up 17 percent from a year earlier.

Many co-op prices have also fallen so low that they are now cheaper to own and maintain than a rental apartment.

However, in the three-bedroom category, co-op prices decreased by 9 percent, to $232,051 from $255,001.

But in the last several months it has heard the pleas of shareholders being dragged down by falling co-op prices.

During that period, they calculate, personal income has grown at a rate 56 percent greater than co-op prices.

If co-op prices have increased, it is sometimes because the building itself has been upgraded.