Downsize from SFH to townhome

[lauradrops]

So we did the opposite. Moved from a 3000 sf townhome to a 1200 sf single family home.

Loved the TH in NC but moved back to NY.

To answer cost questions- HOA was 145 a month total. 110 was for the townhome hoa (covered everything outside & yard maintenence) 35 was for my subdivision (covered lake & grounds maintenance, playgrounds and walking trails) Worth every penny in my opinion.

My property taxes were 2900 per year.

We loved living in the TH and never heard any neighbors at all. It is the easiest living we ever did. We were only responsible for the 2 decks so it was almost maintenance free. They did a great job of keeping everything pristine and powerwashed the exterior every other year and painted every few years as needed.

 

[Souschef]

If anyone care to share, what’s the HOA of your townhome. Does that include insurance, or you pay home insurance separate ? and real estate taxes - cheap or expensiVe?

I was the treasurer of my HOA for 25 years, so I have a pretty good idea. The HOA fees pay for building insurance, outside maintenance and gardening as well as a reserve. We had condo insurance for the inside of our unit. Our property taxes were limited by Prop 13, and were about $2500 a year.

 

[Teacher Terry]

My property taxes are 400/year but Nevada has an interesting tax formula where the age of your house is taken into consideration. My condo is 44 years old. A new one would have higher taxes. My hoa dues aren’t comparable since we have central heating, ac and water which are included. Two years ago when I was shopping for one most condos didn’t include the above and were 250/month for outside maintenance, grounds and pool.

 

[COcheesehead]

If anyone care to share, what’s the HOA of your townhome. Does that include insurance, or you pay home insurance separate ? and real estate taxes - cheap or expensiVe?

Insurance for the outside is in your HOA expense. You need to buy insurance for the walls in and contents. The insurance included in your HOA may or may not be adequate and if a big claim hits the property, special assessments may occur.
Property taxes are like any other real estate so based on your area’s accessed value formula.
As I mentioned in another thread. Always, always check to see if a property has a reserve study, understand it and see how it applies to the HOA reserves. No reserve study, run away fast. Underfunded reserves, buyer beware. Reserves or lack of them show how the HOA is managed and what time bombs are hidden on the property.
I served on three HOA boards.

 

[JP.mpls]

I agree that it seems most townhouses are 2 story with BR upstairs. Most people want no stairs in later years.

Plus the already mentioned common wall noise issues. They're certainly better than an apartment style where you can have additional noise above or below.

Chevy, I swear most of the townhomes we look at have stairs everywhere.
It is obviously a way to have more square footage in a smaller footprint.
I've seen single level patio homes, but most are fairly new, so they are located in suburbs way out of the city.
We have been living in the city our whole lives, so we are both fairly reluctant to make that move.
My partner recently sold her condo, and we both experienced some of the negatives of condo living. I would rent, before buying another condo.
I'm also still interested in having a garage.
JP

 

[Teacher Terry]

Many states now require reserve studies and for reserves to have a certain level of funding.

 

[JP.mpls]

Or they are great, and 2 years later, the the next neighbor isn't. I have neighbor noise issues in a SFH, that started with new renters. Never any issue in 17 years prior. The new ones?



Their house is an odd alignment behind ours, we share a corner, so their house is sideways behind ours - their back yard pool and their driveway run parrallel along the back of our house. Not a zero lot line at all.



A 5yo and 7yo - even their dad has said to me, "wow no one else's kids are as loud as mine" meanwhile he works out of his garage most days doing (loud/machinery) wood saw stuff.

4 dogs, two large barkers who are kept on the patio most of the time.

Dad likes to have music on (bad, 80's up tempo stuff), and has a good size party speaker. I've asked him to keep it down but there is no good volume for "We built this city."



I could go on, but because of this family, I will never consider a townhouse, condo, and if I have to downsize I'll just find a smaller house, and no one behind me ever again!

Aerides. Ugh. I have great neighbors at my existing home. Your scaring me.

 

[COcheesehead]

Many states now require reserve studies and for reserves to have a certain level of funding.

Very important and prospective buyers and current owners need to be aware of upcoming future common property expenses and how much the current reserves will cover them.
We moved from a TH built in 2017 into a SFH in 2020. We saw issues throughout the TH property, stucco, cement, walls cracking, etc. The issues were one of the reasons we sold when we did. We referred to it as the “crack” house, we saw so many foundation issue warning signs.
The HOA was young so reserves were small, plus the HOA had an attitude that the property was new so they had time. We just saw in the HOA meeting minutes that the board at our old TH is now going to have special assessments to fix all the issues.

 

[Aerides]

Aerides. Ugh. I have great neighbors at my existing home. Your scaring me.

Yup when folks move you never know! Mine are nice people, and they are quiet at night, so there's that. They are just oblivious to how noisy they are, and I'm sensitive to it. If I play music outside it's the Spa channel, quietly, in the background, where there's no chance next door would know I'm even out there!

 

[Sunset]

... I have moved back into a condo built by the same builder. I did that specifically because they are so quiet. I am on the top floor. The only neighbor I have is below me and across the hall. That’s very lucky but I never hear anything when I am in other condos in my building. I don’t have a yard but have a balcony and my 2 tiny dogs are pad trained. I love not having to deal with yard work or maintenance. The downside of course is that the buildings are 44 years old and are having some big expenses. There’s an elevator and I have a cart to bring up groceries and packages.

I had a condo apt, and it was great. Nice that you are on the top floor.
I found noise never came from below, but above me, if a kid dropped a marble or someone walked in high heels, I could track the sound across the ceiling of my unit.
I liked sitting out on my balcony watching the street activity.

 

[friar1610]

We live in a duplex in a small (14 unit) over-55 condo community. About 2400 sq feet on two floors with a large unfinished basement. MBR and bath are on first floor; sometimes we go for weeks at a time w/o venturing upstairs. That has taught us that we overbought size-wise and if we should move again we’ll look for something about the size of the first floor (all on one floor). I would miss not having a basement for storage, workshop, exercise but could probably adapt.

Noise from next door is negligible. Some residents have grandchildren over on weekends and that can be a bit noisy at times but nothing we can’t live with. Certainly no late-night party
noise from this group of seniors: when I take the dog for his last stroll around 10:00 every night there are few lights on in the ‘hood.

Condo fees are fairly high - never having owned a condo before we failed to appreciate the impact of the small “tax base” (number of units) on a fairly large piece of land that must be mowed, plowed and otherwise maintained. 50/50 on whether we’ll ultimately downsize further and, if so, whether to another condo, a small house or a CCRC.

 

[tulak]

Personally, I would prefer a smaller, single level house with easy to maintain landscaping (1500-2000sf). My last house had easy to maintain landscaping and we paid a service to take care of the small front yard for ~$25/month. If I get another house, I'll look to find the same.

I live in a newer townhouse right now and can tell that the builders didn't use high quality materials. My biggest gripe is they could have done more to insulate the shared wall. Luckily my neighbors are quiet and all I hear are muffled sounds when they use the stairs. It wouldn't be fun if there were kids or teenagers living next door. The complex that I'm in is small and it tends to attract either young professionals or empty nesters. I think most people with kids prefer to live in a house.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Sunset, I have a view of the courtyard which is beautiful. Also no one can see in my balcony from their balcony and I am at the opposite end of the pool. Of the 3 condos I lived in I learned that being in a small complex is expensive because not many units to share the cost. It had 40 units. The one I am in now has 150 units.

 

[FindingForward]

Yup when folks move you never know! Mine are nice people, and they are quiet at night, so there's that. They are just oblivious to how noisy they are, and I'm sensitive to it. If I play music outside it's the Spa channel, quietly, in the background, where there's no chance next door would know I'm even out there!

I'm finding this more and more. I'm very sensitive to noise (sure wish I wasn't) and many neighbors are nice people - but I guess they're just loud and happily clueless. Noise is just part of their happy family life. Revving car engines constantly. Loud motorcycles. Kids screaming at the top of their lungs when they play. Dogs constantly barking. Loud salsa and hip hop music when they're washing the car, doing yardwork, etc, which are two genres I don't care for, unfortunately. Sawing, mowing and yard blowers at 8-9 am weekend mornings. It's why I'm seriously looking into senior communities.

I don't really want to, as I like neighborhoods with all ages, but I just can't live with the noise much longer.

 

[hiker88]

I moved from a single family house in Pasadena to a townhouse in Ventura four years ago. The size is about the same. When I decided to move to Ventura, I wanted a home with a view and a location near the beach. In order to afford such a place, I was limited to condos. So far it has worked out well. My neighbors are quiet and I don't miss the yard work. There is enough room on the deck for a few potted plants and a patio table from which I can watch the sunsets. The parking is an issue when more than two friends visit at the same time, but that is rare. Hopefully the stairs will not be an issue for a long time.

 

[Koolau]

Once the kids were gone, we moved from 2700 SF ti-level to 2-level 1300 SF town house. We rarely used the lower level so basically lived in the LR and one BR (small kitchen.) It worked very well except DW could not deal with windward rain (30 to 40 days in a row sometimes.) So we moved to a leeward condo 1000SF.

Both of these moves got us away from maintenance which has been wonderful - though we pay a lot for the good maintenance. All in all, I'd say it has been good, though no place is perfect. If money were no object, I'd live on a hill in a 5000 SF mansion (with paid help.) But Townhouse/Condo seems an adequate compromise over a large house we no longer need nor want to keep up. Very much a YMMV situation so do a lot of visiting of THs and Condos before you move.

 

[JP.mpls]

Sunset, I have a view of the courtyard which is beautiful. Also no one can see in my balcony from their balcony and I am at the opposite end of the pool. Of the 3 condos I lived in I learned that being in a small complex is expensive because not many units to share the cost. It had 40 units. The one I am in now has 150 units.

Terry,
My good friends moved into a condo community on the top four floors of a building downtown near park.
Only 16 owners. They have had several very expensive special assessments, and their HOA is very high now too.
Not enough owners to cover the common costs easily.
JP

 

[Koolau]

Terry,
My good friends moved into a condo community on the top four floors of a building downtown near park.
Only 16 owners. They have had several very expensive special assessments, and their HOA is very high now too.
Not enough owners to cover the common costs easily.
JP

Fortunately, the Townhouse community and Condo we have lived in have well over 100 units each. Major expenses have (so far) always been handled from reserves. The bad news is that increasing reserves (especially in the age of inflation) means HOA dues are very significant (more than many folks pay for rent where we used to live on the mainland - and more than we pay for renting the old homestead for our trips back home.)

 

[JP.mpls]

Fortunately, the Townhouse community and Condo we have lived in have well over 100 units each. Major expenses have (so far) always been handled from reserves. The bad news is that increasing reserves (especially in the age of inflation) means HOA dues are very significant (more than many folks pay for rent where we used to live on the mainland - and more than we pay for renting the old homestead for our trips back home.)

Koolau,
I've noticed that the condo fees tend to be higher than townhomes.

In Minneapolis there is a big corporation that seems to have a monopoly on HOA management, and all of the communities that have them managing their HOA have especially high fees.

I'm surprised all of these communities are choosing to use them.

Yes, I'm cheap, and the high fees turn me off.

JP

 

[Philliefan33]

Koolau,
I've noticed that the condo fees tend to be higher than townhomes.

In Minneapolis there is a big corporation that seems to have a monopoly on HOA management, and all of the communities that have them managing their HOA have especially high fees.

I'm surprised all of these communities are choosing to use them.

Yes, I'm cheap, and the high fees turn me off.

JP

Condo HOA fees tend to be higher because maintenance of the building (roof, painting, etc) is a community responsibility. For the townhome we lived in 30 years ago and the carriage home we are building, we were/are responsible for maintenance of our unit while the HOA fee covers road and yard maintenance.

Every HOA community is different.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Reno is between 1800-2000 for a normal apartment not a luxury one. So my mortgage is 440 and condo fees 370 I am still much better off owning. Even if they go up significantly. We have over a million in reserves.

I intend to stay on the board forever so I have some say in what happens. Eventually we will get caught up from the deferred maintenance from the stupid board 7 years ago. Of course they all sold when they were going to be forced to fix things.

I love owning as it’s very important to me to be able to fix my house the way I want and never have to move again. I have moved 30 times since I was 18. Everyone that sees my condo loves it as I have it fixed really cute.

 

[Midpack]

Several good summaries of the pros and cons already. The main thing that gives me pause moving to a condo/townhome is fire in another unit spreading to our unit. I know that's not at all common, but having a fire risk due to a random neighbor bothers me. I also know some firewall is required, but those slow but don't prevent spread of fire. YMMV

 

[EarlyandLate]

Several good summaries of the pros and cons already. The main thing that gives me pause moving to a condo/townhome is fire in another unit spreading to our unit. I know that's not at all common, but having a fire risk due to a random neighbor bothers me. I also know some firewall is required, but those slow but don't prevent spread of fire. YMMV

My 1200 sf condo has 12 sprinkler heads in it as do all the other units in the building. Any fire that could spread in this place would be pretty amazing to see! I have actually seen what one sprinkler can do. A poor HVAC repair guy accidentally hit one in one of the units. There was a huge cascading waterfall flowing off the balcony.

 

[aja8888]

Our 55+ community of 437 single family homes is generally pretty quiet and has been her 22 years. Even the ambulances and fire trucks that show up in response to 911 medical emergencies are trained to shut off their sirens when entering the complex.

 

[ncbill]

Love our townhouse.

Most residents here are older couples who sold their big house after the kids left.

We skipped the above entirely & saved beaucoup bucks over the last couple of decades.

We were fortunate to have a major city recreation facility literally across the street when the kids were growing up, and with woods behind our place no need for a private yard for play.

Currently watching the challenges facing my in-laws trying to keep up their smaller house but large yard & garden now that they're in their 80s.