Just As I Thought

Less is more, more or less

I’ve been looking at the floorplans for the townhouse condos being built a few blocks from my house. It makes me a bit jealous, since the low end of that development is a 2 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath townhouse with 1127 square feet and a two-car garage — for $100,000 less than I paid for my house just two blocks away.
For the price of my 830sf home, I could buy a 1,617sf townhouse with a “bonus room” for an office on the first floor.
But the reasoning still applies from when I tried to buy the loft downtown: with my little house, I own more than the interior space. I own land, I have a front and back yard, and I don’t have any condo fees. I’d still be paying the same high property taxes on a condo, but with the added burden of a high monthly fee.
Still, it is hard to ignore that $100,000 price difference, and it leaves me hoping that my house will hold its value even while cheaper housing is built down the street.
On the good side, those townhouses are being built on a former industrial site, located between our neighborhood and the train tracks and airport, so they’ll buffer a bit of the noise. Maybe that’s why they’re cheaper!

P.S. here’s an example of a bold-faced lie, told by a developer wanting to sell homes: on the “About the Area” page for this development, Pulte Homes claims, and I quote:

BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit is available in the South Bay.

Nope. Not true. BART is not available in the South Bay, and clicking the link they provide proves it. BART ends in Fremont, the East Bay, and while there are plans to bring BART down and around the bay to San Jose, the plans have been mired in politics and money for decades. If these plans ever do come to fruition, it will still be decades away.
Still, the plan calls for the terminus of BART in the South Bay to be right down the street from our neighborhood, a stroll away. Of course, by then I’ll be using a walking frame.

2 comments

  • A house is a better investment than a town house.

    When the market, cough-cough, corrects itself, a single family home is the best real estate investment to have.

    When the market goes down.
    A Condo’s value will drop faster than a house’s value.
    A Condo’s value will drop further than a house’s value.

    When the market goes up
    A house’s value will climb faster than a condo’s.
    A house’s value will climb further than a condo’s.

    And when the time comes to sell.
    Houses spend less time on the market than condos.

    Add to all this the condo fees, the traffic and noise. Not to mention the people that won’t scoop behind their dogs. As there’s the possibility that some of the units will be rental units with different tenants coming and going.

    I’ll take a small house over a large condo any day!

  • Define cheap.

    And here’s why I’m asking – there’s a possibility that Craig may apply for a position in his company, but in the San Francisco office. I guess the office is in Foster City. But I’ve been looking at real estate in the area and being very frightened. It would appear that should he get the job, we’d be living in a cardboard shack on the street corner.

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