Condominiums can be a great place to live as you share the cost of amenities such as pools, exercise room, bbq's etc. One can experience great amenities at a fraction of the cost of having private pool. Of course, you may have to share that experience with your neighbors.
With the Sub-Prime mortgage problem hitting condominiums particularly hard, one really needs to study the Home Owners Association finances.
In many parts of the country, several apartments were converted to condominiums. The San Diego Condo conversions were done in record numbers. Many of these San Diego Condominiums under funded their reserves. Underfunded reserves, can lead to special assessments to the homeowners. ??A special assessment is a demand for additional funds to fund the HOA reserve over and above the monthly HOA Dues. There have been a few Solana Beach condominium associations that assessed over $50,000 per unit for remodeling costs. BE CAREFUL! Be sure to study the minutes of the HOA to determine if there is anticipated deferred maintenance planned in the future. Note most San Diego Condominium associations typically budget for deferred maintenance as part of the monthly dues and never have special assessments.
However, as the number of San Diego foreclosures increase, the HOA dues are on the first expenses that a troubled homeowner stops paying leaving the HOA short on funds. To add insult to injury, the unpaid HOA dues in most cases gets cancelled after a foreclosure as the HOA debt is usually last in the creditor line. This leaves the remaining San Diego condominium owners having to fund the short fall by increased dues or special assessments.
Potential buyers can look up the current and planned foreclosures in a particular complex by doing a foreclosure search at www.surfforeclosures.com.
Before you write an??offer on a condominium, be sure to ask your agent what the owner occupancy ratio is at the complex. It is extremely difficult to obtain a conventional loan at a complex where over 50% of the units are owned by investors vs. owners.
There are so many great deals on San Diego Condominiums now. It's a great time to buy. Just be sure you buy into a well-funded and maintained complex. There are over 200 San Diego Condominiums under $100,000. In many cases your mortgage payment will be less than your rent. Check out the list of San Diego Condos under $100,000 .
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