Condominium

Lots of children play with doll houses. Kids on a budget, however, might be forced to play with doll condominiums. There’s nothing wrong with that. You just throw all your doll trash in a collective bin.

Condos are a great solution for first-time real estate buyers or those who don't want to be bothered with mowing a lawn or shoveling snow. A condominium could be a stand-alone home in a development, or constructed as an apartment building. The units are separately owned. However, common areas like front yards, sidewalks, swimming pools, elevators, or party rooms are jointly owned by the condominium association.

In addition to making mortgage payments, owners are assessed a monthly condo fee to maintain the common areas. When you apply for a mortgage loan, a bank will take the amount of the condo fee into consideration when deciding if you qualify for that loan.

One benefit to condo living is that, if someone is not maintaining their property or being noisy, they will experience the wrath of the condo association until they clean up their act.

Some complain that some associations go too far and won't allow outside holiday decorations, or make you keep your garage door closed at all times.

Like any housing situation, hopefully the good outweighs the bad.