Newer condos for sale on Kauai, Maui, Big Island or Oahu?

[Calico Salsa]

Yes, the problem with group shared expenses, usually covered by the group fees, is that if some people in the group stop paying, the rest have to cover it or else things go bad.

That is, if your neighbor who owns a house stops paying for services, it isn't a problem for your home's services. But if 4 people in a 10-unit building stop paying dues, then the gardening can't get done and the roof doesn't get replaced and now your fees have to go up.

With the bad financial times, people in many places have stopped paying condo fees. That leaves the rest of the group to decide what to cut or how to handle the situation.

[KonaKat]

Most condo's HOA fees were "high" way before the market tanked and people started defaulting. Everything here is more expensive. The climate is excruciating on everything metal, wood, you name it. If you're ocean front, triple that notion. Sea air is very corrosive. Then, you have termites, dry rot etc. Insurance is expensive especially if you're in a flood zone or tsunami/hurricane zone. We have 35 year old ocean front condos here, wooden construction, nice and big too 1200sf 2/2 - maintenance fees about $1200 a month right now. I think about 200 or 300 of that is a special assessment for some major repairs done the past 2 years.

[HonuMan]

Originally Posted by KonaKat

Most condo's HOA fees were "high" way before the market tanked and people started defaulting. Everything here is more expensive. The climate is excruciating on everything metal, wood, you name it. If you're ocean front, triple that notion. Sea air is very corrosive. Then, you have termites, dry rot etc. Insurance is expensive especially if you're in a flood zone or tsunami/hurricane zone. We have 35 year old ocean front condos here, wooden construction, nice and big too 1200sf 2/2 - maintenance fees about $1200 a month right now. I think about 200 or 300 of that is a special assessment for some major repairs done the past 2 years.

Yikes. I'm curious: if you own a house, would you likely be spending $1,200 per month on whatever the condo fees cover? After my wife and I condo-sat for our friends, we looked into the possibility of moving into the building. They finished building several beautful condo towers in an area along the Willamette River just south of downtown Portland, just in time for the housing bubble to collapse. There were so many unsold units that, last year, they started cutting prices by up to 50%. Even at the new, lower prices, a 2-bedroom unit would have cost us more than twice what our 3-bedroom house in the suburbs is worth. Once we found out the monthly maintenance fee on top of the mortage payment -- 10% of the original assessed value of the unit (not the discounted sale price) -- we realized that moving there was impossible for us. In Portland, then, a given amount of money goes a lot further on a house than it does on a condo, even if you adjust for the city vs. suburban location. On Oahu, it seems to be the converse on the surface: a modest but decent condo is much cheaper than a modest but decent house. Once you add in the condo maintenance fees, though, the price difference seems to shrink. On the BI (where my wife is from), it seems to be more like it is in Portland.

[Ellwood]

Originally Posted by hothulamaui

yes, maui has newer condos but nothing in that price range. think the newest in that price would be the villas at kenolio maybe an REO

edited to add....don't forget the condo asso fees can add huge bucks to the bottom line.

maintenance fees can be $500-$1000 per month

[hothulamaui]

Originally Posted by Ellwood

maintenance fees can be $500-$1000 per month

and even higher than that sadly add it to the price of your condo and it is like adding another 100 thou to the price.

[Calico Salsa]

Originally Posted by HonuMan

Yikes. I'm curious: if you own a house, would you likely be spending $1,200 per month on whatever the condo fees cover? After my wife and I condo-sat for our friends, we looked into the possibility of moving into the building. They finished building several beautful condo towers in an area along the Willamette River just south of downtown Portland, just in time for the housing bubble to collapse. There were so many unsold units that, last year, they started cutting prices by up to 50%. Even at the new, lower prices, a 2-bedroom unit would have cost us more than twice what our 3-bedroom house in the suburbs is worth. Once we found out the monthly maintenance fee on top of the mortage payment -- 10% of the original assessed value of the unit (not the discounted sale price) -- we realized that moving there was impossible for us. In Portland, then, a given amount of money goes a lot further on a house than it does on a condo, even if you adjust for the city vs. suburban location. On Oahu, it seems to be the converse on the surface: a modest but decent condo is much cheaper than a modest but decent house. Once you add in the condo maintenance fees, though, the price difference seems to shrink. On the BI (where my wife is from), it seems to be more like it is in Portland.

It's an excellent question, but the answer kind of depends on a lot of factors. For example, the starting condition of either house or condo.

People who have never owned a house can be really startled at how much it costs to maintain a home. Something breaks and you fix it. Roof, plumbing, outside irrigation, on and on. The thing about owning a house is you can decide that you can delay a fix, if you can live with the problem. With a shared living like condo, not always.

I don't think a choice between house & condo can be all financial. You have to decide what type of living you prefer too. Can't stand shared walls? Don't want to do your own yard maintenance? OK with a smaller place? Want to bring in dogs or kids or guests whenever you want? Want to build a playset in the yard? Want to paint your place a color of your choosing? Some of those answers lead to a house, and some lead to a condo.

If you can really afford either (and that eliminates some people right there), then to me the biggest question is if you can live with making joint decisions and giving up some of the 'control' of how you live. We can't, so a condo is out of the question. We want to decide what happens and when, for our house, yard, garage, etc. We don't want to deal with group decisions, depend on other people paying their bills, etc.