Condos vs townhouses

I'd go with a townhouse. I think it's a better investment. You'll have more control over upgrades and expansion.

Remember that if you buy a house you have to shovel the walk, deal with the city about gas, water & electric, etc.

Vagrants sitting on your stoop...dealing with trash days...pest control...you'll need an alarm system...
For me, there is nothing like a condo. You lock your door and can go away without a worry (in a full service building of course).

Hall monitors, noisy neighbors upstairs, rent time restrictions (condos are asking for 1 year minimum.) I will deal with trash and pest controls anytime over this other annoyances.

Townhouse, hands down. You have way more control over your property, and you don't want the board to restrict the rental.

But you can probably get a townhouse in WV for the same price, no? I wouldn't buy property in the anticipation of increase in value.

As to shovelling, garbage, sweeping of sidewalk, vacuuming of common hallways, etc. - it's not an issue, on the UES, you can easily get someone who will do this for you for $200/month or less. They will even look out for the weather conditions and make sure that they do the snow before you get a ticket.

You face the uncertainty of increasing CCs without control in a condo, and on a per-square-foot basis (usually), THs are cheaper than condos that have expired abatements.

Gas, water, electric - all seamless, and online. I don't think that a TH would have any more interruptions in service than an apt building.

Townhouse - if it is 25' wide or wider, but those are pretty rare and expensive.

what's the specific reason behind 25' width? is it to do with some basic construction parameters?
also, btw, there are some good value town-houses available in harlem (several fixer-uppers) any thoughts on those?

I used to live in a 20' wide townhouse and it was just too narrow for me. Once you take out around 10' in the middle of your floor plan for the staircases, it is just too small for me.

Condos, have the benefit of having large floor plans on one level.

Depends on your lifestyle. With kids (except under 2-3 because of the stairs), I would take a townhouse hands down - the privacy between floors, the backyard, etc. Plus somebody is probably around during the day most of the time (e.g., a nanny or a parent) to take packages, so the doorman is less of an issue. With two adults who probably don't need as much space and probably travel more, would go for the condo just for convinience.

In my opinion - having to "deal" with sweeping stairs, plubming, etc. is sort of b.s. With a little effort you can find somebody to do this stuff for you for much cheaper monthly than you'd be paying for a full building staff.

eric- Harlem is the place. I am buying there. One beautiful house after another, an open sky. Really vibrant.

People I know live in a 25' UES TH with elevator, and it's still a pain in the ass to always have to go up and down between floors. I'd take a big penthouse over that any day ... although that TH also has a private garage, which is a nice thing to have.

Aside from scale & grandeur of public rooms (we've talked about this before), with a 25-footer (22-footer and up, really) and assuming optimal fenestration, you can have more than 2 fair-sized bedrooms on a floor. In THs 20 feet and narrower, you get 2 bedrooms/floor, unless you do some kind of extension, but one bedroom still gets cheated of width.

'assuming optimal fenestration'
does that mean making holes???

I had to look it :)

fen·es·tra·tion (fn-strshn)
n.
1. The design and placement of windows in a building.
2. An opening in the surface of a structure, as in a membrane.
3. The surgical creation of an artificial opening in the bony part of the inner ear so as to improve or restore hearing.

Thank you for all the comments. My family doesn't plan to live in the townhouse -- we want to rent it out and sell it when the next boom comes. It sounds like for an investment property, condos are more realistic.

I'd definitely vote for a townhouse because it is less risky than a condo, you control far more of the variables that could affect your investment.

Also, it's a hell of a lot easier to keep smaller units rented than to keep big expensive apartment(s) rented. Modest units on the Upper East Side never stay vacant very long.

Cash flow, baby, cash flow. If you want long-term appreciation you must keep your eye on cash flow.

{Manhattan real estate agent and owner of 5 residential rental investment props}

eric_cartman, it's just one of the standard lot widths on uptown blocks. E.g., 100' 50' 25' 20' 16'8" and permutations thereof.