Should I buy a home or a condo?

Question

I'm in the market in buying my first property. I was looking into some single family homes in the downtown area, as well as condominiums also in the downtown area. The homes are located in a small community, while the condominiums will be located in the heart of the city. Right in the middle of downtown Sacramento. The homes are starting in the low $400's and the condos are starting in the mid $600's. I have a strong feeling that the condos will rise in value every year as they totally redesign the downtown area. I am torn between the two, but leaning more towards the condos.

Answer 1

The housing market is never a Safe Bet. I own a Condo myself. There are pros and Cons to owning a house, and owning a condo.

Condo's are like apartments where you all share a common interest in the property. If you have children, and you live above someone, this could create problems. you could live under someone with small children, and this could be a problem for you. Condo's can be noisy by virtue of the fact if you live in a building with 50 other people or families, they all have different schedules, and your daily activities might need to be adjusted, and this is something you have to consider. you also pay for services that you may or may not use in conjunction with your condo fee. Also there are depending on the associations and their rules, alot of things you can and can not do to your condo. Some have rules saying you cant attach things to your railing on your balcony if you have one, which then rules out Possibly installing a satellite TV system for instance. So you have to make sure its something you can live with in having people tell you how you can do or not do things.

Owning a House. You can do whatever you want. You will also take on more work in the pride of owning a house. this might mean that you have to mow the lawn, Paint the house, extra expenses here and there for things that break or need to be fixed.
Owning a house gives you and your family the quiet unlike the possible setting of a condo, where you may be woken up at 2am from a couple fighting.
Like i said... there are Pros and cons to both owning a house and owning a condo. It really comes down to what you decide you want to do. There are alot of people that think that they can handle living the life in a condo complex, and after the first 3 weeks, after settling in, they have completely had it and are ready to move. Its just something you will have to find out on your own.


Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Sacramento Downtown is a great place to live. Sacramento is doing a great job trying to revive the area for living. Towers and N Street are some very pretious places to live. Make sure you understand the financing behind the Condo since it's not like standard single family home. Lender's usually will give rate hits or penalties for owning such a property. High rise condo's could actually cost you as much as .50 point extra to live in. Also the HOA dues are incurred in your Debt to Income Ratio for qualification. If you still don't care than have you talked to a REALTOR who is giving you daily emails of properties in the area. There are some great duplex's in your price range and in the downtown area. I have a group of 20 clients that I am feeding daily of new homes listings, short sales, and investment properties. Contact me if you should have any questions about loans or homes in the Sacramento region.

Answer 3

If the condo lifestyle is you, then by all means go for a condo. As an investment, there is always risk, so make sure your decision is base on your desire to live in the property and not making money. Even with 100,00.00 down you will be looking at a mortgage payment in the 4000.00 range-most of it interest. If you sell it in 5 years for 800,000.00 you will break even with the interest you will have paid. Maybe the market tanks-then you lose big time. Something I don't like about condos is that essentially you are in a partnership with eveyone who owns the building. Those monthly fees can be squandered by the homeowners association. With a home you own land. Thats what goes up in value. Bottom line: I would only buy if I knew I was staying put for a minimum of 5 years.

Answer 4

Buy a condo if you don't want to have to cut you own lawn or water the grass. Remember that you can not make changes out side of your place unless you go through your HOA and you still may not be able to get the approval. Example: say you want to put a security door on the front of your place, they may say no screen doors at all. Remember to check out the fee's you will pay for your HOA each month, if it is a low price, do they raise it often?

Or buy a house if you enjoy being able to mow and water your own lawn. If you want to have a say in what color you can paint your own place or if you want to plant tree/shrubs/ or any other plants out side in your own yard.

There won't be any HOA (HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATION FEES) to pay each month. You have more freedom to do as you wish when you own your own home.

Be sure to read the bylaws if you buy a condo, so that you will know exactly what you are getting into when and if you buy a condo. This is very important as the rules will in fact effect you.

While the value of the condos may go up some what I doubt that they will go up too much. The houses will most likely go up more later. Houses usually do better at re sale than condos ever do. As most people would rather own a home than a condo.

It's all based on what is more to your liking. Personally I'd rather own a house than a condo.

Answer 5

Do NOT buy a condo. My brother in law and his wife owned one and they had nothing but problems. With a condo, even though you own it, you don't have the freedom to make remodels and you cannot add on when you have kids like you can do with a house.

Answer 6

well with a home you will have to do all the yard work..that means investing your time and buying lawn euipment(mower,fertilizer.weed control..etc) and other tools to maintain it... unless you hired someone to do it for you...

with a condo you don't have to think about that, the grounds are maintained by someone else, but you usually have other restrictions..like no pets allowed or guest parking...and you might end up with noisy neighbors next to or above/below you

Answer 7

Keep it simple! Which one makes a better investment, one that you can sell quick if the need arises and how much will the appreciation be( always look at the percentage) ? keeping that in mind and also what you like better you can make a decision :)

Answer 8

condo sounds like it would be more of a vaca home but it might bring in more girls if you want to think of it that way!