Purchasing A Condominium
With an $80 000 price tag common for even modest houses, today's home buyer often has to look for more affordable alternatives. One alternative many people choose is a condominium, a sort of "housing alliance" in which each resident owns his own home and splits the costs of maintaining shared areas of the condominium development, such as walkways and parking lots, with other residents. A condominium can be any type of housing: apartments, townhouses and single houses are all eligible.A condominium housing development consists of three main parts: the units, the common elements, and the exclusive use common elements. Units are the actual homes owned by the residents. Common elements are the facilities owned and used by the condominium residents as a
group, such as lobbies, elevators, sidewalks, plumbing and recreational areas. Exclusive use common elements are common elements reserved for the use of one or more owners. They include such items as individual parking spaces, balconies, yards in townhouse condominiums and storage lockers. Residents of a condominium pay a monthly fee for the maintenance of common elements.
Condominiums combine the advantages of a single family home with that of a co-operative. Residents have individual homes and do with them as they please, but some control is surrendered to the condominium. You can't alter the unit's exterior — painting the walls purple or building a fence, for example — without the approval of the condominium's board of directors.
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December 4, 2008