Yep, I’m just about convinced that I wouldn’t be happy with a condo unless I had assurance that noise wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, that is probably a bigger factor than I initially indicated.
This aside: I’ve looked at a few small, inexpensive ranch homes, and they seem OK except that the geniuses that built or renovated the homes seemed to figure that it would be better to list the home as a “three bedroom” home and so they took what would have probably been enough room for two decent-sized bedrooms and split them into three pathetically small bedrooms. Argh. I guess that’s one of the reasons those homes are so cheap…
I really think this is a gross overgeneralization. I’ve lived in apartments carved out of houses, and I’ve lived in apartments that were in apartment buildings, and my condo is nothing like either one of them. Certainly not in the noise department. Remember, condos can be townhouses and they can also be freestanding buildings with no wall adjoining between condos.
I also think it’s an overgeneralization. I don’t know what Minnestoa (the OP’s location) is like but here in the Boston area, there are all manners of condos: duplexes with only one shared wall; high-rises with a hundred units, low-rises with 4 units, row houses, rows of townhouses, etc. It’s impossible to say they are all like living in an apartment, because many of them are nothing like apartments.
I happen to live in a condo that is a duplex with two units. I have one shared wall, which must be about 2 feet thick. The units were designed so that except for the bathroom, no room’s wall is the shared wall - the shared wall is the hallway or stairway; thus, you aren’t sleeping right on the other side of anyone. I have a large (by city standards) yard (it’s my own unit’s yard - not shared with the other unit; they have their own on the other side of the 6’ fence) - I could easily have a party for 75-100 people out there. I have trees, a grape arbor, and several flower beds. I have a front porch with mature rhododendron and rosebushes surrounding it. I have my own driveway that can fit 3 cars (tandem).
I am sure Boston cannot be the only city in the U.S. that has more than one style of condo. I wouldn’t discount them just because you don’t like “apartment living.” I don’t like it either, which is why I bought this style of condo. That and the fact that single-family starter homes average more than $400,000 here. Condos are much more affordable and appreciate just as fast in this area.
Condos are definitely different for different locations. In a smaller, more rural areas, I would suggest that condos don’t appreciate as quickly. In larger areas with hotter real estate markets, they probably do. That said, appreciation doesn’t matter at all if you’re buying to stay for the long haul. How about it, Cuckoorex? Are you buying a place to live for the forseeable future, or do you plan to trade up in a couple of years?
If you plan to trade up, a good way to go can be a fixer-upper, if you have the time, money, and inclination. Buy it cheap, fix it, and flip it for good money. A “lipstick and rouge” renovation (just painting and a few easily fixed odds and ends) can be a lot of fun, and you’ll usually get it for a better price because it doesn’t show as well. My husband and I tend to avoid other people’s renovations, because we have no idea how well they were done (and it usually isn’t very well - Jim was a professional painter, and he can spot a bad paint job from a mile away).
In NYC, the apartment I used to have went Co-Op…so now you are paying huge bucks for the same noisy, but nice, apartment I used to have.
In West Hollywood, the apartment I had went condo…so you will be able to hear the opera singer next door, but now you can install soundproofing on walls that belong to you - although there is still that problem with the drunks walking by the bedroom window in the hallway.
In Las Vegas, the apartment I lived in before I bought the house has also turned into a condo…so now you can hear the people screaming and yelling in the jacuzzi all night, and lay awake knowing you now own this bad piece of real estate.
So, if those are generalizations, so be it.
I don’t doubt some buildings that were built and designed to be condos from the getgo are better, but in my experience, condo is another name for apartment with a mortgage.