Condominium
Amazing. John D. MacDonald wrote this book about shyster real estate developers as a tribute to the many friends he lost in a hurricane due to that very circumstance. The term "blockbuster" is used all too often, but this book truly is. John had enormous talent, he was angry, and he was highly eloquent. It may be the most impeccably crafted book I have ever read, and has a permanent place on my bookshelf.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
2mentions
2people
2021–2023years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Condos are yet another example of how being poor in America is expensive.
While condos are attractive for people who can't afford regular homes, mortgages are harder to get for them. Even if you have a perfect credit score and 20% down, there is a whole category of condo called "nonwarrantable", which makes them ineligible with any lender who sells direct to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One of the laundry list of stipulations is that no single person or entity owns more than 10% of all condo units in the building or development.
Condo buyers are living with risks like the article describes, and they're paying more for it to the bank for the privilege. It's a cruel joke that the people who can't afford single family home mortgages are given fewer protections and subject to a litany of HOA payments, special assessments, fees, and fines that can result in the condo being foreclosed on even if you own it free and clear.
There is a great novel "Condominium" by John D. MacDonald that lays bare the skeezy nature of condo developments. It's from 1977, and here we are 40-50 years later, still letting people get conned and maybe even die (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfside_condominium_collapse) thanks to the numerous messed up incentives in condo development.
- Back in the 1970s, the author John MacDonald, best know for his Travis McGee mysteries, wrote the novel Condominium, about a badly-built condominium building on the Florida coast. It was made into a TV movie in the early 1980s. I didn't read the book, and only saw a trailer for the movie, but my recollection was that a hurricane was the instrument of the disaster.
