Hacker News Reader

Comment by coaxial | Hacker News Reader

To your point re 400k condos, I would very much question the quality, size, and location for these. 400 seems very low and below market for the city.

View on HN

You can get an OK-quality condo for $400k, but it's definitely not going to be located in downtown or midtown. The condo fees I've seen however are unfortunately pretty high across the board, anywhere from from $500 to $900/month.

Usually $0.60-$0.70/sqft. Some terribly built and managed buildings are higher. If you're at 600 square feet I wouldnt expect to pay more than $450/month.

This is however much less than the repairs and maintenance on a house. Replacing a roof? Furnace? Lawn work? Have fun.

Plus having concierge to receive packages for you is fantastic.

The condo fees explode in most new developments between year 2 and 5, often tripling in the city.

Additionally, the baseline fee burden is amplified by the practice of developers counting guest suites as sold by pre-selling the suite to the condo corporation, who then place the financing costs of the guest suites onto the unit owners.

I did not know about this. I'm pretty inexperienced in this area, so I appreciate the heads up about that.

They're small, to be sure. You get 400-500 square feet. Enough to eat, sleep, work a little from home and watch movies with company. Perfectly livable. There's both modern and older buildings at that price range.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com