I bought at the Meritage
A few weeks ago I bought at unit at the Meritage on Capitol Hill. It’s actually just down the street from the apartment I’m renting now. The building is mid rise, 48 units and just went on sale a few weeks ago (is now 43% sold).The unit I bought is on the fifth floor, west facing, and is about 750 square feet. While the location is great (I love Capitol Hill) I do have some concerns about the place:
- High homeowner fees
- No building amenities
- Lackluster finishes
- No ability to customize the unit beyond choosing one of three finish packages
- Views from the fifth floor likely won’t be able to match the views from my apartment
- No balcony (the sixth and seventh floors have balconies but the unit above mine cost $30k more and was less square feet)
- Not a green building
- Regular ceiling heights
- Not a crazy amount of windows
- Wood construction
I also think the purchase price was rather high… You’re probably wondering why I bought it? I see owning it as a hedge against not finding something better in the meantime. I’d really to live somewhere like the Mosler Lofts, but I’m not keen on Belltown. I did spend some time at the ‘South Lake Union Discovery Center’. Looks like lots of good stuff is going up there in the next few years. So I could imagine myself living at the Meritage until something more to my liking comes online there.
