Is Buying a Condo Worth it in WASHINGTON DC (5 REASONS TO BUY A CONDO NOW)

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Is Buying a Condo Worth it in WASHINGTON DC (5 REASONS TO BUY A CONDO NOW)
Condos enjoyed a decades-long run of popularity in the Nation’s Capital. Then this thing called Covid hit and everyone scrambled to get out to the suburbs. They wanted land and space. This was short-sighted, even without knowing how long the pandemic would last. Now that we are coming up on the four-year anniversary of the world lockdown, how has condominium ownership fared? And is it time to consider buying a condo again?
Buyers have come back to the condo market, and the condo market is embracing them. The condo was in the corner of the room, smoking a cigarette, nursing a gin and tonic and saying, “Of all the gin joints in all the town, in all the world…”
I’m going to tell you five reasons why it’s a great idea to consider buying a condo.
1) Not many other people are...yet
Who do we always quote around here? Warren Buffet - Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. Since 2023 when mortgage rates started rising, we’ve seen a resurfacing in the interest in condos. Why? These are buyers who have been priced out of single-family homes. The rat race of chasing the new homes, watching the prices get bid up, the contingencies be waived, that got old after a couple years. Condos in DC basically fell off a cliff and became very difficult to sell. We’ve seen a resurgence of people coming back to reconsider a condo. Of course, city life having opened back up again has helped.
Historically, as in, pre-covid, condos weren’t as sought after in the suburbs as they were in DC. People wanted their city-living but when they moved out to Northern Virginia or Montgomery County Maryland it was to buy a house. That’s not the case anymore in many parts of Northern Virginia. I have a client who is currently finding multiple offers on condos in places like Oakton, Reston and Herndon.
2) The Condo Market is Ready to Embrace Buyers
There is enough for sale in many areas that the buyer now has options of places to see, and choices to make. This is a good feeling when the last decade has been a time where all choices have been taken from buyers. You won’t have to settle. You can get a place that checks most if not all your boxes.
3) Escalations are Minimal
In cases where there is interest from multiple buyers, translating to multiple offers, you won’t see escalations like you used to or that you see on houses. The price escalations may go up $10,000 - $15,000. And while I get that this is money you would rather not spend, this feels like a dream compared to what things used to be like with a mass exodus of the condo market to single family homes and escalations of hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price.
It's also easier to “predict” what will happen on a condo escalation as opposed to houses where it was anyone’s guess if it would go up $50,000, $100,000 or $300,000.
4) Minimal Upkeep
Do you want to spend time mowing lawns, shoveling sidewalks or constantly fighting mice. Because that’s what homeownership has boiled down to for us. We don’t want to spend our time doing these things and it can be a real drag. I miss the days of dumping my trash down a chute and never seeing it again. I won’t miss not being on the email list serv for the rat patrol for our alley, where we’re reminded to put a rock on our trash cans to keep the rodents away.
5) The Lender is Your Friend
You may recall that during the whole Covid pandemic, we also witnessed the collapse of the Surfside Condo building in Miami. Things changed with lenders as a result of this, and they changed for the better. Side note - I have a couple videos on condo documents and what you should look for in reviewing them.
Long before Surfside, I would tell anyone who would listen that I despise 1980’s construction. It feels shoddy no matter where it is. My condo in DC is from the early 80’s and it’s been riddled with issues that trace back to the corners that were cut when it was built. My parents had an early 80’s condo in Florida, same thing. You can usually tell 80’s construction by its general ugliness and popcorn ceilings. Surfside was also a 1981 product.
Your lender is going to do everything in their power to ensure you don’t find yourself in a Surfside situation. They have strengthened the requirements of condos, requiring larger amounts to be set aside for reserves, engineering studies in some areas and stronger insurance requirements.
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Melissa Terzis
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TTR | Sotheby's International Realty
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- Melissa Terzis | DC Real Estate Mama

Пікірлер: 8

@chasomwashere 5 ай бұрын

5 reasons to buy a condo now summary: - No one else is buying right now *Side Note: Ignore the reasons why people aren't buying right now Decent video though. Keep it going.

@DCRealEstateMama 5 ай бұрын

lol. I never do what other people are doing in real estate. People buy into group-think. That’s not where good decisions happen.

@od2437 3 ай бұрын

That alone is a good reason

@damonpaith8097 3 ай бұрын

😉 P R O M O S M

@user-lt9pq9fr5z 5 ай бұрын

We owned one in BC Canada and I will never, ever own a condo again. I'll leave my province if that is my only ownership model and move where I can buy another house. Condo/Strata is where all the worst aspects of renting and owning intersect. Insurance crisis- underwriters fleeing multifamily commercial, both across the US and in parts of Canada. this will keep getting worse. condos= claims for insurance STR platforms - condos are popular w STR hosts.Hosts don't care about complex bylaws. as this demand dissipates/laws are passed and enforced to crack down on STR activity, watch out below w the prices of these units FOMO buyers who think they'll be priced out forever if they don't jump into the first thing they qualify to buy, so will complain about every expense that goes into running a condo complex. (also part of the big three) Three Musketeers of bad condo owners who will fight tooth and nail passing budget that keep the complex/building in good repair and comfortable to live in. 1- "I didn't even want a condo" owner who the condo is their indexed to the housing market downpayment on the house they actually want. they want low fees to keep most of their money for the future house purchase and lowest mo fees possible to attract buyers when they sell. 2-landlord owners who don't care about living conditions in the complex/building. they want low fees to keep most of their money to purchase more RE not take care of the RE they already own. and lowest mo fees possible to attract buyers when they sell. 3 the "i'll be dead by the time the building caves in" owners who view condo ownership as subsidized housing and will never vote to pass an appropriate budget. they don't care about anyone who will be living in the complex yrs down the line. finally, it was a nightmare dealing w mice in a condo/strata title. they can come from anywhere and I had no control over the exterior. In my detached I was able to hire a good pest control person and seal up entry points. I also no longer have to worry about sharing walls w STR units and risking bedbugs, or people who enjoy their living conditions to resemble the local garbage dump so it thwarts even pest control contracts and precautions on my end.

@DCRealEstateMama 5 ай бұрын

Wow, that sounds like nothing we've seen here! What do you mean when you say "strata" - what's that? There are condos that are well run and condos that aren't. My own condo in DC was built in the 1980's. I wouldn't do this again. There was so much speculative building in the 80's and very little crackdown on bad builders and developers. I live in a house now and we've been unable to keep the mice out. It's also a pain. And my dog is useless on helping. Here in Arlington, Virginia, they are trying to increase density, which means more condo approvals could be in the pipeline. If condos are well run, they are great. I'm fine with the added monthly payment to handle insurance and management. It keeps the buildings here in good condition. Finding good managers is hard, but DC has cracked down on all STR's. Not saying they don't happen but it is not a rampant problem here.

@user-lt9pq9fr5z 5 ай бұрын

@@DCRealEstateMamastrata is just another word for condo title. some provinces in Canada used the word "condominum" from the US, others use the word "strata" from australia. They can be towers. smaller buildings, townhouses, duplexes or even "bare land strata" (like an HOA- where it's a SFD the owner does their own maint on the building, or fenced yard but you have a multi family commercial type policy on the common property, monthly fees, potential assessments, and additional rules to follow vs fully freehold owners. all the provinces will have slightly different rules on how multifamily is governed, just as I assume the rules for condo complexes in Florida will differ from rules in Maryland. Friends in insurance said the problems BC and Alberta were seeing (BC has earthquake and wildfire risk like Cali) with skyrocketing insurance, soaring deductibles, and even in some cases dropped policies has now spread to commercial multifamily across the US and other places in Canada as well. Does the government where you are mandate a fully funded model/contingency savings that fully pays for furture maintenance or are owners able to vote to delay/perpetually put off these expenditures until large issues surface? that alone would be a big difference from many of the issues we've seen in BC/AB in Canada. we also have condos that were built poorly from the start which also doesn't help. condo/strata FTHB where I live are shopping in a minefield where a misstep will bankrupt them unfortunately.

@DCRealEstateMama 5 ай бұрын

@@user-lt9pq9fr5z Interesting stuff. And I had no idea that Canada would have similar issues. We don't see those kind of issues here in the mid-Atlantic but we're not prone to hurricanes or earthquakes here either. But - in Florida, there is an insurance carrier of last resort that the state has in place, but you still have to have a minimum number of requirements to get that insurance. All carriers will require you to replace the roof for example, in Florida, every 20 years because even if it's in good condition the age alone is the issue. Here we haven't seen things like that.