What’s up with condos? They look like a ripoff since they are more expensive per square foot.

Depends on what you’re looking at.

If you’re looking at downtown or beach front 40 story condos yeah those are prized possessions not a lot of them around and heavily favoring the luxury end of the market.

But if you’re look at say a $100-300k home or a $100-300k condo the $300k condo will almost always be superior on everything except possibly square footage (but honestly many times they will be larger for same class / style home).

Even your new construction, the compromise is you’re moving 30-40 minutes away from the city to a place where there isn’t a lot of entertainment options, restaurant choice or… well much of anything. Which is fine if that makes you happy. Condos are more for affordable living in high land value areas, in dense urban areas, waterfront, beach front. There’s plenty around at all price points including a few under $100k but like much of life it depends on what balances and compromises you’re looking for.

Basing a home purchase on raw square footage or $ / sqft is usually a terrible idea. Much more important is location, floorplan, and if it fits your lifestyle. Find your comfortable budget, then find the home that best fits your criteria to make you happy.

I mean, very low $/sqft is out there, but if it’s in the middle of nowhere, or makes your commute 1.25 hours one way…. the vast majority of homeowners are happier living somewhere that makes them happy, not trying to optimize a metric that doesn’t actually mean a lot.

Best value of cost per square footage is usually found in absolute disaster houses in terrible locations that no one wants to live in. So if that’s not what you’re comfortable with you need to determine what you are willing to compromise on.

Now, condo fees will drop your budget. But you can literally find 1 and 2 bedroom waterfront condos with a boat dock out the back door for $200k – $400k. Tell me where the single family homes match that… I’ll buy a few of them.