Quote:
Originally Posted by Via Chicago
honestly i dont see the appeal of condos. as an early 30-something whos still renting but (hopefully) will buy something in the next few years, id much rather have a small house with space for a garden. whats the appeal of shared walls and assessments and condo boards? id rather skip over that entirely, although i understand trendy areas will not have SFHs affordable to most first time home buyers. even still, id much rather live somewhere less trendy for the trade off...ive kind of exhausted everything i can get out of restaurant and bar scenes during my 20s quite honestly. id be perfectly content with a 100k 2 bedroom in little village or whatever.
or i suppose i should say, condos are a lot less appealing given their typical price. id have less of a problem if they were much cheaper than SFHs, but they rarely are. and if youre chasing "newness", its always gonna be a losing battle because new buildings are gonna come on board the next cycle and you've just lost the only selling point your building had. if im paying to own, i certainty want a space i can do with what i want, play with some dirt, refinish some furniture, listen to music at volumes i like, and not worry about listening to neighbors footsteps. i know SFHs get demonized here, but the reality is its the way most people prefer to live given the opportunity.
|
Location. Ability to walk to hundreds of thousands of jobs as well as every cuisine imaginable, and so on.
No work. Just taking garbage to the chute and occasionally recycling to the basement.
Quiet. Concrete generally means no footsteps unless some jerk breaks the rules and installed wood flooring with no underlayment for example. No lawn mowers, and dogs aren't barking in the neighbor's yard all night. If they're barking inside and you can hear them, the condo board will deal with it. As they do with wind chimes. Rules aren't necessarily great all the time, but jerks are cracked down upon. If your music is too loud in a concrete condo, it would be too loud to the house next door too.
Low operating cost. Your basic dues probably pay for some utilities and most maintenance, as well as the exercise room, package receipt, building insurance, etc. Low cost compared to the crises that can happen with a house.
Security. Leaving for two weeks doesn't require a thing. You'll never hear from a solicitor again.
As for the benefits of buying vs. renting: much depends on local pricing, which can have a different ratio between the two. But the biggest benefit is typically that in a growing city, a condo is a highly-leveraged investment. If the value goes up (mine is only now estimated higher than what I signed up for in 2007) then you're getting the whole increase, not just the part for the percentage you own.
Prev
Linear Mode
