My New Buyer Clients Told Me: "We Are Condo People"

I was touring condos this week with buyer clients who'd just signed on to work with me. If you want to do the same, here's the door: start here.

These buyers told me flat out, "we are condo people." They know what they love. They don't want to be bothered with a yard, a roof, or a gutter. What they also told me, and I respect this a lot, is that they don't want to overpay, and they don't want to buy into an association that isn't being managed well. That's smart. It's also a lot of homework for me, and I mean that as a compliment to them.

Why Condos Are Feeling the Rate Squeeze Harder Than Single-Family Homes

Here's what I would say about this to anyone shopping condos right now. Condominiums are having a genuinely hard time in this market, and interest rates are not the only reason, but they're a big one.

A single-family mortgage payment is principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. A condo payment is all of that, plus an HOA or condo association fee that doesn't care what your interest rate is. When rates sit above 6%, that HOA fee isn't just an annoyance anymore, it's stacking directly on top of an already elevated payment. Layer in the fact that comparable townhome valuations have climbed meaningfully over the last five years, and you get a monthly number that surprises a lot of buyers who were anchored to the sale price alone.

What Rates and HOA Fees Actually Look Like Right Now

The 30-year fixed rate has been running roughly 6.3% to 6.5% through the first part of 2026, and both Realtor.com and Redfin's economists have forecast the full-year 2026 average landing right around 6.3%. That's meaningfully better than the 7%-plus buyers saw at points in recent years, but it's still high enough that HOA dues aren't a rounding error anymore.

On the dues side, the City of Seattle's own affordable housing planning assumptions, current as of January 2026, use $350 a month as a baseline condo association fee when calculating what a household can afford. I want to be straight with you on this figure: that's a program planning assumption for affordable housing calculations, not a citywide average of what every condo actually charges. Real buildings run higher or lower depending on age, amenities, and reserve funding. But it's a useful, honest reference point for the kind of number you should expect to see and budget for.

Rate figures reflect the most recently confirmed Freddie Mac PMMS reading and 2026 economist forecasts available at time of writing. Please confirm the current week's rate before publishing, since this figure moves weekly.

The Opportunity Hiding Inside the Problem

Here's the part I actually find exciting. A troubled market is not the same thing as a bad market. It's a market where sellers who need to move are more willing to negotiate on price, on closing costs, or on timeline than they were two or three years ago. If you can afford the real monthly number, HOA included, and you're willing to do the homework on which buildings are actually well run, this is a genuinely good window for a long-term buy.

If you decide the HOA costs in the city push your budget too far, you might also compare how these rates impact single-family options across the lake in our guide to Interest Rates and Home-Buying Power on Seattle's Eastside.

For a deeper look at which Seattle buildings are managing that well, including the post-Surfside changes to Washington's reserve study law, I've written a full breakdown in The Best Luxury Condos in Seattle: From Downtown to Capitol Hill. If you're specifically weighing a condo as an investment rather than a primary home, The Rise of Condos in South Lake Union covers that angle in more depth.

What to Actually Check Before You Buy a Condo Right Now

This is the part that protects you, especially in a rate environment where there's less room in a monthly budget to absorb a surprise.

• The current reserve study. Tells you whether the building's savings actually match its future repair needs.
• The last 24 months of HOA board meeting minutes. This is where a pending special assessment or a dues increase shows up before it's public.
• The resale certificate. Washington requires this for condo resales, and it's usually the single most useful document in the file.
• Your full monthly number, HOA included. Not the mortgage calculator number alone.