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In this article I want to talk about the variety of houses in America, what they are called and what they mean. An apartment building in which you can buy an apartment, in American it is called a “condo”. This is the usual, standard apartment that we are used to in our countries. They are usually apartment buildings, they have some kind of community, they may have a pool, they may or may not have anything – it makes absolutely no difference, different houses may be different in this respect. And this is the cheapest option, so to speak, to buy a condo.
Townhouses consist of several houses connected together. If a condo is just a piece of a house, even if it’s a bunkhouse, there will still be neighbors above you and below you. In a townhouse, you and your neighbors are bounded only by a wall. A townhouse is more attractive than a condo already, at least for Americans. They don’t really like condos. Townhouses are only sold without land. There are standard townhouses that are sold with land. But, in fact, that land, it doesn’t really have much value. If you can build something, change something, demolish something, then the land is valuable. In a townhouse, land is just an add-on. It’s clear that you can’t tear down a townhouse, because it’s part of a big house; you can’t change anything there, not even a lawn, in principle. In general, this land does not carry any great value.
And the third kind is private houses. It’s just a house that stands on a certain area, it has a piece of land. Here it can be a very small piece of land, because here all the houses are on top of each other. The house has land, and the value of it is that it’s just sold with the land. And on that land you can already change something, destroy it, build something; you are the owner there and you can do whatever you want.
What points do you need to know when choosing what to buy: a condo, townhouse or detached home (it’s called “big house” or “single family home”)? You need to know that if you buy a condo or townhouse, who watches the outside of the house if you don’t own the land. A townhouse is made up of several houses, so who keeps an eye on it all? As you can guess, there is no HMO in America, so it is the residents themselves who take care of the house. There are so-called Home Owner Associations, or HOAs, which are made up of the residents themselves. And each townhouse or condo unit has certain fis monthly that residents are required to pay to this Home Owner Associates for keeping an eye on that home, on the grounds. The more amenitis, the more expensive it usually is.
