Planning to buy a condo or townhome in this market (Atlanta: 2013, apartments)

[garihc27]

First time homebuyer planning to buy a condo or townhome at Carlyle Woods
I understand the tough nature of the market right now, but am planning to live in this property for atleast 5-6 years. After having looked around at various properties, this one seems to be selling hot in this market

"Despite the market’s general weakness, several developments have performed quite well. They include TWELVE at Centennial Park; Aqua at 10th and West Peachtree streets; Carlyle Woods at North Druid Hills and Briarwood roads; The Stacks at Fulton Cotton Mill; eon at Lindbergh; Studioplex on Auburn; and The Atlantic at Atlantic Station." from <article>

Any thoughts ? Should I wait till I can afford a single family house or take the plunge?

[lastminutemom]

Originally Posted by garihc27

First time homebuyer planning to buy a condo or townhome at Carlyle Woods
I understand the tough nature of the market right now, but am planning to live in this property for atleast 5-6 years. After having looked around at various properties, this one seems to be selling hot in this market

"Despite the market’s general weakness, several developments have performed quite well. They include TWELVE at Centennial Park; Aqua at 10th and West Peachtree streets; Carlyle Woods at North Druid Hills and Briarwood roads; The Stacks at Fulton Cotton Mill; eon at Lindbergh; Studioplex on Auburn; and The Atlantic at Atlantic Station." from <article>

Any thoughts ? Should I wait till I can afford a single family house or take the plunge?

Here goes.. are you familiar with the Sembler project that is being proposed/planned for that area? I won't go into the details if you are, but if you aren't you need to understand that in 5 years, when you are ready to sell, you will be competing with a ton of newly built units.

[IntownHomes247]

Single family are almost always a better investment than condos and townhomes (although townhomes are better than condos). And just because a development is selling well now, doesn't mean that it will retain that popularity in 5-6 years when you're ready to sell (many of those other developments that aren't doing well now are 5-6 years old).

I'd take a good long look at my goals and my timeline if I were you. Would you be able to afford a single family home within the next 12 months? Or will it take you 2-3 years? If it's a short term delay, I'd probably wait. But if the choice is between paying rent for several years or paying on a mortgage, I'd probably go with a townhome and hope for the best. The odds are that if you stay in it for at least 5 years, even if you don't make a significant profit you probably at least won't lose as much money as you would renting for that amount of time.

You might also want to see if you can find seller with a single family home who'd be willing to go with a lease-purchase option. They're somewhat rare, but more sellers are considering them in this market.

[noah]

While I like condos IntownHomes is correct that single family homes generally do better, especially outside the urban core (Midtown for example). Sounds like what you really want is a home but price comes into play. I am assuming its price and location as you could probably find a single family home but it would just be a ways out. If you like the area and you plan on keeping it for 5-6 years I think you will be fine from an investment standpoint.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by garihc27

First time homebuyer planning to buy a condo or townhome at Carlyle Woods
I understand the tough nature of the market right now, but am planning to live in this property for atleast 5-6 years. After having looked around at various properties, this one seems to be selling hot in this market

Two things after I saw their site:

1) Were they built AS condos, or is this a "conversion"? The sure do look like souped-up apartments to me. I'm going to take a guess that these were rental apartments that were turned condo. If that's the case, it's not a good buy. Apartments for the most part in Atlanta are built pretty poorly. Even if they're condoed out, most of the time you're only talking about upgrades to the carpet, appliances/kitchen, and paint - NOT soundproofing or fire safety features. If these were built more solidly as condos from the ground up, they're a reasonable deal considering the location - if they're conversions - pass.

2) Just like Miami, Atlanta is over building condos. While the market for them is better here than Miami right now, eventually there's simply going to be too many of them compared to the number of people who want to live in them. If you plan on living in it 5-6 years and don't have high dreams of tripling your money when you sell, you're fine. If you want to sell it for $700,000 in 5 years - pass. Many of the new condos that are being built are in the "luxury" price range. Those who have more reasonably priced units in a few years will have a much better time selling them.

[lastminutemom]

These were, I believe apartments, cause I think I lived in them way back when. They had actually, though been built as condos, but when not enough sold, were actually converted to apartments.

The Sembler development, if it happens, as proposed today, will have a mix of prices -- so some of the units may be in the same price range as the poster's desired complex.

[Merin]

I would buy a townhome in this market only if (1) It was in a nice area (2) It was 4 bedrooms with a 2 car garage.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

These were, I believe apartments, cause I think I lived in them way back when. They had actually, though been built as condos, but when not enough sold, were actually converted to apartments.

The Sembler development, if it happens, as proposed today, will have a mix of prices -- so some of the units may be in the same price range as the poster's desired complex.

Well, again, if they had actually from planning to build stage been built AS condos from the start, then maybe they're more solid than apartments are here. Ask about stuff like how many units there are in-between fire walls - are there sprinklers - etc. Doubtful they do this, but ask if the complex has a "visitors unit" that they let tenants rent out for out of town guests, and if they'll let you stay in one for a night - then you can listen for sounds up and below to see how the wall and ceiling/floor insulation is.

Sembler? Darn, they're awful. They do a lot of shopping centers in the area, and did one only blocks from my house. They don't pay attention to details, leave things undone, and also create dangerous traffic flows. A chunk of my town showed up for their meeting when this center was at the planning stages to discuss the dangerous enter/exit areas they had for the center, showing them how it created accident-prone conditions unless they shifted them. They seemed concerned but built it as-designed anyway, even though dozens of people pointed it out to them. Now it's a mini gridlock area around there with fender benders and near collisions every single day. At first people emailed them to address it but they never replied to a single email. Personally I'd not have anything to do with any retail or residential project Sembler has a foot in. Just my opinion.

[garihc27]

Thanks for all the replies. Wonderful information for a newbie.
I am still debating buying the townhome for the following reasons,

1) Currently Centex Homes is developing Cobblestone at Brookhaven
and Pulte is developing Views at Lenox Crossing (broken link) both around 300K and most of the units are sold out already, so the area seems to be attracting lots of people.

2) After reading about the Semblar project, it seems that most if not all will be built by 2009 and once I plan to sell around 2013 all of the Semblar units will be occupied and I won't face major competition from them. Also I feel they are more high-end units and won't be comparable with Carlyle Woods (190K)

Won't the area rating go up considering new shopping and local restaurants, movie theater.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by garihc27

and Pulte is developing Views at Lenox Crossing (broken link) both around 300K and most of the units are sold out already, so the area seems to be attracting lots of people.
.

I'm going to assume that everyone buying those homes at Lenox Crossing don't own King sized beds. Did you notice that for $330k+ the Master Bedrooms are only 14x12 feet ?