# Apartments vs. Houses **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 28, 2010, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642 "2010-10-28T10:34:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/41 "2010-10-29T23:22:10Z")
> [@whole\_bean](#): > > To the extent this statement means to imply that houses are excluviely rented and apartments are exclusivley bought, it’s simply wrong. Houses can be bought or rented. In most parts of the country a high-density, multi-unit residential dwelling that is not owner-occupied is called an apartment. A high density, multi-unit dwelling that is owner occupied is called a condo (a type of subdivided, co-ownership, regulated by condo laws). In New York, what most peopel thinf of as condos (as described above) are called apartments. Unfortunately a lot of non-Americans read this board and such distinctions may well be rare in their country. For example, I am a Brit living in Sweden. I often use the word apartment as that is what Swedes generally use whe referring to a lägenhet in English. This “apartment is rented, condo is owned” business is news to me. I have honestly never come across it before in my thirty six years of life. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/42 "2010-10-29T23:57:00Z")
> [@Galileo](#): > > Your living expenses are more than just the taxes, unless you never use any utilities and you never repair or maintain any part of your house. I did not know that. Tell me more professor :dubious: > [@Galileo](#): > > Also, it seems that you are comparing buying a house with renting an apartment. Perhaps you missed this post: I’m not the one using apartment in a sentence. It’s either a condo or some other financial purchase which requires… separate taxes, utilities and maintenance. And that could be anything from a million dollar condo to a hippy commune trailer park. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/43 "2010-10-30T00:03:45Z")
If the op’s abode looks like Fraisure’s Then it is probably nicer than a Harry Potter Dursley house. If the op’s abode looks like an average apartment then it’s probably not as nice. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/44 "2010-10-30T01:01:38Z")
I’m living in a one bedroom ground floor condo now that I’m old, feeble and handicapped and I have to say I love/hate it. I pay a monthly condo fee and in return I have a huge, lovely well maintained yard with a heated swimming pool, reserved parking and quiet, considerate well-mannered neighbors, all of whom, like me, are waiting to die. I don’t have spontaneous block parties with several grills going and drunken skinny dipping coed plunges. When I know these old bastards around here a little better, I’m gonna try to liven them up a little. Golden years, my ass. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/45 "2010-10-30T01:54:39Z")
> [@Galileo](#): > > Actually, the first luxury apartment that I cited is not a condo – it is a [cooperative](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_cooperative), which often refers to lower-cost dwellings, but not in this case. The second one is a [condo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condominium). Still an owner-occupied dwelling (though a form of ownership not found everywhere). Etiher way, in most places outside of NYC, this would never be called an “apartment.” That’s my point. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/46 "2010-10-30T02:44:50Z")
I wouldn’t want to own a house either. But I have lived in the country where houses are all 50+ years old, large and have large yards. I have no interest in doing 5-10 hours a week of yardwork, and then doing home repairs on top of that. I would like to own a condo someday though. Get the benefits of an apartment but have someone else do all the repairs and maintenance. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/47 "2010-10-30T02:50:14Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I wouldn’t want to own a house either. But I have lived in the country where houses are all 50+ years old, large and have large yards. I have no interest in doing 5-10 hours a week of yardwork, and then doing home repairs on top of that. > > I would like to own a condo someday though. Get the benefits of an apartment but have someone else do all the repairs and maintenance. That’s fine but you’re still paying for the repair, maintenance and yard work. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/48 "2010-10-30T03:19:56Z")
I rent…a house. 😃 And there’s no yard work, either. Turns out that you don’t have to mow dirt and rocks. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/49 "2010-10-30T08:25:56Z")
> [@whole\_bean](#): > > Still an owner-occupied dwelling (though a form of ownership not found everywhere). Etiher way, in most places outside of NYC, this would never be called an “apartment.” That’s my point. In most places outside of NYC but within the US, maybe. That was my point. I thought this discussion was worldwide on the relative merits of houses verses apartments, but some people seem to have got stuck on a very insular naming-related convention. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/50 "2010-10-30T08:47:41Z")
I, too, grew up in the family house. After I left home, I lived in one house in Texas, one house in northern Thailand, and all the rest were apartments/condos. We’d like a house just to have a dog. (No pets allowed in this building, and really, I would not want to keep a dog in this relatively small space, especially since the wife and I both have to be gone sometimes, and we’re not keeping the air running while we’re away.) Unfortunately, owning a house in Bangkok ratchets up the chances for burglary, especially since I’m a Westerner and automatically assumed to keep a vast hoard of riches under my bed. But you don’t have to be a Westerner to worry about burglaries; I kid you not, but it used to be common, and is still today not unheard of, to lock the maid in the house when a family went on vacation. Quite literally. Bars on all the windows. All the doors locked from the outside. She’s the watchdog with (hopefully) enough provisions to last until the family returns. If the place burns down, that’s just too bad for her inside. Here in our condo, security is pretty tight. It’s a 36-story tower with a maximum of five units per floor, and because of the layout on this side of the building, we’re pretty isolated from the others. And of course, there are the added benefits of no lawn work, which I hated doing while growing up. I don’t consider our condo a step down. It may be smaller than my old family house, but it sure costs a lot more than the old family house is valued even today. (It’s no longer in the family. My mother managed to lose it out of sheer financial mismanagement after my father died, while telling me to mind my own business because she could handle her money just fine. That’s a whole other story. But I recently looked up the valuation out of curiosity.) I think we’re settled in here. EDIT: Just to throw it in, I’ve always heard the “apartments are for rent, condos are for ownership” paradigm, and it’s that way in Thailand, too. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/51 "2010-10-30T10:00:52Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > EDIT: Just to throw it in, I’ve always heard the “apartments are for rent, condos are for ownership” paradigm, and it’s that way in Thailand, too. I think part of my problem is that no-one in the UK or Sweden (the two places I bave lived for any length of time) uses the word ‘condo’ full stop. Well apart from any Americans passing through. Hence there is no distinction as one of the words simply doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/52 "2010-10-31T00:12:16Z")
Ah, I see. Well, the Thais use the word “condo” exclusively, “condominium” being a bit too much to wrap around their tongues. They probably think “condo” actually is a Thai word. Probably the same elsewhere in the region, too. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642/53 "2010-11-03T22:36:56Z")
Reasonably well written essay at [Wired.com](http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/st_essay_ownership). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apartments-vs-houses/558642.md?page=2)