I feel stupid for asking this, but I want to learn more. Condos/townhomes in a safe area with school good districts, versus a SFH in a safe area, but not-so-great school districts? *When* do school districts matter? What *other* factors take precedence, if any?
I appreciate y’all’s patience (and grace). I was born-and-raised in a small town outside of Topeka, Kansas, but I’ve been living in the Bay for the past 5 years. For context, whenever I talk to my parents (who still live in Kansas, and have lived there… for the entire lives) about real estate, they always remind me to never own a condo/townhome. To give me a couple reasons, they’ve told me that ”HOAs suck”, ”Condos and townhomes don’t appreciate as much as SFHs do,” and, “SFHs are not that more expensive in their area compared to condos/townhomes, so why even bother?” And, for context, the town that I grew up in had awful schools, and overall was a LCOL but low-income area.
I’ve only lived in two places my entire life: where I grew up in Kansas, and in Berkeley, where I live now. So, definitely two “extremes” when it comes to COL.
While I’ve never owned a home anywhere, let alone the Bay Area, I‘m learning that the Bay Area real estate market seems like it’s in a whole ‘nother universe compared to the rest of the USA, and the Bay Area real estate market can be broken down into additional, “smaller” chunks given how big this place is and varying COLs.
I‘ll give a couple hypotheticals, as I live close by to them: I don’t know if I would be better off owning a townhome/condo in a place like Orinda, compared to owning a SFH in a place like El Sobrante? Or, owning a townhome/condo in a place like Albany, compared to owning a SFH in a place like East Richmond Heights? Or, owning a townhome/condo in a place like Danville, compared to owning a SFH in a place like Concord?
All I know is, I’m not planning to have children. So, at face value, school districts doesn’t seem to matter all that much to me, but then I hear from others, “It definitely matters for the sake of resale value,” or, “Great public schools are usually indicative of a community that’s invested in making the area a great place to live,” etc.
Sorry, I feel like I’m rambling at this point. I would love to hear your perspectives on YOUR methodologies when it came to assessing owning a condo versus owning a townhome versus owning a SFH… and finally closing on one. Thanks all.