Pros and Cons to buying a co-op

[mac58]

Im a single guy and live in NY, where house prices are nutz. . .for $400K u get a shit hole in a bad neighborhood. . .and not too many condos here. . .looking to buy a co-op found a nice one. . .any advice or information i should know. . .

[Simplex3]

Just one thing:


Move the f**k out of NY. You may make 25% less money in the Midwest but the cost of living is half.

[jspchief]

You could buy an enormous home in Des Moines for 400k.

Get the hell out of NY.

[noa]

You don't actually own your property when you buy a co-op. That's the main downside.

[stumppy]

$400,000 would buy you a very nice house around Springfield with enough left over to buy all the pu$$y a guy would ever want. :)

[Saulbadguy]

Move to Jersey.

[ptlyon]

Obviously the definiton of a co-op in Iowania is waaaaaay different then what it means in New Yawk.

[kepp]

My advice? Move. I spent 5 years in Los Angeles with similar housing prices and finally realized that, even with the decent salary of a software engineer, I wouldn't be able to get into a house without one of those "jumbo" or "interest-only" loans. No thanks. So I moved my family back to K.C., bought a house (twice the size and 40% of the cost of anything I could have gotten in L.A.). Now, after two years here, my salary is higher than what I was making in la-la land.

[nbkc fan]

Stay in NYC. That's where all the action is anyway. Careful to watch out for maintenance fees (association fees) - do a good estimate of what your real estate taxes will be, and then subtract that from your maintenance fees. Decide whether you get good value for what you're paying. Also, make sure you meet the prospective neighbors. They may have the ability to block a future sale to someone they don't approve of. Also, the rules and regulations can sometimes be stifiling. Check out a couple to see what the standard provisions are, and then see what the additional provisions are for the specific one that you are loking at.

[The Bad Guy]

That's kinda where I'm at now.

We moved to Northern Virginia and housing is ridiculous.

A two-bedroom condo goes for 450 k down here.

I refuse to piss all my money away on renting. Once my fiance gets her year of teaching experience, we are out of here and I plan on buying a house back in PA. 450,000 would net me a great house back there.