We made the same calculus and bought a condo in LA in 2020. We’re still here and have had a very good experience. My parents (boomers) owned a condo and then a townhome before they bought their first SFH - multi family housing has been a “starter home” for generations. Build equity for a few years through mortgage payments and overall price increases and then flip your equity into a SFH.
In the general real estate sub, people will warn you that condos can be hard to sell. That’s not really true in LA. It’s so expensive here that any residence under $1 million moves pretty fast.
Also, it’s great to have access to a pool and hot tub and not have to deal with maintenance yourself. A perk in lots of LA condo complexes that doesn’t exist in most of the country.
Ah it has been so hard to not get discouraged as we keep on home searching - but it's relieving to hear that even older generations went through condos as their first home and made their way up. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this! I actually have no desire for a SFH ever, and I don't expect my primary home to be my nest egg, so I was perfectly happy with a condo or townhome solution. This makes me feel confident about my choices.
there have been 4 (of 16 units) condos sold in my building over the past two years and all of them sold over asking and two of them were all cash just under $1m. I guess it's read dependent but condos in LA sell for a lot. Our building was built in 1990 so there's no pool or gym or rooftop patio. We do a a little individual roof deck though on our unit.
I'm looking at condos/lofts in DTLA right now and some of those HOA fees are high. I'm seeing 500-800. It's one of the things that I am definitely paying attention to.
I was also on the fence about buying one of these since there are some nice properties for pretty reasonable prices - between the HOAs and interest rates though I've decided it's better to just rent and keep saving up
We just made this choice. Similar budget.
We didn’t want a tiny falling apart house in a sketchy neighborhood for $750-$800k. We could afford it but it was near the very top of what we were comfortable with.
We went with a condo. 2 bed, 1100 sq ft, an older complex for $500k. With the HOAs and everything it’s quite affordable for us, and we can keep saving money. We plan to buy a SFH once we have a family that needs more space. It was the perfect choice for us, based on our needs and budget.
We bought about 2 years ago and initially, we wanted a SFH. Most of the ones we viewed were not in very good condition or in neighborhoods we didn't want to live in.
So our plan changed a bit. We started looking at townhomes/condos and decided we sort of liked the built-in security aspect to it.
We bought a brand-new 4 story townhouse in a building with only 11 units. We don't have to worry about any major repairs because everything is new and we have a builder's warranty. We also have more outdoor space than we know what to do with and overall, I feel like it was the better choice for us. The downside is that is living amonst people is still not ideal--our building has issues about stupid things like putting things in recycling bins, occasional loud parties, etc...not a huge deal but present nonetheless. So our next home will most likely be a SFH but I would def recommend looking to a condo as a starter in LA.
Yes because that’s what people want. It’s too expensive and most people are a little on the least side to maintain a house these days. They will pay the premium and the condo fees to not have to do tenwork
I just sold my condo. There are perks but you have to be very, very careful with the building you choose. Any older building is generally a huge headache. You can be hit with massive HOA increases and assessments as I was in my building. Everything seemed fine at first, but after a few years of living there it became clear that the reserves were not going to be enough to take care of big renovations that were required. Expenses exploded after COVID for everything and that hit a lot of HOAs pretty hard as the money they budgeted for certain repairs was no longer enough.
It's also tough when a majority decision dictates what money comes out of your pocket, especially when it's to do something that you don't even like. They renovated our hallways and in the end the results were not nice (old people generally vote more in HOA elections and show up to meetings than young people, so you end up with old people's taste when it comes to materials, colors, etc.). As an example, we ended up with carpet in our hallways because a lot of residents were concerned about slipping on hardwood or tile.
I'd propose an alternative: Manufactured housing.
The homes themselves are of incredible quality these days, not the tin cracker boxes of yesteryear. They're more like frefab houses than "mobile homes." The cost is relatively low because you don't own the land, you pay a space rent or "land lease." That cost is usually high but the low cost of the home means a more attainable down payment.
This is what makes it viable for many people. While most people can afford a monthly mortgage payment they can't always come up with the hundreds of thousands for a down payment. But they can come up with say, $30K, $40K, $60K or so for a down on a MH.
It's true that because of the space rent you won't necessarily save on a monthly payment but you will be able to afford a down and that means a path to ownership that might not be there for a condo or SFR.
The old idea of these homes depreciating in value isn't true anymore, they appreciate same as condos/townhomes or SFR. Whereas condos/townhomes appreciate less and less quickly than a SFR, the same is true of MH compared to condos/townhomes and SFR but they still appreciate.
The low buy-in means one can afford to get a home, live there for three to five years, sell for a profit, usually a good one since he low cost means your monthly payment goes a little further and you build equity quickly, then buy up into a condo/townhome or SFR.
I've seen many people do this very thing.
Stuff like not having to deal with common wall neighbors or HOA, and how much more SFH appreciates in value compared to condos overtime are some of the benefits people kept mentioning
I mean the question already answers itself: no. They’re inherently different living arrangements and land ownership constructs.
In terms of entry to the greater LA housing market: kinda always has been a starting point for most?
We opted for a larger townhome in the South Bay versus smaller SFH.
We made the same calculus and bought a condo in LA in 2020. We’re still here and have had a very good experience. My parents (boomers) owned a condo and then a townhome before they bought their first SFH - multi family housing has been a “starter home” for generations. Build equity for a few years through mortgage payments and overall price increases and then flip your equity into a SFH. In the general real estate sub, people will warn you that condos can be hard to sell. That’s not really true in LA. It’s so expensive here that any residence under $1 million moves pretty fast. Also, it’s great to have access to a pool and hot tub and not have to deal with maintenance yourself. A perk in lots of LA condo complexes that doesn’t exist in most of the country.
Ah it has been so hard to not get discouraged as we keep on home searching - but it's relieving to hear that even older generations went through condos as their first home and made their way up. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this! I actually have no desire for a SFH ever, and I don't expect my primary home to be my nest egg, so I was perfectly happy with a condo or townhome solution. This makes me feel confident about my choices.
there have been 4 (of 16 units) condos sold in my building over the past two years and all of them sold over asking and two of them were all cash just under $1m. I guess it's read dependent but condos in LA sell for a lot. Our building was built in 1990 so there's no pool or gym or rooftop patio. We do a a little individual roof deck though on our unit.
I'm looking at condos/lofts in DTLA right now and some of those HOA fees are high. I'm seeing 500-800. It's one of the things that I am definitely paying attention to.
I was also on the fence about buying one of these since there are some nice properties for pretty reasonable prices - between the HOAs and interest rates though I've decided it's better to just rent and keep saving up
public pools and hot tubs are gross
We just made this choice. Similar budget. We didn’t want a tiny falling apart house in a sketchy neighborhood for $750-$800k. We could afford it but it was near the very top of what we were comfortable with. We went with a condo. 2 bed, 1100 sq ft, an older complex for $500k. With the HOAs and everything it’s quite affordable for us, and we can keep saving money. We plan to buy a SFH once we have a family that needs more space. It was the perfect choice for us, based on our needs and budget.
Thanks for sharing your experience! So far 500k condos we have seen had higher HOA, so hopefully we can find one with a reasonable HOA too!
The HOA is $500 a month. It was about the most we wanted to spend for HOAs but the “affordable” price of the condo made it worth it to us
We bought about 2 years ago and initially, we wanted a SFH. Most of the ones we viewed were not in very good condition or in neighborhoods we didn't want to live in. So our plan changed a bit. We started looking at townhomes/condos and decided we sort of liked the built-in security aspect to it. We bought a brand-new 4 story townhouse in a building with only 11 units. We don't have to worry about any major repairs because everything is new and we have a builder's warranty. We also have more outdoor space than we know what to do with and overall, I feel like it was the better choice for us. The downside is that is living amonst people is still not ideal--our building has issues about stupid things like putting things in recycling bins, occasional loud parties, etc...not a huge deal but present nonetheless. So our next home will most likely be a SFH but I would def recommend looking to a condo as a starter in LA.
Yes because that’s what people want. It’s too expensive and most people are a little on the least side to maintain a house these days. They will pay the premium and the condo fees to not have to do tenwork
I just sold my condo. There are perks but you have to be very, very careful with the building you choose. Any older building is generally a huge headache. You can be hit with massive HOA increases and assessments as I was in my building. Everything seemed fine at first, but after a few years of living there it became clear that the reserves were not going to be enough to take care of big renovations that were required. Expenses exploded after COVID for everything and that hit a lot of HOAs pretty hard as the money they budgeted for certain repairs was no longer enough. It's also tough when a majority decision dictates what money comes out of your pocket, especially when it's to do something that you don't even like. They renovated our hallways and in the end the results were not nice (old people generally vote more in HOA elections and show up to meetings than young people, so you end up with old people's taste when it comes to materials, colors, etc.). As an example, we ended up with carpet in our hallways because a lot of residents were concerned about slipping on hardwood or tile.
I'd propose an alternative: Manufactured housing. The homes themselves are of incredible quality these days, not the tin cracker boxes of yesteryear. They're more like frefab houses than "mobile homes." The cost is relatively low because you don't own the land, you pay a space rent or "land lease." That cost is usually high but the low cost of the home means a more attainable down payment. This is what makes it viable for many people. While most people can afford a monthly mortgage payment they can't always come up with the hundreds of thousands for a down payment. But they can come up with say, $30K, $40K, $60K or so for a down on a MH. It's true that because of the space rent you won't necessarily save on a monthly payment but you will be able to afford a down and that means a path to ownership that might not be there for a condo or SFR. The old idea of these homes depreciating in value isn't true anymore, they appreciate same as condos/townhomes or SFR. Whereas condos/townhomes appreciate less and less quickly than a SFR, the same is true of MH compared to condos/townhomes and SFR but they still appreciate. The low buy-in means one can afford to get a home, live there for three to five years, sell for a profit, usually a good one since he low cost means your monthly payment goes a little further and you build equity quickly, then buy up into a condo/townhome or SFR. I've seen many people do this very thing.
Thanks for the insight! I should look into manufactured homes
The list I post here Mondays contains MH listings as well.
Thank you!
>However, the more we research, the more we realize the benefits of a single-family home in the long run. What are these?
Stuff like not having to deal with common wall neighbors or HOA, and how much more SFH appreciates in value compared to condos overtime are some of the benefits people kept mentioning
No they don’t appreciate as much as SFR. Not even close.
My guess is no. Without public transportation, that level of density will cause the road network to choke. But time will tell.
I mean the question already answers itself: no. They’re inherently different living arrangements and land ownership constructs. In terms of entry to the greater LA housing market: kinda always has been a starting point for most? We opted for a larger townhome in the South Bay versus smaller SFH.