Quote Originally Posted by Pcm View Post
The association fees are $489 per month? Yikes. You could rent an apartment [[a crappy one) for $450 in that same area. I've looked at a few of them.
A crappy apartment costs $450 a month because a landlord got it for nothing, invested nothing in it [[except, maybe, a coat of paint every time tenants change), and is charging the maximum the market will bear. If he was charging more based on ROI, it would probably be half that. By that measure, it's the apartment dwellers who get ripped off.

A $489 association fee in a multi-unit condo buildings goes for security, maintenance, and capital reserves. In cooperatives, there is often a pass-through for master mortgage interest payments, making part of the fee tax-deductible. None of this is a feature of a low-priced rental.

I don't believe that real estate is a great investment in general [[since even in the best markets, it's pretty much even with inflation), but the costs - considered as [[mortgage + fees - deductions) are actually quite reasonable compared to comparable rentals. That, and you have the ability to reconfigure it at will.

I looked at the Park Shelton when it was first going condo. It's a nice place that you wouldn't be embarrassed to show your parents. Not cheap, but given its location right on top of the DIA, one would not expect it to be.