new condominium development in houston

[ab102]

Does anyone know about the new surge home condominiums in Houston? I am a single young professional and wanting to live in Midtown/inner loop. Houston New Home Developer and Builder. If you go to view floor plan/pricing and enter a email you can see the pictures/prices. The preview pictures look really nice but they also seem pricey. They are selling 1br/1ba condos for 625 sqft at $213,000. This is $340/sqft/ They stated that these prices are only available to the VIP buyers and the prices will go up to the general public. They also stated that these condos are in 18 month development stage and wont be ready for move in until Fall 2016. The hoa fees seem low at less than 200 a month compared to other condos in inner loop. I would think they are a little low because they are brand new and the fees will go up in the future. The unit also comes with all modern features such as european cabinets, wooden floors etc. The only caveat is you have to buy all the appliances. The price I am quoting is for a property at 4100 Main 77002. Is this something that would be a good buy to sale/rent out in the future? I am afraid of paying alot for a condo in which I will not be able to breakeven or sale more than purchase price Just wanted anyone's opinion on this, that is familiar with the Houston real estate market. I just feel like this might be better if i am planning to live in a place 3-5 years, then renting 1200-1400 to live in the area.  Attached is examples of floor plants/ pictures of a property. 

[arche_757]

414 sq. ft. for over $146,000 is not a good buy anywhere - let alone Houston.

 

I wouldn't spend that kind of money on something smaller than 1,000 sq ft. in this town ever.

[ArchFan]

In my experience, HOA fees are usually assessed based on square footage.  From what you said, I calculated $0.32/sq-ft.  That does sound low; my expectation (based on experience) is that it will go up after the developer sells all the units and the homeowners take over actual management of the facility.  (Currently, mine are about $0.45/sq-ft in a building with modest facilities.  There are places with more amenities that are twice what I pay.)

 

I'm not in the real-estate biz, but from what I've seen online, a purchase price of $340/sq-ft would be reasonable in the Uptown/Galleria area.  In fact, asking prices on har.com go much higher than that.  There, I looked at some places in the general midtown area and they seemed lower.  That website is a good place to get a feel for the range of asking prices, but ultimately you should talk to a realtor to get comps on actual sales prices.

 

In any case, the best advice I can think of is to avoid locking yourself now into a price that might be significantly higher than you might be able to negotiate with a seller in a year or so from now.  Granted, if you did that, you might not get the "pick of the litter" of units.  Another bit of advice:  sometimes there are construction defects that are not apparent until a couple of years pass.  For example, one issue (which I personally experienced) is water damage from inadequate sealing of roofs or walls.  My impression is that the developer of the project in question is new in this market, which would preclude seeing their track record locally.  I assume that they will hire a general contractor who will manage the subcontractors that do the actual work on the components of the project.  I was disappointed in the GC for my building, but we were lucky enough to have a developer with integrity who took an active role in making things right.