Condos are usually built by developers in a resort area, or in a community where the real estate land prices are so high that the San Diego condos, which take up less land than single-family homes, make economic sense. The developer runs a new condo community until the majority of units are sold, then turns control over to the condo association.

75 percent of San Diego condos are apartment buildings. Town homes make up almost all the remaining 25 percent. A town home is a general term to describe a condo that is usually two or more floors with a common wall joining one home with the one next door. Another example of a condo would be the "extended-care" (nursing home) condominium, where you own a room in a nursing facility. The common areas include everything you would have in a normal condo, plus an infirmary with a full-time doctor, nurses and a restaurant. In a few special cases there are single-family detached homes that are condos. These are built very close together and on what is known as a "zero lot line" basis, which means that little or no property goes with the residence. These homes usually include a community tennis court, swimming pool and other amenities.

WHAT IT COSTS TO OWN AND LIVE IN A CONDO
As a condo owner, you pay your own monthly mortgage payments and property taxes, plus the condo maintenance fee. Each owner is charged a fee based on the overall monthly cost of maintaining the public areas. In a 100-unit development, if all the units are the same size, and if the cost to maintain the common areas amounts to $10,000 per month, each owner would pay a maintenance fee of $100 per month. However, the size of your condo determines what you pay for maintenance. If you own a larger unit, the more votes you have in the condo association, and the more you pay in maintenance fees. The monthly maintenance fee, incidentally, is not deductible from income taxes. However, it is often smaller than the maintenance fee in cooperative buildings. Also, the common elements of a condo cannot have a mortgage on them. (Co-ops, in contrast, can have mortgages on everything.) San Diego condos are priced according to the marketplace. However, there are certain extra added attractions that make one unit in a condo almost automatically higher in purchase price than another that may at first glance seem very similar.

Expect to pay more for: additional square footage, an attractive view, whether of a city skyline, a park, a lake or simply a pleasant landscape, a higher floor in an apartment building, a terrace or balcony, a lakefront residence, an oceanfront residence or view, a unit close to a golf or tennis clubhouse.

SAN DIEGO CONDOS AND THE JOYS OF CONDO LIVING . . .

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