I was looking at one of these a few years ago, a decent 1BR unit for $125K. I thought that was reasonable until I learned that the condo fee was $960 per month and that the building had hit owners with special assessments for about $10K each for the three years prior. Like, I’m supposed to pay almost $2000 a month just to live in an apartment that I already bought?

I just bought an actual 2BR house for $140K and the cost of my taxes plus homeowners insurance comes to $400 a month.