Condo vs Co op

I THINK both are possible with cohousing but I will say it depends on what your city allows and what your goals are

" A condominium, usually shortened to simply “condo,” is a privately owned, individual residential unit within a community of other units. In general, the owner usually owns the interior of their unit and the structural components of exterior walls. Condo owners jointly own shared common areas within the community, such as lobbies, pools, parking garages and elevators."

https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/what-is-a-condo/

" A limited equity housing cooperative is a residential development owned and managed by a democratically governed, nonprofit cooperative corporation, such as a tenants’ union. "

https://thenextsystem.org/learn/stories/limited-equity-housing-cooperative

The common phrase I see with condos is that you own real land. You own your unit and are responsible for the taxes and all that. They are also for profit Theoretically , as long as you're able to afford the HOA fees and show that you have some way to pay for the unit ( mortgage , cash , loans etc ) you should be able to buy in whatever condo you want.

When it comes to building a condo building , most banks are comfortable ( at least in the northeast United States ) lending to get condos built because they are for profit with a business plan behind them

Also on average once it's built the HOA fees are low compared to the mortgage because your simply paying for common areas like a gym and common maintenance like trash pickup and hall way cleaning.

With a co op , individuals don't own land. You own shares of a company that gives you access to a certain unit in their building. You pay money towards the building directly. I believe most if not all coops are non profit

As an example , you could get 10 friends to build a building using cash Let's say it takes 1,000,000

you could split the company into 10 shares and have each person pay 100,000 to get in

Once the building is built ; you all pay the property taxes , fines , maintenance , other fees etc of the building based on your shares

So if the building has 10,000 in fees every month each person pays 1000

This is a simple example but once you get financing involved it gets more complicated

If you plan on joining an existing co op they are approving you as a person to join their company. So they're going to look at your personal income , personality and who you are to make that decision.

Also what would be the HOA fees in a condo are co op fees and they make up the majority of what you pay to live in the unit. In the 10 shares example if you get one share your responsible for 10% of what it takes to run and maintain the entire building including your unit

From my limited understanding , condos are easier to get financing for and you can build equity much easier as an individual . You also get much more say in how you use your unit.

For co ops they are less common so it's harder to get financing and you're not building equity as an individual ( usually ) Also they have every right to control what you can do to your individual unit since it's a part of their company and the building is their product