10-29-2018, 11:39 AM
(10-29-2018, 10:33 AM)tomh009 Wrote:(10-29-2018, 09:51 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: It's funny, city centre condos were the ones I looked at before the prices drove me to buying a house.
Years later, I realized it wasn't what I want and bought a 30 year old fully refinished unit for far far less than anything new, but maybe I wouldn't have had that (reasonably profitable and enlightening) lesson in home ownership without it.
Even five-year-old condos sell for much less than new ones (compare Arrow Lofts, for example, to DTK). People seem to be willing to pay a big premium for "new", and the same is true, to a somewhat lesser extent, for single-family houses.
The challenge and risk with older condos (just as with older houses!) is the maintenance if they have not been kept up. Eaton Lofts and 64 Benton, for example, are at over $1/sqft for condo fees, primarily due to the reserve fund contributions when a well-maintained building should be somewhere around 50 cents. I think your building is around 60 cents, which is still quite reasonable.
This is strange to me, given that it's generally expected these days that property is a growth asset.
As for condo fees, yes, I generally expect new places to be low balled. Fees are per sqft, but I think it's more enlightening to see the full cost. Our building might be a reasonable 60c/sqft, but our units are very large, meaning the costs are pretty high.
It's also difficult to compare fees, because the costs include different things, for example, in my building the fee includes hot and cold water, and cooling and heating (which are entirely water based--no compressor or heater), but not electricity (which runs the heating/cooling unit fan). How do you even break down that when comparing with a condo which has an electrically powered HVAC system.
And when looking at new units, estimating the utility costs is basically a crap shoot--even used ones, I still don't know how my lifestyle compares with the previous owner.