Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The housing market needs more condos

urban.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 152 posts

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#91

Post by everforward »

staticman2 wrote: post #74
goodluckchuck wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single family homes offer dominion over your housing, where condos come with a variety of complexities. Unless condo laws are improved, I wouldn’t want one. Condo regulations about noise, guests, pets, children. Some actually try to ban children. Buying and sells is complicated by the association’s finances, which depends on other people. This naturally leads to maintenance issues. Look as the surf side building coll…

There's a big difference between a project like Surfside and a townhome condominium. Also banning children is illegal in the U.S. unless you have a 55 or older community. I don't know why you wouldn't desire rules about noise if your home is attached to another home where loud neighbors would bother you. But at any rate that concern has nothing to do with condominiums, your HOA in a planned development with detached…

> I don't know why you wouldn't desire rules about noise if your home is attached to another home where loud neighbors would bother you.

The level and type of noise that reaches nuisance levels is highly subjective, which leads to conflict between neighbors. You also have no control over your neighbors, so you might be able to practice your guitar for a decade and then suddenly your neighbors move and the new ones don't appreciate the sound as much.

It's the same issue all of these types of organizations have; HOAs suffer from the same problems. The rules tend to be defined by those most sensitive to them, who are generally those the most willing to waste a bunch of their own time screwing around with the HOA/condo association.

I personally refuse to own a condo or HOA home. It's worth it to me to exchange the equity for renting and being able to get out easily if I want to. I also find "ownership" to be a bit of a misnomer for either type of housing, since the rules can be arbitrarily changed and they can place a lien on your home. You live there at the grace of the HOA/condo community.

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#92

Post by jopython »

whiddershins wrote: post #27

Any housing you purchase but has a HOA is suboptimal, in my opinion. Once you have an HOA you don’t own your home in the way you would otherwise. At that point I would start doing the math carefully about buying versus rent + investing. Renting has the huge luxury of being able to leave with minimal hassle, and not deal with any maintenance.

The math is clear. You don't gain any equity by paying rent.

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#93

Post by acomjean »

pivo wrote: post #54
twalla wrote: post #5

A lot of people have a big chunk of their net worth tied up into home equity because it's sort of the "ordained" path to building wealth for the middle class - condos don't see similar appreciation, get hit harder in downturns and are one of the last types of properties to recover in value afterwards. Start incentivizing treating housing as, you know, a place to live rather than a financial instrument and you'll see…

> condos don't see similar appreciation It depends on where the condo is. My condo in Boston has increased in value 2.5 times in the 20 years I've owned it. My friend's home in a wealthy suburb of Boston increased by 40% in almost the same amount of time. That's taking into account the last two years of the pandemic where we saw housing price increases slow or stop in the city while suburban prices rose much more qui…

I'm in cambridge MA and our condos are about the same appreciation, even though the building needs some love.

I think overseas buyers, who like the fact that an association takes care of the repairs and services like these type of properties. Even those that moved and rented have ended up selling to those that have never seen the property except in photos. Our building has no rules about %owners living in the building so its gone from about 80% 20 years ago to 30%.

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#94

Post by acomjean »

ST2084 wrote: post #89
matsemann wrote: post #45

Lots of FUD in this thread, but I guess it depends on where one lives? My experience with things mentioned here: My condo is noiseless. The codes in my country are strict on this. I got families with children all around me, only hear them when sitting on my balcony during summer. And codes in general makes sure that buying a modern condo is safe. Here it's 5 years where the builder has to fix stuff that's not as it s…

Wait until you have a special assessment. Not fun.

There is some overhead in a condo. But the shared common stuff is much cheaper. Roofs and heating systems. He had a special asssement. $1500 for a new boiler (35 units) My friend in a house replaced theirs for thousands because it was old being and some of the pipes and everything needed replacing.. Plus its easier when the management company deals with it, but you pay a bit for that.

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#96

Post by refurb »

neelc wrote: post #64
thisrobot wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s possible to get more single family homes. So the only option is condos. I agree more spacious one would be awesome as an option.

Unpopular opinion: IMHO single family homes are an idea whose time passed, at least in big urban areas. While the "American Dream" is to own a home with a backyard, it is logically easier if everyone lived in highrise condos and apartments in urban areas. Homes would be cheaper, since you could scale up and not just out (e.g. avoid urban sprawl). Not to mention lower gas costs and we don't need to cut down as many tr…

No thanks.

The US is blessed with plenty of space for single family homes. Sure you’ll pay out the nose for one in SF or other major cities, but it’s an option.

I’ve lived in dense cities where single family homes are out of reach for everyone but the top 0.1%. People get used to it, but condo living kinda sucks.

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#97

Post by ab_testing »

pivo wrote: post #54
twalla wrote: post #5

A lot of people have a big chunk of their net worth tied up into home equity because it's sort of the "ordained" path to building wealth for the middle class - condos don't see similar appreciation, get hit harder in downturns and are one of the last types of properties to recover in value afterwards. Start incentivizing treating housing as, you know, a place to live rather than a financial instrument and you'll see…

> condos don't see similar appreciation It depends on where the condo is. My condo in Boston has increased in value 2.5 times in the 20 years I've owned it. My friend's home in a wealthy suburb of Boston increased by 40% in almost the same amount of time. That's taking into account the last two years of the pandemic where we saw housing price increases slow or stop in the city while suburban prices rose much more qui…

I think this comment just proved that condos don't appreciate as fast as single family homes or townhomes. In certain cities in the US, single family homes have gone up 2.5x in the last 5 years & sometimes even less than that. Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, Mountain View are some examples

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#98

Post by Gigachad »

sidlls wrote: post #73
neelc wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpopular opinion: IMHO single family homes are an idea whose time passed, at least in big urban areas. While the "American Dream" is to own a home with a backyard, it is logically easier if everyone lived in highrise condos and apartments in urban areas. Homes would be cheaper, since you could scale up and not just out (e.g. avoid urban sprawl). Not to mention lower gas costs and we don't need to cut down as many tr…

Almost nobody, having had the pleasure of living in even a modest SFH, would prefer to be packed in like sardines the way modern high-rise buildings do. It's possible to make high density housing that doesn't feel like that, but it's not as profitable so developers don't. That's why the vast majority of high-rise condos are one and two bedroom shoeboxes instead of spacious three (or more) bedroom homes. We won't get…

Had lived only in single family houses up until I moved to an apartment in the middle of the city and wow, the quality of life bump was astounding. Being able to just walk to anything you need, not owning a car, having so many high end places to eat at and entertainment venues to visit, the huge security benefit of being above ground level, being at the centre of public transport so friends can visit easily.

So many benefits with so little downsides. I can’t ever imagine going back to a detached house.

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#99

Post by Gigachad »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #62

Condos have all the downsides of apartments and home ownership combined. They're the trolley of homes. Where the trolley has the downsides of the train and the bus combined. With a condo I pay to own it, but also pay a monthly HOA fee forever, and I can only do approved modifications, but I'm also responsible for anything that breaks. If I own property I should be allowed to install a giant mailbox on a whim, or brea…

It’s all the benefits of living in an a great area at a low cost without the negatives of renting. You don’t have some asshole coming in to inspect every x weeks and complaining that the stove is slightly blackened. Don’t have to worry about having to move if you don’t want to, can hang pictures / TVs, get to put your monthly payments in to an asset rather than someone else’s profit, etc.

Re: The housing market needs more condos

#100

Post by Gigachad »

thisrobot wrote: post #19
HideousKojima wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I live in a townhome and we hate it. The noise through the walls, especially if you have inconsiderate neighbors, is a huge pain and you have essentially zero control over it.

I think a lot of modern construction sucks. My condo was built in 1980 and I almost never hear my neighbors. It is also a fairly well designed building where both vertical and horizontal neighbors have aligned spaces for sleeping eating and living. Along with side shard walls being used for closets and bathrooms.

My apartment (what Americans would call a condo I think) was built in 2019 and I never hear a sound. Have tested playing loud music and I can’t hear it at all from the hallway. It just depends on how much the developers cared when they built it.
Post reply on HN