What HOA Dues Actually Buy in a Seattle Building
Dues aren't a fee for living there — they're your share of running a building. A line-by-line look at where condo dues go and when high dues are a bargain.
Buyers compare condo dues the way they compare rent — lower is better — and it’s the single most reliable way to misjudge a building. Dues are not a fee for the privilege of living there. They’re your share of the building’s actual operating costs, paid monthly instead of in lump sums. The only real questions are whether the number reflects the true costs, and whether you’d rather pay those costs predictably or in surprises.
The typical breakdown
Open any Seattle association budget and the big line items repeat:
- Insurance — the master policy on the structure, often the largest and fastest-growing line in recent years. (Your own HO-6 sits on top of it.)
- Utilities — commonly water/sewer/garbage for the whole building; sometimes gas or even heat in older buildings.
- Maintenance & janitorial — elevators, landscaping, common-area cleaning, the recurring small repairs every structure generates.
- Management — if professionally managed.
- Reserve contributions — savings for the roof, siding, and systems. The health of this line is the whole game; see reading reserve studies.
Amenities (gym, concierge, rooftop) add real cost, but in most buildings they’re a smaller share than buyers assume — insurance and water bills don’t care about the lobby furniture.
”High” dues vs. “low” dues, honestly
A building with higher dues that fully funds reserves, carries good insurance, and includes most utilities can be cheaper to own than a “low dues” building where every owner privately absorbs underinsurance, deferred maintenance, and the inevitable special assessment. When comparing two units, do the simple normalization:
- Add each building’s dues + your estimated HO-6 premium.
- Note what utilities are inside the dues — subtract what you’d pay anyway.
- Check reserve funding; mentally amortize any obvious upcoming project in the underfunded building.
That comparison regularly flips which unit is the better deal — and it takes fifteen minutes with documents you already have.
When dues are actually a red flag
Dues deserve suspicion in two directions. Too low: no reserve line to speak of, an insurance line that hasn’t moved in years, a budget balanced by ignoring the siding. Climbing fast: sometimes it’s responsible catch-up after years of underfunding (good, if late); sometimes it’s a building whose insurance or repairs are spiraling (read the minutes to learn which story you’re in).
The honest take
Nobody loves dues. But the alternative to honest dues isn’t lower cost — it’s the same cost arriving as a five-figure letter. Judge the budget, not the number.
The same normalize-before-comparing logic applies to the agent you hire: the published fee only means something next to the service behind it. Manaky Homes is building the free marketplace where Greater Seattle agents put both side by side. Join the waitlist.
