Im going to be a first time home buyer in the near future and was wondering how many of you own right now. Whats the going rate for a decent 1 or 2 bedroom condo? What are your average monthly payments and homeowners fees. i am wondering if it is feesible on my salary. Helpful advice please

12/11/2006 4:47:00 PM

Dont buy a condo.

12/11/2006 4:47:22 PM

I own, well the bank "owns" it..


If its your first time, I would recommend a town house... unless you're married, kids, etc. If you're single go for the town house. Do you really want to spend your weekends mowing the grass and maintaining a yard??

12/11/2006 4:52:18 PM

I'm about to

but mine is being built at my farm

and yeah, I wouldn't get a condo unless you were dead set on that lifestyle

12/11/2006 4:55:06 PM

whats wrong with a condo? i like the one level design more than a town house. and i want something relatively cheap. like in the 90,000-100,000 range

12/11/2006 4:56:37 PM

depends on where you are at


I would look at the appreciation in the area of a condo vs a 100k home

not to mention hoa costs

unless you just really don't wanna mess with cutting the grass

I'm leaning towards home ownership as your best option financially (down the road)

but I don't deal with condos alot, most everything I deal with is raw land, farm land, timberland, and recreational properties with the occassional residence

12/11/2006 4:59:07 PM

^ What he said.

Ever notice how new condos and townhomes tend to be pricey, but 20 year old ones are dirt cheap? I find it hard to believe that those places weren't nice at one time.

Also, the $100+ monthly homeowners dues will give you an extra $15k in buying power if you put that towards a mortgage on a home. In other words, your payment is about the same whether you buy a $100k townhome or a $115k house.

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 5:03 PM. Reason : s]

12/11/2006 5:01:28 PM

depends on the area. condo's make sense in an urban area ie near downtown.

12/11/2006 5:03:21 PM

^ I can agree with that, but you just have to be careful. Those areas are the exception and not the rule.

12/11/2006 5:04:23 PM

I "own" a condo.
Payment is about $1300 a month to the bank.

I would strongly suggest that if you get a condo make sure that it is in a non college based area. I feel that this is the one thing I did not account for when buying, and regret it almost every day.

12/11/2006 5:04:33 PM

If you do buy condo/town house make sure all the ones around you are owned and not rented.. That would make a difference.

12/11/2006 5:05:20 PM

As an example, you can buy a 1 bd 1ba condo on glenwood south for 225,000 at the minimum. If I remember correctly, the HOA is $180. I really do not see the value of these condos going up any time soon. Right next to those condos, they are building http://www.712tucker.com these and they will start at 125k. Those will appreciate in value much faster than the ones above Hi5.

If you are buying in Wake County, use http://msweb01.co.wake.nc.us/realestate/ this site to see everything you need to know about a house. How many owners, tax value, how much they bought it for. This is important to see if any of these people are just trying to flip the property.

12/11/2006 5:09:01 PM

I own a 1500 sq. ft. 3 bedroom brick house on a quarter acre lot. Nice size place to start a family. I love it. My mortgage payment (financed 100% but have killer good credit) is $505/month.

Oh yea, did I mention I live in a small ass town in Eastern NC? So I guess I can't add too much to your discussion as most folks can't rent a place for that cheap, let alone own it (with the bank).

12/11/2006 5:11:36 PM

will own a 3 br 2.5 bath house in uptown Charlotte in about 6-8 months.

can't wait for it to be built!

12/11/2006 5:11:46 PM

I own a townhouse and really wish I had sucked it up and bought a house. Here are the reasons why.

The most recent was my girlfriends car getting towed for being parked 2 inches off the edge of the driveway. That experience + the hundred bucks it cost really sucked.

Other ongoing issues are paying over $100 a month for maintenance I could do myself in under an hour a week. Sharing a wall with people who get up about 4 hours before me. Lack of parking. etc etc.

The main perk with a townhome besides the obvious (not mowing grass, etc) is that you can get a lot more square footage for the money. If you could put a yard to good use I would highly recommend buying a house.

Divide the homeowners dues by 6 and whatever that figure comes to multiply by 1000, thats about how much more you could spend on a real house and keep the same payment.

12/11/2006 5:14:28 PM

Quote :

"Divide the homeowners dues by 6 and whatever that figure comes to multiply by 1000, thats about how much more you could spend on a real house and keep the same payment."

Where did you get this equation and what is it factoring in? Is it supposed to take into account the maintenance that you'll have to pay for by owning the home or something?

The reason I ask is that a 30 year mortgage in the low 6% range should cost around $100/month for every $1500 financed. I figured a $200 HOA due was worth about $30,000 in buying power, but then the buyer is responsible for the maintenance/repair of the exterior which will eat away a lot of that money over time.

12/11/2006 5:35:29 PM

i have a condo

107,500 with 20% down comes out to $711/month on a 15 yr mortgage. (granted i bought a little over 4 yrs ago when rates were a bit lower)

HOA runs $160/mth

total with insurance/utilities ends up about 1,000/mth


i like it. your payments actually go toward the principal instead of taking on some monstrous loan with high utilities like a house. build some equity in the meantime that you cna throw on a real house in the low 200's when you're ready.

Honestly if you buy a $115,000 home good luck finding that in an area where it will appreciate a lot. And good luck keeping all four of your hubcaps while you live there. i would hate living in a shitty rundown house, would rather not worry about maintenance, and i run my heat about 15-20 days a year. It can honestly be 35 degrees outside and its still 73 inside without the heat on.




[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 5:44 PM. Reason : a]

12/11/2006 5:42:02 PM

hubcaps?

12/11/2006 5:46:23 PM

I own my own home

12/11/2006 5:55:06 PM

do you need a downpayment? what about first time home buyer loans and stuff

12/11/2006 6:13:44 PM

^ Should probably be talking to your bank to get pre-approved. No, you don't necessarily need a down payment. Just know that the cost of putting 0% down is usually an extra 1% added to the loan.

12/11/2006 6:17:02 PM

Yea and you have to pay GAP insurance, which on my little 55k loan runs about $20/month. Not much extra, but little shit like that can add up. You can knock that off once you pay down like 10% of the principal I think. I am looking to possibly sell my house next year and flip it for about 20+ after doing some cleaning up around here and repainting and shit. Gonna be able to drop that on a downpayment for a house in town, and even though the loan will be bigger, my payments will remain about the same, and my taxes and insurance will actually be cheaper.

12/11/2006 6:23:33 PM

cant you get insurance and tax escrowed into the loan payments?

12/11/2006 6:27:41 PM

I just bought a single family home for pretty much all the reasons previously stated. Traditionally these appreciate faster than condos/townhomes. Also, buying a condo would be like still living in an apartment. If you get stuck with a crappy neighbor above/under/next to you then it sucks big time. As far as townhouses go, I would much prefer to spend some time mowing my lawn a few time a month opposed to shelling out $100-$200 for home owner dues.

12/11/2006 6:32:44 PM

true, but im lookin at something i can afford on 36,000 a year

12/11/2006 6:35:52 PM

Well, regardless of what you buy, be sure not to overextend yourself and make sure you plan on being here at least 5 years.

12/11/2006 6:39:51 PM

i definetely think i will be here for 5 years. do you think 36,000 a year is enough to own a home?

12/11/2006 6:49:44 PM

with 30,000 down sure

12/11/2006 6:56:07 PM

It will be tight. Just be sure you account for taxes and insurance on top of your mortgage when deciding how much you can afford. Be sure to get a safe mortgage you your payments don't start out really low for a year and then jump up really high. Also, don't postpone saving for retirement.

12/11/2006 6:56:12 PM

^^^I have a friend who bought a townhouse off tryon, with a teacher's salary. They make less than you, you can do it with $36k.

12/11/2006 7:17:47 PM

I bought a house thinking I'd be here 5 years.

Now I can't wait to leave.

Don't do what I did.

12/11/2006 7:43:23 PM

what'd you did lefty?

12/11/2006 7:43:57 PM

Got a job away (7 hours) from my family & 5 hours from my school/friends/etc. - paid great, so I took it.

Now I wanna be back "home" so bad I can't stand it. The house I got here is bomb, but I just bought like 12 months ago, and I'm afraid to lose dough on it if I jet back...not to mention it'll buy half the house in Raleigh vs. here (Charleston, WV).

If you're changing your whole freaking life, RENT for awhile until your immature mind makes itself up.

EDIT: But lemme answer the OP: Got my house for $120k (1500 sq. foot + 2 car garage, no neighbors on 100 feet each side, 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, deck) Nice subdivision in Charleston. As you can tell, living costs here are dirt cheap, and I'm in a nice part of the state. I saved up money in HS & college (admittedly, a scholarship helped that cause) and threw down 20K to avoid that ghey GAP insurance tax or whatever (PMI, it's also called). I pay $578/month (30 year mortgage). No, $120k won't buy this in a non-ghetto part of Raleigh

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 7:50 PM. Reason : .]

12/11/2006 7:45:38 PM

These days you don't have to pay PMI even if you don't put 20% down.

but most lenders won't tell you that.

12/11/2006 8:12:38 PM

You can get a piggyback but that's just more closing costs + a higher interest rate.

12/11/2006 8:27:18 PM

Quote :

"These days you don't have to pay PMI even if you don't put 20% down. but most lenders won't tell you that."

Are you talking about getting a first mortage for 80% and a second for 20% or similar loan? If so, there are disadvantages to that as well.

Where do you want to live Republican? Inside the beltline, North Raleigh, West Raleigh, etc. Would you be willing to go to Garner, Knightdale, Apex, Holly Springs, etc?

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 9:07 PM. Reason : l]

12/11/2006 9:05:40 PM

Look into NCHFA...that's what I'm currently doing

http://www.nchfa.com/Homebuyers/HBwhatweoffer.aspx

12/11/2006 9:07:03 PM

i want to live anywhere i can afford that isnt a shithole, so im flexible. raleigh, cary, morrisville,

12/11/2006 9:58:14 PM

gl with cary and morrisville

12/11/2006 10:00:05 PM

im just saying im open to anywhere that fits my constraints

12/11/2006 10:02:07 PM

yeah, I gotcha, just hard to find something in Cary/Morisville that will meet those constraints

12/11/2006 10:04:48 PM

What about one of the new townhomes off Tryon? That area is seeing a lot of development and buying into it might be a good investment. It's a cheap area, relatively safe and close to anywhere you need to be in Raleigh with the beltline around the corner.

12/11/2006 10:09:18 PM

I have a few buddies that bought places out of there. Pretty nice and I think their equity increased before they were finished being built.

12/11/2006 10:16:44 PM

i'll be a first time home owner/buyer here in about a year or so

not sure where i'll be living, work will dictate that-- could be a high cost of living area like seattle or a "low cost" of living area like mikwaukee

will be there for 4 years then move again and be somewhere for 3 before i move again and hopefully settle in somewhere for a little longer (hoping for the rdu area)

holler at buying 3 places in the span of <10 years

12/11/2006 10:18:57 PM

http://fmrealty.com/site/property/search.asp

This is my favorite place to search. It's updated daily, easy to search, and uses Yahoo Maps for the maps. There is also a mortgage calculator when you look at a house.

I don't know what you're looking for, but there tend to be a lot of homes in the low 100k range around Louisburg Rd (zip 27616), Knightdale, Garner, Apex/Holly Springs, etc. Sometimes you might find promising areas in the 27604 (think Lions Park area) and 27606 (Gorman/Kaplan/Yates Mill area) zip inside the beltline as well.

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 10:37 PM. Reason : l]

12/11/2006 10:36:50 PM

lions park on louisburg road is actually nice i think

12/11/2006 10:47:38 PM

That area is really promising. It has appreciated a lot in the last couple of years, but I think it has a lot left in it. I looked at one house over there for $118k that was an immaculate ranch from the 50's with hardwoods throughout. I didn't buy it because it was basically the last house on the block (right at the edge of the neighborhood), but if it had been deeper inside the neighborhood I'd probably be living there today. The homes have a pretty high variance in price over there...Some are going in the low 100's, but a few blocks away homes might go for $200+.

I'd stay on the west side of Raleigh Blvd. if possible if I were looking in that area. Houses there tend to pop up and disappear pretty quickly, so get in touch with a good realtor and check the listings daily if you're serious.

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 11:04 PM. Reason : ;p]

12/11/2006 11:02:35 PM

Quote :

""These days you don't have to pay PMI even if you don't put 20% down. but most lenders won't tell you that." Are you talking about getting a first mortage for 80% and a second for 20% or similar loan? If so, there are disadvantages to that as well."

yes there are disadvantages to doing it that way, however there are also places that will finance straight up 100% of the loan and add 1% to the rate, you can also get the PMI waived if you take some 3 hour class. http://www.coastalfcu.org is one, search around smaller banks will probably do it. also there are federal programs based on income levels that allow bigger banks to make loans to people with "just out of school" type incomes <55K

12/11/2006 11:10:47 PM

I'm a coastal FCU member. I took that class, but I chose not to do their first time home buyer's loan with PMI waived. It is a hell of a deal for anyone who wants to put 0% down though.

12/11/2006 11:15:58 PM

then why did you chose not to do it?

12/11/2006 11:33:34 PM