I’ve been looking for some real estate in Chicago and I noticed that assessments (HOA fees) were extremely high in some properties even if the price was reasonable which wasn’t even a consideration when we first set our maximum price range but made a huge difference in our potential monthly payment.
I decided to build out a matrix using Assessments as the y-axis and cost as the x-axis and then made a model to determine what was affordable based off interest rates, our maximum monthly mortgage payment (including escrow), insurance, etc.
Here’s the Chicago Real Estate Pricing Matrix Spreadsheet if you’re interested in using this spreadsheet model. Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like:
