Priced Out? A Condo or Townhome Could Be Your Way In.

Home prices have plenty of buyers, especially first-time buyers, wondering if anything on the market actually fits their budget. The instinct is to keep waiting, keep saving, or keep searching for a single-family home that may not show up anytime soon. But narrowing the search to single-family homes only is often the real problem, not the price of homes overall.

Condos and townhomes open up a different part of the market, and two things happening right now make them worth a serious look.

More Condos and Townhomes Are on the Market

A lot of buyers start their search picturing a single-family, detached home, and they stop there. That habit quietly cuts an entire category of housing out of the search before it starts.

According to HousingWire data, 233,030 condos and townhomes were for sale nationally this June. That is more than any June in at least the past decade, and more than double what was on the market back in 2022.

That is a national number, and what is actually available depends on where you are looking. But more supply in this segment generally means less competition for each listing, more time to make a decision, and more room to negotiate on price or terms. Those are conditions that favor a buyer, not a seller.

Condos and Townhomes Also Tend To Cost Less

Price is the other draw. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median condo sold for $380,000 in June, compared to $446,400 for a median single-family home. That is a difference of more than $66,000.

The gap comes down mostly to size. Condos are usually smaller than single-family homes, so the price tag shrinks along with the square footage. For a buyer who does not need the extra space, that lower entry point can be the difference between renting another year and closing on a first home.

Condo, Townhome, or Single-Family: What Actually Changes

The three options are not interchangeable, and the differences go well beyond price.

A single-family home comes with the house and the land under it, no shared walls, and full responsibility for maintenance. It is the most space and the most privacy, and also the most that falls on the owner when something breaks.

A townhome usually means owning the structure and the lot it sits on, sharing at most two walls with neighbors, and having more say over exterior repairs and updates than a condo owner would. More of that upkeep is still the owner’s job.

A condo means owning the interior of the unit while the building and shared spaces belong to the association. That shifts most exterior maintenance off the owner’s plate, but it also comes with less control over decisions made about the building, and typically higher HOA fees, since the HOA is the one paying for the roof, the landscaping, and the reserve fund.

What To Check Before Choosing Condo or Townhome Ownership

Lower list prices can be misleading if the HOA fee is not priced into the comparison. A buyer weighing a $380,000 condo against a $446,400 house needs to run the full monthly number, mortgage payment plus HOA dues plus insurance, not just the purchase price, before deciding which one is actually more affordable month to month. Running that full comparison, purchase price against monthly carrying cost, is the same financial discipline Christopher Munkel used managing corporate budgets for two decades before moving into real estate, and it is the standard he applies with buyers looking at a condo or townhome.

A few questions are worth answering before writing an offer: What does the HOA fee actually cover, and has it increased in each of the last three years? Is there a healthy reserve fund, or a history of special assessments for major repairs? Are rental restrictions in place that could affect resale to a future buyer who wants to lease the unit? And does the building carry a master insurance policy, and what does that leave for an individual owner’s policy to cover?

None of those questions show up in a listing description, and skipping them is how a buyer ends up with a lower mortgage payment and a surprise assessment bill a year later.

Bottom Line

A condo or townhome can be a legitimate way into homeownership without stretching a budget past its limit, but the decision holds up better when it is based on the full cost of ownership and the actual financial condition of the HOA, not just the number on a listing. Munkel Real Estate Solutions walks buyers through that comparison directly, weighing monthly carrying costs, HOA reserve health, and resale considerations, before a client decides which type of home actually fits their budget and their life.

Source: HousingWire and National Association of Realtors (NAR) data.