Reply to Is living in a condo considered a failure?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No, plenty of our well off Alexandria friends are downsizing to condos in the DC area as we become empty nesters and near retirement. Condos are great for those starting out and those who don’t want the hassles of home ownership at retirement. [/quote]

Yes, flushing $3k 4k 5k 6k down the drain in rent every month until you croak is so wise. Avoiding all those "hassles" and making corporate landlords filthy rich. :roll: [/quote]

What rent? You buy a condo just like you buy a house. The monthly fee is for utilities, pool, cleaners, landscaping, emergency fund, etc[/quote]

+1 and it's not 3-6k. Our condo has a $250/mo fee that pays for water, trash/recycling, landscaping, and building maintenance (it is a small building and does not require a ton of maintenance, there is a decent reserve fund for any major fixes that might come up).

Condos similar to ours have sold in our neighborhood for about 20% over what we paid 5 years ago. It's not the crazy increases you've seen in SFHs, but still a decent return on investment. And we live in it. You could do a lot worse (like not having any equity at all).[/quote]

That is below the overall CPI inflation rate of 23% in the past 5 years. Condos tend to lose value adjusting for inflation and they are wealth destroyers. They sell the a false promise of homeownership, many of the expenses of renting and none of the benefits of owning. It is a predatory ownership structure that developers take advantage of to prey on uniformed buyers that can't afford to buy a townhouse or SFH. Not owning the land under your home=limited or nonexistent property appreciation. [/quote]

Condos own the land under their home. The problem with condos in the DMV they build to many so older condos deprecate quickly.

My condo in another state the town went upscale around 1984. They prohibited any new attached condos and the very few approved were 7 figure town home style condos. As such my grandfathered 1979 condo complex has appreciated a lot. It is surrounded by 2-10 million dollar homes.

The downside is we need a super majority vote to dissolve condo and sell land. We never get that vote. We have 30 low rise units with 60 parking spots sitting on a plot you could fit 5-6 mansions that could sell 5-7 million each or a condo tower with 100 units.

The condo we can’t sell the plot.

But even with that a condo association common area property tax disappears from property tax roll.

My unit has 600sf attic space, two parking spots, shared storage room and lawn and not taxed. Which makes my property tax cheap. [/quote]

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