condo fees downtown St. Paul vs. single family home costs

[spectre000]

I own a condo in DT St. Paul. $0.50 per square foot is pretty average for HOA fee in DT. I pay just under that for my home, but also have way more amenities. I looked online and found this is what the Rossmor's fees cover "Heating, Air Conditioning, Sanitation, Snow/Lawn Care, Outside Maintenance, Hazard Insurance, Water/Sewer, Building Exterior, Security Staff, Professional Mgmt, Shared Amenities". Some buildings cover extra things like part of your cable/internet costs too. Also, the Rossmor building has been undergoing a major exterior repair or maintenance project. There's scaffolding around a portion of the building right now. So they may have had a big assessment or dues increase to cover the costs.

Also some buildings DT (or anywhere for that matter) have less than great management. The Gallery Tower had a horrible Board of Directors and ran their building nearly into the ground. So you'll find they have pretty high fees to make up for all the deferred maintenance, low building reserves, etc they experienced.

But an opposite example is the Union Depot lofts. They have incredibly low fees due to the fact Ramsey County owns the majority of the building. The county picks up the tab on a lot of expenses.

I'm sure my monthly fees aren't the same as if I owned a single family house. But mine cover water, heat, AC, security guards, a ton of building amenties (pool, fitness room, etc), underground parking, sewer, insurance and so on. Also about a year or two ago my building experienced a big power loss. The building management took care of all the repairs/insurance work. If it'd been my own house, I would've lost time off work making tons of phone calls to my insurance company, dealing with contractors over repair work, etc. I didn't have to deal with any of that mess. Having others in charge of those things is a huge load off my mind. I'm also not a big fan of shoveling or plowing out driveways and sidewalks after snowstorms before having to go to work.

For me, the good far outweighs any of the bad.

[rzzz]

It seems like an ok deal with heating and AC included. Are there any other condo buildings downtown St. Paul that you recommend? I need to find a pied a terre somewhere in the Twin Cities and was thinking a condo would be better than a single family home for the reasons you describe.

[spectre000]

Well don't just go by what I say, but for me, the Pointe, City Walk , Lowry, Great Northern are probably the best. There are likely many others. I'd avoid Galtier, Gallery, and the Fitzgerald personally.

The Lowry doesn't have it's own parking though. I think the nearby ramp is about ~$130 a month. So you've gotta factor that in if you have a vehicle. But it's a really nice building. City Walk is one of the oldest HOA in downtown. Nothing great to look at on the outside. But I think the units are quite nice. And it's a solid well run place.

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by golfgal

$1500/month will buy a $400,000+house depending on how much you have to put down....that's a lot of house....

I didn't say you couldn't buy a nice house in much of the Twin Cities for that -- but you can't in my neighborhood. In my neighborhood we have a lot of condos and single family houses, but you can't get a single family house for $1500/month unless you put down well over 20%. I was just throwing that out there because to some extent it does depend on location. I assume that's part of the reason why my neighborhood neighborhood DOES have so many condos; lots of people want to live here, but not everyone can or wants to spend a half million or up on a single family house. In the case of downtown locations, there just aren't single family homes, so it's either buy a condo or you choose a different neighborhood. No one is buying a condo in downtown St. Paul because they're bargain hunting.

[Oildog]

I was recently looking for condo/townhomes in downtown St. Paul. Unfortunately my conclusion was that the association dues in most complexes were too high for my liking. If I were to be walking distance to my office I may have considered it. But adding $400+ a month to a note seemed like a waste vs buying in WSP, Eagan or IGH. Considering the modest amenities in the area.