Home Inspection in the Bronx, NY

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In the Bronx, 82% of residential tax lots hold a one-, two- or three-family building, but those lots contain only 19% of the borough’s homes. About four in five Bronx homes sit in apartment buildings, mixed-use buildings, co-ops and condominiums. That split is the first thing to settle before a home inspection in the Bronx, because it decides what kind of visit you need: a house inspection for the minority who are buying a house, and a different conversation for everyone else.

We are Inspecwise, licensed by New York State, certified by InterNACHI and based in South Ozone Park, Queens, and we inspect throughout the five boroughs. This page uses public records to compare the 24 Bronx ZIP codes with 3,000 or more homes on housing age, building type, basements, sewer-backup complaints and flood-insurance claims, and it sets out the city rules that govern a building once you own it. Sellers should turn to our page on pre-listing inspection in the Bronx instead. Each table says what it counted, and the sources are listed at the end.

Few houses, many apartments: the Bronx beside the other four boroughs

Read the Bronx row first. 61,970 of its 75,725 residential tax lots are one-, two- or three-family buildings, and they hold 114,754 of the 591,133 homes in the city’s tax-lot file, against 47% of homes in Queens, 32% in Brooklyn and 79% on Staten Island. The Bronx still has 11 times as many such lots as Manhattan, so houses are not rare; large buildings simply carry the population. The Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey agrees: about 72% of Bronx homes are in buildings of five or more units and about 20% are lived in by their owners (Queens: 45%). Among the one- to three-family lots, 45.9% have a recorded year built before 1940, fewer than Brooklyn’s 71% or Manhattan’s 92%. The sewer-backup column counts calls to 311, not confirmed backups.

Three kinds of buyer meet this borough. A buyer of a one-, two- or three-family house needs the inspection this page describes. A buyer of a small apartment building is partly inside it: the licensing statute defines a residential building for a home inspection as one of one to four dwelling units (Real Property Law §444-b, as compiled by the Department of State), so a four-family building fits and an eight-unit walk-up does not. Our pages on two- and three-family houses and commercial building inspection in the Bronx cover the buildings near and beyond that line, and a co-op or condominium buyer should read our page on co-op and condo inspections.

ZIP codes, the Health Department’s names and community boards: how to read the Bronx tables

A ZIP code is an area for mail delivery, not a neighborhood, and the city files behind this page are sorted by ZIP. To help you find your area we add one place name per ZIP: the Health Department’s neighborhood name for the ZIP, one of the labels the Department uses for groups of ZIPs in its health surveys. A label covers several ZIPs and is not a boundary residents or planners use, so read “Pelham – Throgs Neck” as the Department’s name for six ZIPs and not as a description of one block. Where a city document names the places inside a community district, we quote them and give the district, not a ZIP. Two ZIPs, 10464 (2,164 homes) and 10803 (23 homes), fall below 3,000 homes and are not ranked.

Three groups are house territory: in Kingsbridge – Riverdale, Northeast Bronx and Pelham – Throgs Neck, 75% to 82% of lots are one- or two-family houses, against 29% to 45% in the other four. The flood claims sit almost entirely in one group: 1,675 of the borough’s 1,939 claims since 1978 (86%) are in the six ZIPs of Pelham – Throgs Neck.

Three kinds of Bronx ZIP: house ZIPs, mixed ZIPs and apartment-building ZIPs

We sorted the 24 ranked ZIPs by the share of their lots that are one- or two-family houses: 60% or more for a house ZIP, 40% to under 60% for a mixed ZIP, under 40% for an apartment-building ZIP. The thresholds are ours, and the groups count lots and not homes.

House ZIPs

Ten ZIPs and about 35% of the ranked homes. A median of 19% of their lots were built from 1940 to 1959 (ZIP 10469: 47%). Houses from those years are now 67 to 86 years old, so dating the roof, boiler, wiring and piping comes first. One caution: ZIP 10475 passes the house test on lot count (76% of its 477 lots) but holds 17,527 homes, so most are in a few large buildings.

Mixed ZIPs

Seven ZIPs and 180,504 homes, with a median of 9% one-family and 37% two-family lots. ZIP 10472 stands out on water, with 2.4 sewer-backup complaints per 1,000 homes.

Apartment-building ZIPs

Seven ZIPs and 203,320 homes. ZIP 10451 has 24,926 homes on 649 lots, about 38 per lot, and 83% of lots in ZIP 10458 were recorded before 1940. Mold complaints to 311 are heaviest here (27.3 per 1,000 homes, against 10.3 in the house ZIPs) and flood-insurance claims are few, 33 since 1978.

Converted two-family houses: what the tax class does and does not tell you

In the tax records a two-family house is either built as such (B1 brick, B2 frame) or recorded as “converted from one family” (B3). The Bronx has 14,701 B1 lots, 8,241 B2 lots and 4,747 B3 lots, so 16.1% of its two-family lots are recorded as converted, against 35.5% in Queens and 20.9% in Brooklyn. The class records only that the building began with one household and now holds two. It does not say when, by whom, whether a permit was issued or whether the work is safe.

Seven ranked ZIPs have 7% or more of their lots in the converted class: 10473 (11.7%), 10461 (8.7%), 10465 (8.7%), 10466 (8.1%), 10469 (8.0%), 10470 (7.7%) and 10467 (7.4%). The 311 line took 1,748 complaints about illegal conversion of residential space in 2025, 3.0 per 1,000 homes, against 9.1 in Queens. The six ranked ZIPs with the highest rates are 10465 (8.5), 10466 (6.3), 10469 (6.1), 10461 (6.0), 10470 (5.1) and 10472 (4.8); we checked each month by month and no month holds more than 22% of any ZIP’s year. The two measures differ, since ZIP 10473 has the most converted lots but only 2.9 complaints per 1,000 homes, and a complaint is a report from the public, not a finding.

Three steps narrow the gap between the tax class and the building. First, read the certificate of occupancy, which states the legal use. Walk the building and count kitchens, meters, boilers and doorbells. And ask the seller in writing, since the state’s disclosure form asks whether certificates of occupancy exist (question 9 on the form as hosted by the Rockland County Bar Association). Our report describes the electrical service and panels, the heat in each unit, the exits and any work that looks added. Whether that work is lawful is not ours to decide: the Standards bar an inspector from ruling on compliance with codes or laws, and an inspector need not report past or present violations (197-4.4 and 197-5.16). The visit itself is described in our guide to two- and three-family house inspections.

Basements and cellars: where the Bronx has them and when anyone may live in one

We treat basement codes 1 and 2 in the city’s property file as a full basement. The median ranked Bronx ZIP has one under 67.9% of its lots, against 91.8% in the median Queens ZIP, with a range from 45.8% in ZIP 10468 to 90.3% in ZIP 10471. Seven ZIPs are at 80% or more, all of them house ZIPs. The Mayor’s task force report puts most of the city’s illegal basement apartments in three boroughs: Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

A lawful basement unit and a dry one are separate questions, and the rules changed in 2024. The Department of Buildings’ page on accessory dwelling units lists four Bronx community districts in its pilot for legalizing existing basement and cellar units: 9, 10, 11 and 12. The boards describe them this way.

Being in a pilot district does not make a unit eligible. DOB says the pilot covers only existing occupied basements and cellars in one- and two-family buildings, outside flood risk zones, in units that existed before 20 April 2024, and that applications are not accepted until DOB’s rule under Local Law 126 is promulgated. The page was last revised on 9 April 2026, so read it on the day you decide. DOB bars subgrade units from three mapped high-risk areas, the Coastal Flood Risk Area, DEP’s 10-Year Rainfall Flood Risk Area and FEMA’s Special Flood Hazard Area, and says an illegally occupied subgrade unit outside the pilot areas has to be legalized and brought up to Code before anyone lives in it (DOB’s page on types of accessory units).

The Housing Department’s basement and cellar page adds the older rules. In HPD’s account a basement or cellar may be lived in lawfully only when it clears the light, air, sanitation and exit minimums and DOB has approved it, and a rented basement in a two-family house is off limits if it would turn the building into a three-family that needs a new certificate of occupancy. The page also says cellars in one- and two-family homes can never be lawfully rented, which sits awkwardly with the 2024 rules, so ask DOB. A legalized unit needs a radon level below 2 picocuries per liter, certified by a qualified tester (Health Department notice). We report what is in the basement, including heat, exits, alarms and water signs, and leave its legal status to your attorney and the records; see our page on basement inspection.

Rivers, rain and tides: three ways water reaches a Bronx building

Rivers come first. The City’s Ida task force reported that the storm peaked at 3.15 inches of rain in an hour, “far beyond the 1.5-2 inches per hour capacity” of the sewers, and that basement water arrived by four routes, one of them overtopped rivers and streams, “primarily in the Bronx” (task force report). Ida’s flooding was also mostly outside the mapped floodplain: the City’s plan counted only 6.9% of Ida-damaged buildings in the 100-year floodplain (recovery plan). A buyer who checks the flood map and stops has answered one of the three questions.

Rain on old sewers is second. DEP’s 2024 stormwater report says new sewers are designed for 1.75 inches of rain an hour, but the networks in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx can generally handle 1.5 (DEP stormwater analysis), and DEP says areas with older combined sewers are predominantly in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens (DEP backwater-valve report).

The tide is third. City Planning wrote in 2015 that much of the Bronx was spared Sandy’s damage because of the storm’s trajectory and the timing of the tides (Harding Park report), but exposure is concentrated. A 2017 City Planning presentation says Community District 10 holds 60% of the Bronx’s floodplain population and nearly 80% of its floodplain buildings, and that one- and two-family buildings are 66% of the tax lots in the Bronx floodplain; it counts 3,900 Bronx buildings in the 1% floodplain on the 2015 preliminary maps, rising to 8,400 on projected maps for the 2050s (City Planning presentation). The Comptroller names City Island and Throgs Neck among the places where most basements face both coastal and stormwater flood risk (Comptroller’s report), and Community Board 10 calls its district “water bound” (statement of needs).

Sewer backups in the Bronx: a low borough rate and seven ZIPs at 2.0 or more

In calendar 2025 the 311 line took 749 sewer-backup complaints from Bronx addresses, 1.3 per 1,000 homes. Queens is at 4.1, Staten Island 4.3, Brooklyn 2.3 and Manhattan 0.4, and the median Bronx ZIP is 0.9. This is a low figure and we do not dramatize it. It is also diluted, since the denominator counts every home, apartments in large buildings included: the rate is 1.8 in the house ZIPs and 0.8 in the apartment-building ZIPs. Seven ranked ZIPs reach 2.0, and all seven belong to two Health Department groups, Northeast Bronx and Pelham – Throgs Neck. We checked each month by month: the busiest month holds 12% to 22% of any ZIP’s year, so none depends on one storm.

In each of the seven, at least 68% of lots have a full basement, which gives a backup room to spread, and in five of them (10469, 10466, 10470, 10472 and 10461) the flood-insurance file shows fewer than 60 claims since 1978. Rain overwhelming an old sewer and coastal surge are different problems, and only surge shows up strongly in the claims. Checking the flood zone or the claims record alone would miss the first.

DEP’s own sewer-backup page makes the owner responsible for the sewer service line that runs from the building to the City main, and names blocked pipes, from grease, wipes and other items, as the most common cause of backups. An inspector need not observe underground drainage (197-5.8), so the line to the street needs its own camera inspection, which our sewer scope guide explains. DEP reads the Plumbing Code as requiring backwater valves only in designated flood hazard areas, and says valves work best on drains below the nearby sewer manhole in combined-sewer areas (DEP report). If the house has a valve, ask when it was last serviced.

Flood-insurance claims in the Bronx: Sandy, other storms and one ZIP

The National Flood Insurance Program’s claims file lists 1,939 claims from Bronx ZIPs since 1978. Each claim carries a named event, and Hurricane Sandy accounts for 537 of them (28%); the label “December Storm – Nor’easter” for 243, “Flooding” for 214, Hurricane Ida for 195 and Hurricane Irene for 105. Each claim is a paid loss on a flood policy, and a house without a policy leaves no trace, so a quiet ZIP is not proof of a dry one. The claims are very concentrated. ZIP 10465 alone has 1,184, 61% of the total, including 337 of the 537 Sandy claims and 114 of the 195 Ida claims, and with ZIP 10464 it holds 75% of all claims. ZIP 10464 has only 2,164 homes, which makes its 261 claims heavier. Of the 24 ranked ZIPs, 14 have 15 claims or fewer in all those years.

The seller’s disclosure statement now asks whether any of the property lies in a FEMA floodplain, whether flood insurance is required, whether federal flood aid was ever received and whether a FEMA elevation certificate exists (questions 10 to 16 on the form), and whether the structure has had water penetration from rainfall, storm surge, tidal inundation or river overflow (question 39). Check the address on FEMA’s map and the City’s flood maps before you rely on any of those answers, then add what you know of the basement’s own history, the grading and the window wells.

Heat: one Bronx home in five burns oil, and the boiler rules stop at five families

In the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey about 21% of Bronx homes are heated with fuel oil, double Queens’ 10% and the highest of the five counties. These are estimates with margins of error, and the count includes apartments, so it says little about one house. For a house it means oil is a live possibility. If the boiler burns oil there is a tank to check: its age, its location, any staining beneath it and, in a house that has switched to gas, whether an old tank was left behind. Underground storage tanks are outside what the Standards ask an inspector to observe (197-5.16), so finding a buried one is a separate search, covered in our oil tank guide.

Three city rules turn on the size of the building. DOB’s annual low-pressure boiler inspection does not apply to boilers in residential buildings with five families or fewer, and it does apply at six or more families and in commercial and mixed-use buildings (DOB boiler compliance page). Local Law 152 of 2016, the periodic gas-piping inspection, applies to all properties except one- and two-family homes and other R-3 buildings (DOB LL152 FAQ); the page does not say how it treats a three- to five-family house, so ask. And the City is phasing out Number 4 and 6 heating oils, with all boilers required to use low-sulfur Number 2 oil or natural gas by 2030 (Consumer and Worker Protection page). Gas service in the Bronx comes from Con Edison (311 information page), so an oil-to-gas conversion starts with a call to the utility.

Lead, asbestos and old pipes: which rules reach a Bronx house

Old pipes are the owner’s too: the homeowner owns the whole water service line from the street main, lead service lines have been banned since 1961 and lead in household plumbing since 1987, and some older homes, particularly one- to four-family homes, may still have lead pipes and fixtures (DEP). The Standards do not have an inspector decide whether lead paint, asbestos or mold is present; the report describes the piping materials and visible deterioration. For testing before a renovation or a rental, see our guides to lead paint and asbestos.

Landmark districts and the Riverdale ridge: when the city has a say in your exterior

The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s open data lists 13 Bronx records, 12 historic districts and one extension (LPC historic districts dataset). They run from the rowhouses and tenements of Mott Haven East and the 28 semi-detached two-family houses of Clay Avenue to the roughly 257 houses of Fieldston, designated in 2006, and the apartment houses of the Grand Concourse. None is named for Throgs Neck, City Island, Pelham Bay or Morris Park. That is a check of names only: confirm any address on the Commission’s Discover NYC Landmarks map, since it stopped issuing landmark status letters on 6 March 2023.

The rules that come with a designated building are the same citywide. A Commission permit is needed for restoration, in-kind replacement, alteration, reconstruction, demolition or new construction that affects the exterior, even where DOB would not require a permit and even for parts not visible from the street (LPC permit types). Most alterations made without a permit are violations, and a buyer inherits the last owner’s: unpermitted work “is the responsibility of the current owner, even though he or she did not do the work,” and paying a fine does not remove the violation (LPC violations page). Ask for the permits for every exterior change, and ask your attorney how an open violation affects your closing.

Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil and Fieldston carry a second layer. The Zoning Resolution describes the Riverdale ridge as containing “steep slopes, rock outcrops, ponds, brooks, swampy areas and mature trees,” and in that Special Natural Area District any development, enlargement or site alteration goes to the City Planning Commission for review, even where no building permit is needed. Small, flat lots are among the exemptions, and the Commission may authorize relocating erratic boulders and altering rock outcrops, so ledge rock on a lot is a regulated feature (Zoning Resolution, Article X, Chapter 5). The Standards ask us to report grade and drainage at the foundation and the condition of walkways, steps and retaining walls, but not geological or soil conditions (197-5.6), so a slope question belongs with a surveyor or engineer. City Island has its own Special City Island District, which regulates building height to keep the island’s nautical, low-rise character (Zoning Resolution, Article XI).

Records to pull before you sign: the Bronx paper trail

The answers an inspection cannot give are mostly in public records, and the seller’s disclosure statement does not replace them: on the copy of the form we read, there is no question about open permits or violations. Your attorney will order the municipal search, but the same pages are open to you, and reading them first tells us where to look.

• The certificate of occupancy. DOB says it states a building’s legal use, never expires and cannot be issued while there are open applications or violations. DOB NOW holds requests dated 1 March 2021 or later; the Buildings Information System holds earlier ones. A building built before 1938 may have none; DOB can issue a Letter of No Objection to confirm its legal use.
• Violations, permits and complaints. The property profile lists them for any building. A violation left open can stall a sale or a new mortgage, is public and turns up in a title search, and DOB holds back any new or amended certificate until active violations are cleared (DOB). Paying a penalty does not close a violation; the owner must file proof of correction.
• Sign-offs. Project work does not end when the contractor leaves: the owner must make sure the final inspections and sign-offs are obtained (DOB). Ask the seller for them for every renovation.
• Housing records and the sidewalk. HPD requires annual registration of a one- or two-family house only where neither the owner nor the owner’s immediate family lives there (HPD), so ask whether the house is registered. The owner is responsible for repairing the sidewalk next to the property (DOT).

What a home inspection in the Bronx covers, and what it leaves out

The state’s Standards of Practice define the visit: a visual look at the readily accessible, visually observable parts of a house, from the foundation and roof to the plumbing, electrical and heating systems, the interior, the insulation and the attic. The full list of systems is in our guide to what a New York home inspection includes. Read each row from left to right: the record, what we examine, what stays outside the visit, and where to read more.

Radon, mold and termites: three add-ons and what the Bronx figures say

The licensing statute itself leaves radon and pest inspections out of a home inspection (Real Property Law §444-b). EPA’s zone listing places the Bronx in Zone 3, where its map for New York predicts an average indoor screening level under 2 picocuries per liter; EPA nonetheless wants every home tested, whatever its zone (EPA map for New York). NYS DOH says there is no way to know a home’s level without a test (NYS DOH). Its kit program has results for 101 Bronx basements since 1987, and 7.9% read 4 picocuries per liter or higher, the level at which EPA and the State recommend fixing a home (results by town). That sample is small and describes no ZIP and no house. See our radon testing page.

On mold, the Standards have us report visible signs of water penetration and do not ask us to determine whether mold is present, and State licensing applies to mold projects over ten square feet (NYS Department of Labor). The 311 line took 11,444 mold complaints from the Bronx in 2025, 19.4 per 1,000 homes, against 4.7 in Queens. The highest ranked ZIPs are 10458 (32.8), 10452 (30.3) and 10457 (29.7), all apartment-building ZIPs, and the lowest is 10465 (4.2); the nine highest hold no more than 15% of their year in one month. These are reports from residents, not test results. For a two- or three-family house, ask the tenants and the seller about moisture; see our mold inspection page and guide to the mold assessor license.

On termites, Cornell’s extension program says activity shows as tubes of dry mud on foundation walls, posts and building walls (Cornell). We found no Bronx-specific source, so we say nothing about how common termites are here; our termite inspection page describes the separate service.

Buying something other than a house: small apartment buildings, mixed-use buildings and co-ops

Most Bronx homes are in buildings of five or more units, which fall outside the statute’s definition of a residential building for a home inspection, so the line follows the unit count and the use. A five- or six-unit walk-up, or a building with a store or office at street level, is a different case, and the boiler rules above already change at five families. Our page on commercial building inspection in the Bronx covers larger and mixed-use buildings, and our pages on mixed-use buildings and apartment buildings say what a buyer of those should expect. A co-op or condominium unit is a different purchase again, because the building’s documents, finances and shared systems sit with the board and your attorney; Community Board 10’s statement describes Co-op City as the largest housing cooperative in New York State (fiscal 2017 statement), and co-op and condo inspections describes what a visit to a unit involves. For the whole city, see home inspection in New York City; the neighboring boroughs are Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn, and Westchester County is also on our service-area list.

Look up your ZIP: the 24 ranked Bronx ZIPs

Every ZIP with 3,000 or more homes appears below, in ZIP order, with the numbers that matter to a home inspection in the Bronx. Here “lots” are residential tax lots and “homes” are residential units. Because a ZIP is a mail-delivery area, each row describes an area, not an address. The Health Department’s neighborhood name for each ZIP is in the first table on this page, and ZIP 10464, which is not ranked, appears in the flood table above.

Frequently asked questions

About the figures on this page

• PLUTO, the NYC Department of City Planning’s tax-lot file, version 26v2: residential tax lots, with homes meaning the residential units recorded on them (the Census Bureau’s survey count differs). Basement codes 1 and 2 are a full basement. Years built for older buildings are often rounded, so we give shares. “Ranked” ZIPs have 3,000 or more homes. The borough table counts classes A, B and C0. B1, B2 and B3 are the tax classes for two-family brick, frame and converted houses; a tax class is no proof that work was permitted.
• Complaints: NYC 311 service requests for calendar 2025, assigned by the complaint’s ZIP and shown per 1,000 homes. Each is a report from a resident, not a confirmed violation. We counted month by month for the sewer-backup ZIPs, the six highest illegal-conversion ZIPs and the nine highest mold ZIPs.
• Claims: OpenFEMA, National Flood Insurance Program, version 3: paid claims on flood policies, sorted by the ZIP on the claim and the event name FEMA gives it.
• Census figures: the American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates, rounded because they carry margins of error.
• Place names: the Health Department ZIP table (United Hospital Fund codes), which groups ZIPs under neighborhood names. Neighborhood percentages are weighted by lots.
• Radon: NYS Department of Health results, kit tests since 1987 from the State’s own program only. Rules and pages were read and figures pulled in October 2026; all of them change, so check the date.

Before you book a home inspection in the Bronx

Send the address, the number of units and whether anyone lives in the basement, and we will tell you where we would begin and which add-on tests make sense. A copy of the certificate of occupancy or of the seller’s disclosure statement helps if you have one.

The license number we work under is printed in the footer of every page, and this guide walks through confirming it on the state’s lookup, for us or for any other inspector. We can go over the findings in English, Urdu, Punjabi or Hindi. In the Census Bureau’s survey about 45% of Bronx residents aged five and over speak Spanish at home and about 43% speak only English, so tell us when you book who will join the walk-through and whether a relative or interpreter will be there. If you are selling, our page for Bronx sellers covers the disclosure statement and the records to clean up before listing.

Want to talk it over first? Call 718-925-7071.

More guides for The Bronx

These pages go deeper on specific places and services under The Bronx.

• Pre-listing inspection in The Bronx: For Bronx sellers, covering what is inspected, common problems found before a sale and what to repair first.
• Commercial inspection in The Bronx: Masonry warehouses, storefront buildings and industrial lots in the Bronx, and what a commercial inspection covers.