bostonbubble.com

[Guest]

Called me up last night and said that there was a condo for sale (~1000sqft 2br) for $40,000 that he was thinking about buying.

The interesting thing is that the association fee is $550 per month!
He claims that it includes everything but the electricity, but I'm thinking that there is a catch there somewhere.

This is a 49 unit complex, and the bigger units have fees that go up (3br 600, 4br, 650, or something like that).

A fixer upper in the same location is about $100,000, which I think is a better deal.

Thoughts?

[admin]

What's the rent on an equivalent place? Given that there are 49 units in the building, you might even be able to find an identical apartment for the comparison. What about property taxes?

I vaguely remember reading that prices in Pittsburgh are depressed despite the irrational exuberance that was prevalent in most of the country until very recently. I could, of course, be mis-remembering things, but $40K for a condo would seem to corroborate that assumption.

- admin