Condos vs. Single Family HomesWhether to buy a Condo or a Single Family home comes down to what your life style needs are. If you are single and you don't like yard work than a condo may suit you better than a home. If you have children and don't have an aversion to maintaining a home then a single family home is best.  Both options have pros and cons. With a condo, you will most probably have HOA dues. HOA (Home owners Association) fees can be costly but you are paying for the privilege of having a third party handle all the property maintenance in the common areas. Another issue with condos that you don't have with a detached home involve pets. Most condos restrict pets including the size and breed. 

 

• A single-family (home, house, or dwelling) means that the building is usually occupied by just one household or family, and consists of just one dwelling unit or suite. In some jurisdictions allowances are made for basement suites or mother-in-law suites without changing the description from "single family". It does exclude, however, any short term accommodation (hotel, motels, inns), large-scale rental accommodation (rooming or boarding houses, apartments), or condominiums.
• A detached (house, home, or dwelling) means that the building does not share an inside wall with any other house or dwelling. It has only outside walls and does not touch any other dwelling. This excludes duplexes, threeplexes, fourplexes, or linked houses (which are more properly called semi-detached) as well as all row houses and most especially tower blocks which are the polar opposite as they can hold thousands of families in a single building.
• A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other  real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate (usually of an apartment house) is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights associated with the individual ownership and controlled by the association of owners that jointly represent ownership of the whole piece.