Consider Condos in Your Home Search

In the past couple of years housing prices across the country have been rising. This change has led many prospective buyers to believe that becoming a homeowner is beyond their grasp. Before resigning yourself to remaining a renter, however, there is another path toward homeownership that you should consider: buying a condo. Condos typically have a much lower entry price, lowering the barrier to entry. In addition to this, many condominium complexes take care of a significant amount of exterior maintenance and landscaping. This helps to lower the monthly cost of living for the owner. 

Purchasing a condo provides you with many of the same benefits that owners of traditional single-family homes get, such as building up equity and receiving tax benefits. If you are a renter then your monthly payment simply goes into the pocket of the landlord. An owner of a house or condo, however, does not lose that money. A large chunk of your monthly mortgage payment is paid towards the loan balance, meaning that the money is going towards building you wealth in the long term. The remainder of your monthly mortgage payment goes to your lender as interest. When you go to sell the property you will regain the money paid towards the balance of the loan after you pay off the mortgage. This is a big deal, considering that if you are just renting then the money you pay every month is simply gone. Even if you do not see yourself living in a condo forever, it will help you to get your foot in the door of homeownership. The equity that you build up in your condo will go a long way towards a downpayment on a single family home down the road. 

If you would like to have a discussion about what makes a condo different than a traditional house to see if this might be a beneficial financial move for you, give our team of real estate experts a call. We would love to have a conversation with you about your options. You may be closer to homeownership than you think!

For more information about condos and their role as a possible housing option, take a look at this article from Keeping Current Matters.