As potential homebuyers in California weigh some very expensive housing options, they are often steered toward condominiums — one of the most affordable pathways to becoming a homeowner in the United States.
Times contributor Emily Hochberg suggested as much in a story last month, encouraging buyers not to fear the c-word.
“A condo can allow you to live in popular neighborhoods with fewer required renovations, so long as you’re OK sharing a wall or two,” she wrote.
But there are also cons to buying a condo including sky-high HOA and parking fees, and emergency assessments, which could cost thousands of dollars.
You’re reading the Essential California newsletter
L.A. Times reporters guide you through the most important news, features and recommendations of the morning.
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy such as personalizing your experience and ads.
Homeowners in a San Clemente condo community are currently facing a $26,000 assessment per unit to replace their roofs.
It’s a situation that experts say is becoming increasingly common as California’s condos age, the state’s insurance crisis worsens and homeowners associations comply with new safety standards for balconies, my colleague Grace Toohey reports, leading to unanticipated costs that many condo owners cannot afford.
Infrastructure issues, higher insurance costs
Even if residents don’t like the price tag, defenders of the emergency fees told Grace that long-standing infrastructure issues must be addressed.
Some point to the 2021 collapse of a high-rise condo in Florida that killed 98 people, caused by the building’s flawed structural design and decades of corrosion, as a worst-case scenario of what can happen when needed upgrades are not made.
“We have a lot of condo complexes in California which were built during the early 2000s during that building boom … and those are the ones that are aging right now,” said Michael Kushner, an attorney specializing in HOA law who typically represents homeowners. “The years catch up, and suddenly you’ve got these things falling apart or rotting.”
In the last few years, Kushner said he’d heard about more emergency assessments surpassing $20,000 per unit, often because of long overdue upgrades.
Updated balcony inspections, required by state law after a 2015 balcony collapse in Berkeley killed six people, have resulted in many expensive repair jobs, he said.
Many condo owners and HOA boards also are facing higher insurance costs as companies pull out of the state amid increasingly destructive wildfires.
Can condos still be part of a housing solution?
Some say the possibility of being slapped with fees is a factor in buyers’ waning interest in condos at the same time that construction of new condos has continued to lag across the state.
Still, condos remain a relatively affordable entry into homeownership, and California lawmakers say condos can’t be ignored.
“Condos are such an important part of the housing stock,” state Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) told Grace last month, calling them key to providing “a foot in the door for that first-time homebuyer.”
Wicks understands condos aren’t the only type of housing the state needs — or even what all Californians want — but she said the multi-unit, for-sale buildings deserve the attention of state leaders.
“It’s part of the overall solution,” Wicks said of condos. She called them “a big part of the equation in our housing crisis.”
Top stories 
A Waymo car drives down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
(Arwen Clemans / Los Angeles Times)
L.A. now has more driverless cars, involved in more crashesAs more driverless cars hit Los Angeles streets, accidents involving them have surged.Still, there were relatively few incidents, and most were fender benders, according to a Times review of autonomous-vehicle crash data filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.The Bouquet fire grows in Angeles National ForestThe fire is blazing amid soaring heat across Southern California that has sent temperatures 15 to 20 degrees above normal.As of Sunday afternoon, it had grown to 1,048 acres and was 48% contained. Metrolink raises ticket pricesMetrolink is raising its ticket prices for the first time in 13 years.Many riders who regularly rely on the train have voiced their anger over the changes as one-way tickets go up by 14%; daily passes by 27%, from $15 to $19; and weekend passes by 20%, from $10 to $12.More newsCommentary and opinionEditor’s pickMore picksThings to do 
Today’s recipe 
Lychee eyeball jello shots.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Unlike classic college Jell-O shots soft enough to slurp, these Halloween lychee eyeball Jell-O shots are firm enough to pick up. Feeling that slick, jiggly texture while staring into an eye you’re about to eat will definitely freak you out … in the best possible way.
Question for you
What’s a television show that takes place in California that you’d recommend to friends?
William B. says, “I would recommend both ‘The Closer’ and its spinoff, ‘Major Crimes’ for anyone wanting a TV show based in California. I happened to watch two episodes of ‘Major Crimes’ recently which were both filmed in the neighborhood my daughter and son-in-law live, Atwater Village.”
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
Photo of the day 
Nine-year-old Rafael Lopez Matos and his horse, Original, head home from a neighbor’s house in Majagua, Cuba, after Rafael got a haircut. Despite a crisis of power outages, severe fuel shortages and dramatic price spikes, life in Cuba goes on.
(Lisette Poole Gonzalez / Pulitzer Center)
Games 
Here’s today’s mini crossword, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Jack Dolan, investigative reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, Fast Break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.