Quote Originally Posted by tony
Quote Originally Posted by z28pwr
Maybe somebody can help me out here but I don't see how Condo's are a good investment.

You pay $60K for the place which is ~ $420 a month for 30 years
Then you pay $222 a month for maitenance
Then add anohter $175 a month in taxes
Then add Insurance which is another $40 bucks a month.

So now you are paying $857 for a condo when you can buy a house larger then the condo in that area for about $110K which puts your payment at $1100. The maitenance is what really kills you, you are waisting $2,664 a year just for "maitenance". and your condo won't appreciate much more then the maitenance fee a year.


i think you are missing the investment part. a home is an investment but its not going to provide you income while you are living in it. im on the NE side of town and dont know that area too well but id imagine a 1000ish sq/ft apt would rent for $900-1000 easily (they do over here). with my rusty calculations that is $200-300/month investment income. IIRC the average rental home takes 5-10 years to turn a profit. for this price, the condo turns profit from day 1.
I was looking around and saw that there is an 850 SQFT condo in Fountains Condominiums which they are trying to rent for $650 and says negotiable therefore If we assume that the one for sale would rent for $850 a month then it would be a wash since you will pay close to $850 for that condo after taxes, hoa & mortgage and considering the low appreciation rate you are much better off buying a home, specially since in 5-10 years as the rent may increase so will the HOA dues and yes eventually after 30 years that condo will be yours but you would have been better off getting a home since the average HOA of a home is much lower. If it didn't have such a high HOA it would definately be an investment but I think the high HOA kills it. Just my point of view.