I am planning on buying a condo or townhouse by the year's end and have noticed that prices have been dropping significantly lately. Just a year or two ago people were dropping near 400k on 10 year old 2 bedroom condos. Now I am seeing brand new condos near tysons corner and vienna metro for 270k. I also read that the NoVA area has had over 100,000 condo units built this past year but only 14k have been sold. These realtors are now trying to drop prices and cut closing fees just to get buyers interested.

I could see this situation coming long ago because I knew that there wasn't a large pool of buyers who can afford to spend 400k on condos. Hopefully prices continue to drop so I can afford one. I feel bad for those who bought recently at such outrageous prices with the sole purpose of using it an investment. If they were to try and sell now im sure they would lose quite a bit of money.

 

Thanks for your sympathy Anton... Wanna buy a condo from me? I need to ride this out for at least another year before I liquidate and can hopefully catch a little bit of a depressed market for single family homes.

 

I've been watching the prices too and there have been pretty significant drops even in just the past month or two...looking to buy something early next year hopefully

 

Interest rates are still high. You're still paying condo fees out the *** and money you cant re-cooperate. Look at townhouses if anything.

 

The ad I saw in the paper had condo fees for $132 a month...which I don't think is too bad. Total monthly payments including condo fees and any applicable taxes came out to $1200. Although, I'd definately rather have a townhouse, too bad they are still quite expensive.

 

$1200??? how did you figure that out? What kinda rate, how much down? You must be putting down a big down payment or have a great rate to get even close to 1200. Or the condo costs $200K or so.

 

^^ yeah, Id have to agree with that. Rhea and I are going to look at these condos in Manassas park going for 310 for a brand new 2 bdrm 2 bath 1470 sq ft place which has been unheard of at that price for some time now. I am finally going to jump into the market very soon.

 

I'm also looking at buying a townhouse in the near future...maybe late this year or early next year. But the prices are still high. I'm just waiting for it to fall so I can catch the good prices.

 

This is what was said on the payment plan: with no downpayment, after condo fees and taxes the net cost is 1685 a month. With average tax savings from owing the condo you are paying 1200 a month. The cost of the condo is 270k.

 

270 in the tysons area is not bad at all.... but still...i hate the idea of condo fees. I'd rather pay home association fees.

 

Definately agree with you on that. Are any of you all current condo/townhouse owners? How many of you guys are renting...cuz rent is a bitch esp. knowing that you arent getting any of it back. This is what sucks about living here...you may get a decent salary, but the cost of living here is crazy. Take my salary down 1 hour on 95 south and you can afford a brand new single family 3 bedroom, basement, big yard home for 190K. Trust my, my roomie in college is making about 10 grand less than I do and he bought this house last summer. That same house would go for 500k around here.

 

ya house prices in NoVA are inflated 58% from what I read in the post, meaning they are over priced by 58%!!! My friend in orlando just bought a brand new 4 bed. 3bath house (single family) for like 240k....same house here would run you 550k+...

im also in the market for townhouse/condo. I do agree condo fee's are high, the other thing to take into condiseration is in case of a market collapse, the riskiest of all properties are condo's which suffer first and the most when compared to townhomes and single fams....

 

care to explain why they are the first to be hit?

 

While nationally the prices of single-family homes have pretty much always gone up over time, that isn't true of condos. In fact, single-family homes can fall in value in some regions at certain times. The condo market is simply more volatile.

When it's time to sell, there are usually some other units in your condo complex also on the market. This means that the home you're selling isn't so unique and you may lose a little bargaining power.

The homeowner himself might not have to do much maintenance, but he will have to pay maintenance fees to get it done by someone else.

Condos are often rented out, and if a complex you move into has a lot of renters, you'll likely find that they don't respect and care for their homes like owners would.

Not all complexes are alike. Older, more established ones can be in better financial shape, with more experienced and healthier homeowners' associations. If you want to paint your garage door red or install some funky outdoor lights, you may not be allowed to do so.


here's a link w/ more info. on condo's...

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...ide/P61933.asp

 

So, does anyone know of any Townhomes around the Sterling, Reston, Herndon, Centerville, Chantilly area for close to 300k??

I am in the market as we speak and it would hurt to buy a condo when a townhome is affordable somewhere else.