The Difference Between Owning Your Own Home or a Condo.

HI. You are definitely smart buying and not renting. You throw away your money renting. When you own, the money is going toward equity you will get back when you sell. If you've never owned before, a condo is better. There is way too much maintenace with a home. If you're a single mother of 3, you don't have the time. Just find a condo with a low association fee that covers all outside maintenance, some even include parking, water, cable, etc....What area are you looking to live in? Have you thought about schools? There are a lot of different programs to help you get a loan, some even with no money down, or as little at 5%.

First off, congrats for the courage to own something. It's a very intimidating task.

I own a condo and from the very beginning, I wanted the house. But, I compromised with my DH and bought the condo. Big mistake. Ours is too small for our growing family. And now that the market has changed, we are stuck in something too small.

My advice...buy something with a plan to stay long term. Since you have 3 children, look for something with lots of space - kids grow fast. Also, be mindful of association fees. They can start out small but creep up if the building needs major repairs (windows, gates, etc).

Also, in my experience, you really don't save much effort by buying a condo than a house.

Good luck.

I will start by saying you have to ultimately decide what works best for your specific situation. Anything anyone tells you or advices you on, including myself is based on THEIR situation and what works best for them. Having said that I will share my feelings on the matter. I lived in a condo while I was single for a few years and then after my husband and I got married we first lived in a two flat paying rent, and a year later we purchased our own home which is a three story georgian. I will tell you my take on each. Living in a condo with kids must be hard cause you have to keeo them quiet all the time. People live on all sides of you and you may have a bunch of grumpy mean neighbors if they get stuck next door, above you, below you, etc. In general there are usually more ammenities at a condo though. (Pool, workout room, sun deck...) Some condos don't have that too, if its a condo in an apartment gone condo. Or if its just a low scale condo. In general condos have a limit of appreciation so you really never get your value in them either. Homes can go up and up and up as long as they are in a good location (key) and you keep them up or work on them. For example, we bought our home three years ago at 350,000 and we thought we were overpaying. We closed the deal cause we figured we'd stretch it each month and we'd have an investment. Nothing could be more accurate!!! We put in a little work mostly for asthetics (all new exterior doors, new pipes in part of the basement, some replacement tiles (2-3) in the kitchen, pulled up the rugs upstairs with wooden floors underneath, bought a new washer, and maybe a couple of small things I can't think of right now) But the total of all the work is not a lot if you own a home. In the end, we had our home appraised for a refinance this year and our home already went up to 420,000 and the appraiser said its bound to go up another 10,000 this year alone. So we're waiting another year to refinance to get an even better rate. (That's in under three years!) SO in essence, that may answer your question about a home. It requires a bit more maintenance but WELL worth every bit of it. The question is whether you care enough or want more independence and atonomy from the outside world. Also, homes usually have a yard - huge bonus with kids. Condos are shared yards with no feeling of security. A home is more integrated into a community and neighborhood too. You get to know other ppl. with kids or other ppl. in your situation. In a condo ppl. seemed to keep more to themselves and were not at all outgoing or warm. Condos have a lot of stairs usually, a hazard to your little ones potentially and its harder to do groceries, shopping, etc. with an elevator or stairs. With our apartment two flat, I loved it but absolutely a waste of money and totally did not get anything out of the deal but we had great neighbors who moved with us to the same neighborhood we bought our house in, so that was nice to have built friendships. If you are working full time and on a limited budget I would tell you to buy something smaller in a nicer kid friendly safe neighborhood vs. something more spacious in a worse neighborhood. That's my take on the matter and if you have specific questions feel free to ask. Good luck with your purchase!!!

I have lived in a Condo and I really want to own a single family now.

Condo's are nice for convience, however depending on the size of the association there can be a lot of bickering between owners and a lot of Feuds that can happen. You are also responsible for everything that happens to the building you just pay for it through your assessments. You can get hammered with special assessments if something major happens and needs to be fixed.

You are also living with other people and with small kids that can be tricky. We were not fortunate to live with those who liked kids so it was not the best situation. Depending on the building you may be able to hear the other condo owners so be prepared.

We are in the process of looking for a single family home because I just don't want the hassel of dealing with other home owners. Some can be nice but it is very hard to tell that before you live there.

Good luck.

I live in a townhome so its sort of like a home in that we have a little yard, but like a condo in that we share a party wall with neighbors on both sides and small assessments (not as bad as condo). My husband would say the plus for a condo is you don't have to mow the lawn and there may be some maintenance issues that the association would pay for (although it may take longer). The plus for a house is that you don't have to worry about loud neighbors above, below, or next to you (and you don't have to worry about neighbors who don't like kids). If you are looking at condos, be sure to look at the bylaws and see what all the rules are about noise, etc. With a condo association fees, i'm not sure those are tax deductible in the same way interest is deductible on your main mortgage.

Unless the location is very desireable, condos don't have the resale value that houses do, particularly in the downturn market we are about to have. It seems like almost everything goes up in the long run, but don't buy anything you won't be happy to live in for a few years. It seems like a townhouse might be a good idea with kids if you can't get into a house right now. I wouldn't want to have people living below my kids, that's for sure. Association fees do seem like a lot, but property taxes are higher on houses usually, so you pay one way or another.

I'm sure you know, if you've been watching the news lately, to stay away from ARMs with balloon payments and interest-only loans. Good luck! There's a lot of good real estate information online - realtor.com and other sites have calculators etc.

Hi. I bought a condo on my own when I was single. After I got married my husband and I decided that we needed something bigger. We looked at larger condos (we lived and worked downtown) and got sticker shock. It was amazing what they wanted for a 2 bedroom plus a den. We actually found a 4 bedroom plus den plus formal dining room and living room house for about what we were finding for 3 bedroom condos. Granted we aren't in a trendy neighborhood and we have about a 30 minute commute downtowm for work but it was worth it for us. We love our house and there is some maintenance stress and cost, but we think that it is worth it.

We didn't get the max. mortgage that the bank said we could, because we knew we would need money for maintenance so we try to save a little each month for emergencies/maintenance. So far we are doing akay with that and we have done quite a bit.

We like have a house much more than the condo but I have to admit there are days where I wish I was living downtown and didn't have a commute and there are also days where I think about what a breeze it was to clean and take care of my little condo.

D.