NWR-Questions for those of you livin' in a condo

or townhouse.
I am thinking of maybe trying to buy one since it will be a million years beofre we can afford a house and even if we could afford it it makes me sick to think of all that money but anyways, my FH says that if he owns property he refuses to have something adjacent to someone elses property. I think his concern is noice. We've both lived in a bunch of apartments and hate dealing with other people's noisiness.
Is this a factor where you live?
also, I keep hearing so many different things about whether it's worth it to buy a house or if a condo is better right now..help!

thanks.
We will have to wait and see where we are money-wise when we are finally done saving for this wedding of ours but I feel like at this point it's between renting an apartment for a few years which feels like throwing $$ away and staying with FILs for a few years which would be good money wise but not sure if we can go a long time without being on our own.again (we are living with them now and we did for a few years a few years ago too) ..argh..I don't know.
Thanks for your input, tho.
Any opinions on housing $$s? I know some people say they will eventually come down and others think they will just keep going uupppp

my honest opinion, the prices are going to stay the same for the next few months. which is good news for us soon to be newlyweds. there is no 'bubble' that is going to burst. but at least the prices don't sky rocket where no one can afford housing.

there is such a thing as 100% financing. i wouldn't suggest it b/c your monthly payment would be astronomical. however, if you or your fh is handy, you could buy something inexpensive that needs work and fix it up eventually. i've sold houses where couples only put $10k down and did a seller's concession on the closing costs.

I would only buy a place if you can afford to pay the mortgage without stretching too far and if you intend to live in the place for a long time.

Evidence of Bubble Mentality
Historically 63-67% of households have owned homes and this number fluctuates throughout the various business cycles. Currently home ownership is at an all time high of 70%. This excess demand has been brought on by lower interest rates after the stock market crash in 2000. The market was appreciating normally at that time, but the fed lowered interest rates to help the economy out of the recession we were about to get into. At that point all of the smart money went into housing and from 2000 through mid 2005 the housing market kept breaking all new records. At the same time banks started offering riskier mortgages and low/no documentation loans to help people get into these expensive houses, otherwise financial suicide. This is where the bubble mentality had started to take hold. You could do no wrong buying a house, because of its expected appreciation. Banks were irresponsible and willing to give 500,000 to people with combined incomes of about 100,000. Interest Only loans and Option Arms are running rampant in the market. The mentality was that we are all going to become wealthy real estate owners. I have 3 friends that have become contractors and speculators. The expectation was that the owner could just refinance once the house appreciated.

Prices have currently hit a point where just about everyone is priced out of the market. If you don’t have 10-20% down and cannot manage the payments of at least a 30 year term then do not buy. The market has peaked here on LI home inventory has increased by I think 30% and houses are taking much longer to sell. In my fiancés neighborhood you get the impression that the entire neighborhood is up for sale. We have visited a couple of open houses and laughed our way out after we say the price that the crap houses were selling for. People who own homes and looking to move up are not helped by the appreciation because the bigger houses these people are looking for are no longer 100-200K more than their current houses, they are 400-600 more than their current house. The mortgage becomes un-affordable even with the equity built up. A lot of the demand we currently see is not true home owner demand. Like I said earlier every one and their mother have become flippers. There is a large group of investors that was not around in the past. When returns no-longer meet expectations and this is beginning on the west coast these people will all swarm out of the market and prices will be forced down. This may be at work now evidenced by the large inventory in a seasonally low inventory time of year. The best thing to do is to ride down the bubble and buy when housing is no longer in favor, but that isn’t possible I think for most people and not even for me. As we are all getting married soon and want a place of our own. I think that all the people who could afford homes have bought, the “financially irresponsible people” and the flippers using the exotic mortgages have also bought. The ones left are either the very poor, those waiting out the bubble and young people like us starting off. I think that we aren’t going to go much higher than 70% home ownership and that the spring/summer 06 housing performance will be the nail in the coffin. Alan Greenspan will increase the Fed Funds rate at least two more times to 4.5 and then there is expectation that Ben B will also increase rates by 25-50 basis points. The 10 year bond should have risen by this point and 30year mortgages will be on their way to 7%. There are about 1 trillion dollars in ARM loans that will reset by 2007 and mortgage payments will rise 400-500$. People will all of a sudden question if they can really afford the home they bought. Rates are still historically low but prices are historically high. Higher interest rates and lower appreciation expectations will push house prices down. Also don’t let any real estate agent fool you its better to buy a cheaper house at a higher rate than a more expensive house at a lower rate. You can always pay the down principal with savings or refinance in the future if rates decline. Don’t be fooled the fundamentals do not support these prices. Income did not rise from 2000-2005 by much if any, rents did not rise much if any, we experienced really low inflation, the population did not all of a sudden double, so there is really nothing to support such high home prices. Not much changed from the late 90’s through 2005 to explain for such a large rise. That is my 2-3 cents in the argument

Thanks so much you guys for your input. I think that being in a condo would probably not be worth it b/c of the noise from what you have said..I know you always have neighbors but we've lived in lots of apartments and I'm talking about people keeping you up at night b/c they are being loud talking and walking directly overhead and stuff like that
I think we would have to wait for a house anyways probably for maybe a year or so at least but I want to start thinking about it so that we can start when we are finally ready to go..I just hate the thought of renting for a year or more and it's like throwing your money away and like I said even if we stayed where we are now and saved $$ it has other negatives...oh well..not really such a huge dilemma just wish we could get a house like right NOW!

we own a condo in Manhattan, and surprisingly our building is really quiet...noise is not a problem at all. The value of our apartment has gone up sooooo much - I think if you can afford to buy real estate, no matter what it is, you should

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Posted by alnem
however, if you or your fh is handy, you could buy something inexpensive that needs work and fix it up eventually. i've sold houses where couples only put $10k down and did a seller's concession on the closing costs.

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I recommend this highly... This is what FH and I did... We live in a Co-op, after 1 yr of us fixing it up, we had it re-appraised and it went up in value $120,000!!!

Best purchase we ever made... I was never going to let renting be an option...

Like someone else posted... Buy what ever you can afford, as long as you buy...

Good Luck!

we have a co op and we live downstairs.. the guy upstairs is so loud we call him 'thumper'.. I don't hear the ones next to us ever....

hope that helps!

We actually sublet a condo in long beach on the boardwalk and the people who own it are losing about $900 a month renting to us
1 bedroom-$2100 dollars
There maintence is close to $900 dollars and their mortgage is around $2000 a month.
For them to break even they would have to rent our place for $3000 a month and thats not happening

Oh about the noise, its so minimal in our place and we are never home...I never see my neighbors at all

do you think the noise mostly comes from the people being especially loud or no soundproofing/ etc. or a combo of both?