Are Garden Apartments Back in Style?
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Anonymous
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The older 1970s Garden apartment style huge condo complex near me has a lot of sales recently. And selling quick.
They are low rise with no elevators. Unit direct enter from outside. Have balconies. Outdoor pool, outdoor tennis, lawns and grass spread out and larger units They are dated with no modern amenities. But wondering in Covid is this now the new style. |
Anonymous
| Garden apartments are great. I've lived in one since moving to the DC area and might be staying if it weren't for COVID and expanded telework. I would have trouble going from that to high rise even without the oabdemic, easy outdoor access is so nice. (My apartment is missing "amenities" like an in unit W/D, and another year of "only emergency maintenance during the pandemic" is not something I want to live with, but those are things a condo owner would have control over vs someone renting from a company.) |
Anonymous
I lived in a garden apartment for a few years when I first moved to DC. At the time it was mostly young singles starting out and some middle class young families and established immigrants. It was OK for a first place, but these days it seems almost all garden apartments are low income housing. So I'm not sure how popular they can get. |
Anonymous
| In Montgomery County, older buildings like garden apartments are usually filled with families. New, flashy apartments and condos (with retail on the bottom, think Pike and Rose, Park Potomac) are for couples downsizing, DINKS, and a roommate situation for those 20-somethings without a car. |
Anonymous
Why is that? I noticed my Montgomery Mall In Bethesda there are several very large garden apt complexes walking distance to Mall And the large bus depot that goes to multiple locations. But I still see 1,200 square foot two bedrooms with a patio and parking going for around 300k. That is not a poor area at all. I noticed they are now selling quickly but prices have not risen. I actually own a garden apt, I rented it out and live in a house. At time my wife liked it as she felt like it was more of a “mini house” than apt as we pulled up to our front door with our car and had a little outside patio with BBQ and chairs and kids could run on lawn. It was dated with stucco and brown trim and a little cheaply built as a rental to condo conversion. But it also had attic storage above unit via closet. But complex was mainly three groups, old folks, divorced folks and the younger folks were renters. |
Anonymous
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I lived in a complex like this before I bought my house. I loved the set up. It seemed way more social than some of my friends' larger complexes, but that could just be that it had a cool mix of people (20-somethings and retired folks who downsized). Having a little dog park helped with the social aspect.
One little bonus I never thought of until I lived there: The parking for ours was a ring around the outer perimeter, so no one parked far away from their building. If you got something big delivered, the truck could get really close to your door and the crew didn't have to figure out how to get a sofa into an elevator. |
Anonymous
| If I were entertaining a condo purchase, garden style would be the only kind I'd consider. High rise condos that have one entry, elevators and a ton of shared spaces are now a turnoff in my book. I no longer want to touch anything that others outside of my home have touched. |
Anonymous
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Dumb question I know:
>>> What is a garden apartment? |
Anonymous
It's when a complex consists of lots of low buildings instead of one really tall one. No elevators. The buildings are usually 2-4 stories tall and there's often a central staircase in each building with units on the left and right. _1920x1080.jpg?&width=580&height=385&mode=pad&bgcolor=333333&scale=both)
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Anonymous
| Yes. And garden apartments are usually built around central courtyards or with large lawns, as opposed to going right up to the sidewalk with no green space. |
Anonymous
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That is a more old-school version above.
These are newer versions. 
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Anonymous
Not PP Your apartment location is good that is why it is sales fast. Then price increase follows. |
Anonymous
| I rented a garden apartment and loved it. It was all young professionals or senior citizens. I had an old oak tree outside my unit which was beautiful to look at, with wide lawns in all directions. It was cute and charming. Later I purchased a garden condo. Construction was terrible quality and really spoiled the ownership experience. The social aspects were still really fun. I've also lived in high rise buildings, and I couldn't tell you who the neighbors were if my life depended on it. I did enjoy the indoor swimming pool and jacuzzi at one high rise building. I was renting from the condo owner, so I wasn't worrying about condo fees over there. |
Anonymous
| Where I live (Arlington) the garden apartments tend to be old and outdated and have shared washer/dryers in the basement. I don't think it's because they went out of style so much as because developers stopped building them in favor of highrises. You can make more money packing more apartments or condos on the same land so that's what they did. |
Anonymous
My Garden apt from the 1970s is one two blocks from beach and one block from bay. It sits on one acre and only has 30 units. I love it. But in 2020 you could plop a 30 story condo on top and pretty much every unit from third floor up would have an ocean or bay view. It is now surrounded by million dollar properties. But it still exists. But surprised not more popular but not at all that sales are going up Covid. Much safer than a high rise |