Condo values increasing faster in many places, one study finds

It’s a real-estate question that historically has had an easy answer: Do single-family detached homes appreciate faster than condominiums?

The standard answer has been: of course. They are what most Americans prefer to live in, so there’s stronger demand. They also come with their own piece of land, and land is a crucial driver of value.

Condos, on the other hand, tend to be smaller and come with boards of directors, association fees, rules and restrictions.

But hold on. New research conducted by Trulia, the online realty information company, suggests that trends are changing. It found that in the 100 largest metro areas, the median appreciation rates of condos outpaced those of single-family detached houses from February 2012 to this past February.

It wasn’t even close. Median condo values rose 38.4 percent, while the median single-family home values appreciated 27.9 percent.

The most extreme example is metro New York, where median condo values are now 138 percent of median single-family detached home values. In Detroit, the median condo value is 125 percent of median single-family home value. Other urban areas experiencing this dynamic include Atlanta, Boston, DallasFort Worth, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle.

Trulia’s analysis may be controversial. It derives from the massive database the company maintains on millions of housing units nationwide. Using an automated valuation model that incorporates a range of data available on individual homes, it estimates values both for properties that are on the market and those that are not.

The National Association of Realtors reports that based on closed sales prices — not value estimates — single-family homes appreciated an average of 4.7 percent annually between 2010 and 2016, while condos averaged 3.4 percent.