[themartorana]

Ha, no, my credit is stellar. But I live in a nice neighborhood of Philadelphia. My 1000 sq ft 2 br apartment costs $2300/m in rent. (I'm aware it's a lot cheaper in other neighborhoods, but I love living here.)

To buy my apartment (and this is just for the apples-to-apples comparison) would cost in the neighborhood of $485,000. If I put $97,000 down (about 20% to avoid PMI) I'm looking at around $2350 inclusive of taxes. However, there's HOA fees. Here they cover all (yes ALL) utilities, but they're $890/month for this apartment. Now I'm out $97,000 in liquid cash, my monthly payment is $3240 inclusive of HOA.

I can easily get the loan, but in the city, it's not always cheaper to buy.

[tobylane]

I'm not familiar with HOAs. You pay them, they pay your utilities? How much are the HOA and utilities worth when they are apart?

[ghaff]

I imagine the arrangements vary on whether utilities are included as part of homeowner dues. The cost of utilities will also vary a lot depending on the climate and your type of heat etc. In my case (house in Northeast without central air), oil/electricity/water/propane average out to the $300ish/month range.

[op00to]

You pay the HOA, they pay for maintenance of common areas.

[cthalupa]

Hmm. Gotcha. I didn't take into account utilities being paid for - that can certainly be a pretty massive difference.