Quote:
Originally Posted by UFO
We've owned our current condo for the past 6 years, sank about $45k over that time in special assessments only, on top of the $250/mth strata fees which have since grown to just over $300/mth for the past 2 years. We considered selling about 3 years ago just prior to finding out about the building envelope remediation. Fast forward to now and our unit has probably lost about $20k in market value, despite the $40k we put into it for full building envelope remediation with 10 yr warranty and peace of mind, so I'm considering a net loss of $60k. So yes, I feel all of your guys' skepticism buying into a condo, new or old.
During our time of ownership we've also been frugal with our lifestyle, it's the way we roll, but by no means do we live uncomfortably. We've been able to take numerous nice (by our standards anyways) vacations, have newer reliable vehicles, have some fancy hobbies/toys, contributed to our retirement. We have been aggressively paying down our principle to build our equity.
Having said all of that, our downpayment our new house is just a bit over 50% and as previously mentioned we're borrowing $300k for our detached house in Coquitlam. A house similar to this would be $2500-$3000/mth to rent. We looked into renting for 6-12 months to see what the market would do while we were looking for our house, and we were willing to live in a suite/basement for a while since its only shorterm. But we saw what was available in the $1000-1500 range which is what would make this arrangement even worthwhile for us, and the selection sucked. So as I previously mentioned, our minimum monthly commitments are about $1200/mth for the mortgage. We plan on kicking a few bills extra each month above that directly into the principle. Basically we're planning on 1 income to take care of all house-related expenses and continue to tackle the mortgage aggressively, then we'll be living/saving off the 2nd income. And we fully expect, though are not counting on, this property to increase in value over our time of ownership. The area has gone up probably 10-15% over the past 12 months--we could have saved an easy $50-70k had we been in a position to buy this a year ago. If we were looking at a condo, not sure we would take the same approach. But at the same time I wouldn't be thinking to live in a condo for more than 5 years. This house, we plan to be here for 15+ years so the considerations are much different and we have the benefit of time on our side.
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Thank you for sharing your numbers. How old is your condo and where? Building envelope and roof replacements are two the biggest things that worry me with condos right now, to the point where I am fairly skeptical about buying.
So you sold the condo and bought a detached home? I feel like that is probably the only safe choice in terms of buying property. One just can't expect property values to rise like it has over the last decade, especially for condos.
We are looking at a low-rise around the Brentwood area and only because the building is relatively newer (2008) and I don't see the values dropping heavily even if there is a minor correction (proximity to skytrain and Brentwood mall rebuild).
One more binding condition is that we would have to stay at that unit for at least 5 years for it to make sense. Ultimately it doesn't make sense math wise, and my gf is doing this based on what she wants emotionally. I have no such emotional attachment and its just been
the whole way for me.