Condos are stupid. The worst of both worlds between apartment renting and home mortgage.

I think a lot of them also have HOAs, too. At least in the USA, dunno about CA.

And at least with a house mortgage you usually get a lawn...

Just allocating these for unhoused people would make Vancouver have no unhoused people. https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/homeless-count.aspx#%3A~%3Atext=Results%3A%2C605+unsheltered fuck for profit housing.

BC has strata corporations, which are kiiiiind of the same thing based on my shitty surface-level understanding of HOAs.

And basically all multi-family housing has a strata.

All I know about condos are that condo fees are quite high. It's like $800 / month for the ones I've seen in Toronto. A lot of people see that as reasonable but it feels like a lot to me.

Yep, sounds like the same thing

Strata management - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

I'm just picturing a couple families in a Coal Harbour building meeting their new neighbours, including that guy I watched punch a brick wall while yelling about the "shit Panic fucks" before I had to nope the fuck out of there (I'm dark enough that I get tagged with almost non Caucasian ethnicity.)

The condo insurance premiums are going into the strata-sphere as well.

I can imagine that being scary. But I'd also say that wellness checks should be made to struggling families for them to succeed.

Stratas in BC are very highly regulated.

As a former homeowner and former renter, now living in a condo, its also the best of those. We are building equity rather than losing rent money monthly, and when things break somebody else fixes it.

Fees vary here in Vancouver Metro area. Some at $300, ours went up to $500. Part of the problem is your fees are supposed to build a contingency fund this cover prescribed maintenance, and emergency repairs, however you vote yearly to approve the budgets. Most owners don't want higher fees so vote to keep the fee low. This means the operating budget suffers and preventative work may be delayed or skipped. This turns into higher emergency repairs, or higher cost as delayed projects deal with vendor inflation. So at some point fees sky rocket to catch up.

Bit different. The condo is a legal company ,collects fees To operate the building maintenance and repair, insurance, snow removal, etc. All owners vote yearly on changes to bylaws, or projects to be done.
I.e.hypothetically there could be laws about no blue patio furniture, however if majority of owners vote for allowing blue, then it gets changed. Its an owner run corporation.

I see. Definitely sounds slightly better. HOAs were supposed to be like that at one time here, but then they became miniature dictatorships.

Kind of ironic that as a Coal Harbour resident, the scariest person of the neighbourhood is a bald white dude that harasses any visibly vulnerable that passes by, also random people at times but he's a bully so he prefers harassing the homeless, delivery drivers and random minorities. He lives at the building right in front of mine and I'd trade him for getting as new neighbours 10 currently unhoused citizens undergoing treatment, because this bald fuck surely isn't treating whatever he has going on. Fucking "concerned citizens", much worse than whoever makes them clutch pearls.

We are building equity rather than losing rent money monthly

This meme has to die, there's so much knowledge out there on how to properly do the math on this

It's fun when people allude to having knowledge they don't display or share. Makes them look like they're feeling smugly superior while also contributing absolutely nothing to anyone.

It's the daddy's money of social media.

Yes I did math, our mortgage at 2% interest is $1700, to rent this condo from a landlord would be $3500. In 5 years the property value has gone up $200K. So our equity is now close to $300k after 5 years. I could sell this year and have 300k cash. What would you have at 3500 a month to a landlord?

Yeah HOA in USA often seems like the current HOA owns the property sale rights, and can block a sale. Strata has no say in the sale, it is an owner to owner deal.

A lot of people complain about strata being restrictive, but guess who doesn't show up to vote at the meetings; Same people who don't want to join council when the new one is voted in each year.