I know that many people will agree with me: condominium life style is great and convenient, but it's not good for everyone. The idea of owning a condo in South Euclid, Lyndhurst or other areas of Greater Cleveland looks great at first sight: you pass some serious responsibilities like grass cutting and snow removal (do not forget, we live in Cleveland!) on the association in exchange of some reasonable fee. You share some common space with your friendly neighbors who are responsible homeowners, too. You get a nice, maintenance and care free - like many of us REALTORS like to advertise - condominium style living.
Why then the popularity of condominiums in Greater Cleveland, even the very nice ones like The Lofts of South Euclid, dropped dramatically within last few years? Why do my condo sellers expect the magics from me to attract the buyers to their nice well cared units? 
Why then statistics is so bad for condo sales? According to Realist.com, number of condo sales in Cuyahoga County in 2008 is significantly lower than in the same period of 2007. And you know that 2007 was not the greatest year in real estate sales in Greater Cleveland.
Sales Statistics
for CUYAHOGA County OH |
| Realist's most recent recording date for this county is 06/27/2008 |
| Single Family Residence |
| Time Period |
Number of Sales |
Median Sale Price |
| May 2008 |
856 |
$131,000 |
| May 2007 |
1,272 |
$134,250 |
| Apr 2008 |
772 |
$132,000 |
| Apr 2007 |
979 |
$129,000 |
| 2008 YTD |
3,884 |
$130,000 |
| 2007 |
12,118 |
$132,000 |
| Condominium |
| Time Period |
Number of Sales |
Median Sale Price |
| May 2008 |
79 |
$122,000 |
| May 2007 |
140 |
$124,000 |
| Apr 2008 |
85 |
$122,500 |
| Apr 2007 |
119 |
$110,000 |
| 2008 YTD |
431 |
$118,000 |
| 2007 |
1,419 |
$115,000 |
Few specific reasons contributed to the loss of demand for condominiums in Greater Cleveland during last two or three years. One of them was the mark up of maintenance fees in 2006-2007. Sometimes it was due to poor management, sometimes - due to aging and need of major improvements, sometimes - due to meeting of the state requirements of all condos being fully funded. No matter what the reasons were, maintenance fees skyrocketed and, as a result, the prices (and equity of condominium owners!) dropped down. New mortgage rules - especially those about the higher down payment requirements and lower debt-to income ratio added to this sad picture. We lost a big pool of young buyers who preferred to buy the houses instead of condos as it became much easier to finance the house purchase than condo.
Another reason is the rules and regulations of many condo associations, which have and add a lot of limitations like no rent, no pets, no antennas, etc. When associations adopted these rules, they sounded pretty reasonable. But times change and now many of these rules just ruin the possible sales.
Anyway, condo lifestyle still attracts a lot of people. If you are not affected by new financing rules, if you feel comfortable with some reasonable limitations and love to live in a convenient, accessible, friendly and beautiful neighborhood - The Lofts at Mayfield Rd. in South Euclid is the great choice!
Please call Local-n-Global Realty 216-548-4663 and ask about private tour to see a very nice first floor unit, which is offered for sale for just $119,900! Please visit http://www.4685Mayfield.com to find more info about this unit and beautiful neighborhood.
Sincerely,
Svetlana Stolyarova, Local-n-Global Realty
Broker, Marketing specialist
Realty@Local-n-Global.com
216-548-4663 440-247-5388
;)
;)
Another issue some of the condos have here is shared utilities like water and sewer and gas as a part of the HOA dues. Nobody is rewarded for saving. Consumption is transparent. It's jacking up the fees.