For a 3BR house in a good school district, I may need 700k but a condo can be much cheaper, so I really need to find out the real trade-off.

Joe said coop is most restrictive. You aren’t allowed to make changes inside your unit. Alok said some coop board (“infamous” [1]) members could impose arbitrary rules such as what tenants you can bring in. Source [2] says There may be restrictions on your ability to rent out your condo or to sublet your co-op unit to someone else. It is not uncommon for condominiums and co-ops to prohibit such leases and sub-leases. More seriously, they could block your sale, so the “demand” on your asset could be artificially suppressed.

Condo is lower maintenance than houses. I agree with Joe. I said condo fee is high, but Joe pointed out pTax is lower. [1/2] say condo fees are lower then coop.

Financing — [2] says You can finance the purchase of a condo just as you would any other home (like a mortgage), but with a co-op, you’ll have to find a lender that’s willing to hold your co-op stock as security for repayment of the loan.

Joe felt condo purchase price is between coop and houses. Joe felt condo is the most easily available. He felt houses are harder to find.

http://www.moneycrashers.com/debate-single-family-home-or-townhouse/ points out that when you are away, the SFH would need someone to look after.

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-jacobs/coop-vs-condo-what-you-ne_b_3460551.html

[2] http://real-estate.lawyers.com/condominium-law/the-basics-of-condos-and-co-ops.html

[3] —– http://archive.northjersey.com/towns/co-ops-can-be-just-the-ticket-1.1251251?page=all is the last straw to break all my hopes about co-op:

“Condos sell for more than co-ops; the guesstimate is that each apartment will go up in value between 50 and 100 percent,” she said. That higher value is tied, in part, to the fact there are so many restrictions at co-ops. And that’s the freedom that residents were looking for, she said. Living in a co-op, residents could not get home equity loans, reverse mortgages and second mortgages or buy an apartment in the name of a corporation or a relative. They were strictly limited in renting out their homes, and the co-op board dictated when and how they could refinance their mortgages.

Here is the case of a buyer looking to come into a building with an all-cash offer, no debt and $200,000 in the bank. The co-op board still felt his financials were not strong enough, said Anderson, CEO of the Alexander Anderson Real Estate Group in Hackensack and Jersey City. “The potential buyer was upset, and he wound up renting an apartment, and the seller was upset because it took more than a year and a half to sell,” Anderson said.