[jyl]

I have never owned a condo but watching friends who’ve done so has convinced me to never, ever do so.

One friend just bought a condo in Portland because house prices/bidding were too hot. It is an attractive, not too old, upscale building in a prime area of town not far from downtown.

He’s owned a condo before so he knew what to do. Reviewed all the minutes and notes from the condo association meetings, read all the engineering reports and bids, read the emails between board members, interviewed the condo association board president and others. Learned that the building has deferred and underfunded maintenance (don’t they all) that will be addressed with substantial assessments (he expects to get assessed $30K for his 1bdrm unit) and then steep annual increases in dues for years.

He bought it anyway.

I told him he was crazy. The price was only about $50K less than what he’d pay for a modest 2 bdrm bungalow type house in a modest neighborhood. Sure, the typical house in that price range will need work, potentially $20K right away and $100K over time, but you can control the work, make sure it’s done right, DIY some of it. You get 1.5X the square footage compared to the condo, plus yard and garage. The house isn’t a gem, it’s typical 1930s construction, but houses were built soundly back then, while the condo certainly isn’t built to last 100 years. You can expand, add-on, finish the basement or attic, build an ADU. The house, with seismic bolting, will survive the “Big One” and still be habitable despite some damage, while the condo has a pretty good chance of being red-tagged and a total loss. And you own the LAND, and that is what is appreciating. The way Portland has eff’d up its zoning, you can even demolish the bungalow and replace it with a 30’ tall, 5000 sf four-bedroom apartment building built 5’ from the lot line, so that your neighbors will never see sun again.

He just couldn’t cope with having to pay $50K over asking for a $450K asking house, felt like he wasn’t getting a “good deal”. I told him he was being penny wise and pound foolish. In fact, I told him if he didn’t want to get involved in over-asking bids, to move up to the $650-700K range where the market is more sane and you can be closer to downtown - if that’s actually a plus anymore. He can afford it, he is getting a mortgage because rates are so low but he could actually pay cash.

Well, I think I was right but everyone looks at things differently.