Well, at the tender of age of 32 I now have to move out of my parents house. The wife to be doesn't wanna live with mom and dad. I dunno why .
Seriously, it has been nice being back home for the last year and a half but now that i am getting married we need to get our own place. We were looking at condo's for price reasons. But, association fees etc seem like such a waste. I think i would prefer a house just for the privacy and space. What are your guys thoughts.
1) what is better
2) i think b/w the both of us will be at 100k a year. Neither of us has any debt, car payments or anything. What are you suggestions about what to buy and how much to spend. I don't know about downpayment size yet since we are getting married this coming year, too. Let's just assume I can come up with 20%. thanks guys.












btw...you know you spend too much time on the internet when you go to your internet buddies for advice

 

this is probably better for Money & investing, at least the 2nd part of your question... and it has been answered there before.

as for #1, which is best, for me... House... hands down. but different strokes for different folks. it's really which fits your lifestyle the best.

 

Get the most amount of property you can afford (no renting, but something)....Wait a year or two and sell it for something better (maybe a house)....

 

The general rule of thumb is don't borrow more than three times your salary, or in your case about 300K. As far as condo vs. house, a single-family house is always better. In most condos you own little to no land, and it's the land that appreciates in value, so if you can get a house.

 

house with no hoa fees, you don't have to hear as much complaining from neioghbors

 

I own a condo, and the good thing about it is, it is "almost" paid for, two years to go or so.

I certainly do not like my $200 or so monthly association fee every month. Then again, I have some severe health issues, and it is not my cup of tea to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning and shovel away a foot of snow just so I can go to work. Ditto for owning and shoving a lawnmower around the yard. I usually try to pay off the association fee by the end of February, so at least it doesn'r hurt too much. It's a mental thing, I guess.

I am regreting, at 54, the decision to live on the second floor. When I moved here at 47, it was no problem. Now, with the afflictions I have, it becomes a big deal to climb the stairs with just a few pounds of grocieries.

It's a lifestyle issue, I guess.

 

I was in a condo before I bought my house, and I like the house much better...

You don't have to shovel snow, or cut the grass in a condo, but you have to live with neighbors in close proximity. Lack of storage space can be a bitch in some condos, and unless you buy a townhouse style, most don't have garages.

The way I'm looking at it, I'll be living in a house (without a HOA) for awhile. When I retire, I can see myself move into a condo so I don't have to work in the yard as much, but I'm a long ways off from having to make that decision.

It's really a lifestyle decision, but like you mentioned, there are financial benefits to buying a condo (cheaper then a house). Just remember, that the condo might not be as cheap as a house once you start adding in the condo assoc. fees...

Bankrate.com has some "how much home can you afford" calculators...

 

I was in the same boat as you are. Well not living with the parents part , but deciding a condo or home! Since I've been living in an apartment for the past six years, I did not mind living in a condo. Went out looking at condo's, found some that were very nice, but I could not get over the monthly HOA fees. It would be over $2000 annually . House serching I went, found a house, bought the house close is on the 22 of this month. If there was no HOA fees I would be living in a condo, but could not be happier with the house (yard, 2 car garage, nobody below or above, etc.). Go check both options out

Peace

 

Just playing devils advocate, most homeowners can find someone to do the gardening or plow their driveway for less than $200/mo.

In fact, you could probably get a good once a week maid + a bi-weekly gardener for half that.

 

Between the ages of 25 and 75, I would never live in a condo, apartment, townhouse, or other group setting. Be master of your own domain in a free standing house. IMHO, YMMV...

 

It honestly depends on your situation. I thought condo's were silly until I looked at a newly built townhouse style condo in Houston. Once inside you thought you were in a house. It was damn nice. The major problem was all of the stairs since we are just starting to have kids.

I have a friend that is a consultant (his wife is too) and they are both out of town during the week. For them a condo is a good way to go because there are people in close proximity to keep a watch over the house.

Now that I live in a house I doubt I would ever live in a condo.

If I were a batchelor, CONDO would be the way to go though!

 

I hate townhouses, but I have one. It is what they call here a quad. Outside of driving up, you wouldn't know it is a townhouse. This came down to a how much do you want to pay and how far do you want to drive decision.

With no other debt and 100k income, you should be able to buy a house, and that would be my choice.

Plus, you'll want space for little ones. Assuming I get into law school (and I'm pretty sure I will), we will stay here for another three years and then we'll be out never to live in a place with a HOA again.

 

House...for a few reasons:
1) More garages available (cheaper Townhomes comes with apr. style parking)
2) More space
3) The upkeep is controlled by you. The last thing I would want is my association to loose control of how a nice a place is.

But I have a few things in mind:
1) Im buying cheaply
2) Wont have kids for a while (schools dont matter)
3) Plan on keeping and renting out when I move on to a larger, nicer home in 5 or so years.

 

But it is not practical.

Maybe you guys do things different where you live, but not around here.

My Condo association consists of 78 units.

If all 78 of us negotiated our own contracts, for gardening, snow removal, etc, it would drive our administrator Nucking Futs!

Hope you know what I mean.

 

Well, kind of been in both roads.

When we got married in 2002 we bought a new construction townhouse. Figured it would be a good start for us (I was 25, she was 23). It was big enough for a family... 2600 square feet... 2 bed (could be 3), 2.5 bath. Even though it was in a high-end area, the school district wasn't the best, so we knew eventually we'd have to move out. We liked the unit itself... but hated the community. Lot of people were kind of stuck up and snotty. Home Owner Association was a bunch of morons. We paid $230/mo for a brand new unit (HOA fees), and right before we moved out, they raised it to $250. Brand new... why raise it?

Anyway, we decided we wanted a house, but houses in the area were rediculous, so we sold the unit in Oct 2003 (actually closed and moved out in Jan 2004), made a bunch of money, and moved to NC and had a house built down here. We love the house so much better. Having our own property is awesome. Honestly, in both places we hardly used the yard, but now we're putting in a pool, and I'd bet that we'll be out there a lot. It's also nice b/c it's more private.

Here are some pros/cons....

Townhouse:
Pros: less expensive, no maintanance outside, community pool, beautiful grounds (we had a sweet view... no one behind us but a pond), had a garage, made a bunch of money when we sold, lower taxes verses homes in the area

Cons: HOA sucked, most neighbors sucked (not all as we had friends, but most), monthly fees were already increasing, not much privacy/space of your own outside your walls.

House:
Pros: own property, much more space, can pretty much do whatever we want

Cons: Still have an association (although they're really only here to make sure no one does anything stupid with the house, like paint shudders pink, so I kind of like them.. and the fee is like $30/mo), have to mow own yard and keep up on other maintanence items outside (although the house is new, so not that bad).

That's pretty much it. I pay the landscaper $20 once in a while when I don't feel like mowing the yard... so even that part isn't too bad. But having 1/2 acre of property is much nicer then having 20' of property.

All in all we LOVE having the house. The townhouse was a great starter for us and is fairly responsible for where we are today financially, so it wasn't all that bad. But we're in a house now, and we'll always be in one....

 

I wasnt saying you should do it for your condo.

My point was, your reason for choosing a condo was that things like snow removal are done for you, yet, if you owned a house... you could have all that and more done for you for cheaper than you pay in dues every month.

 

Good points. I will have to keep this in mind when I get ready to move next fall. Too bad houses out here are ridiculously expensive...

 

Oh.. forgot to mention that our neighborhood where we are now (in the house) does have a community pool and playground as well....

 

<- moving to NC

 

 

I'm not sure if it works the same in other states, but down here your condo association dues include the cost of building insurance, which has been the main reason for increasing fees and constitutes the bulk of what you're paying for. It is certainly something to consider when looking at total cost of ownership. Also, many will also include water/sewer, trash removal, and occasionally basic cable.

 

Our townhouse in NY didn't include any of that... wish it did. Our townhouses were considered attached homes... so all of the utilities that you would have with a regular single-family home applied. We had our own mailboxes, own garbage cans that we had to put at the end of the driveway, etc.

The only thing the HOA fee covered was maintanance on the exterior of the units, and landscaping of the common grounds (lawn mowing, leaf cleanup, snow/ice removal, etc). Also, stuff like the clubhouse, pool, etc were part of the common fees as well.

 

I own a condo and have no complaints, so far. But I'm in a different situation - I'm single, I work crazy hours and I'm almost never home. I don't even know who lives next door to me and I've been there 6 months. It's not unusual for me to come home at 10 at night and leave at 6 in the morning. If I owned a house, I would not have time to maintain it.

I have a very nice, 2 Bed, 2 Bath unit which is perfect for me. It was my first big purchase so I had to make sure that I don't get myself in a major debt. But even if I decide to move out and buy a house, I will keep it and rent it out.

If I was married, had kids or was thinking about starting a family, I would have reconsidered buying a condo.


Loseit - where are you thinking about buying? I'm from Chicago, too.

 

that is what my dad and my buddy keep saying.

 

I'm looking at Elmurst/ Lombard etc. I have always really wanted to live in Elmhurst. But, i guess everyone has figured out what a great town it is. It ain't so affordable anymore...people figured out the secret. I have even looked at Addison which is ok. They keep showing me places in Glendale Heights...which i don't wanna move to....but they have shit load of nice townhouses. I wouldn't mind going up to Oakpark if I have to. We are basically looking to be close to the city but not in it. I still wanna be able to park.

 

The only time I lived in an apartment was in NYC., and I hated every minute of it....except the free heating!! I have always had the luck of living in a house. I love it just for the garage space alone. Just trying to figure out what is financially viable. It isn't a permanent move, but I would just like to make a finacially smart decision.