Should I buy a condo by the El?

Short answer: yes, you can buy it, but negotiate the price to reflect the tracks, because "it does not bother us" and "will it hurt our value" are two different questions, and only the second one shows up when you sell. Here is the honest version. Being near transit adds convenience value for a lot of buyers. Being immediately next to the tracks, with the trains running right behind you, usually trades at a discount to the same unit a block or two off the line. That is noise and vibration, and the market prices it even when the current owner genuinely does not mind it. So the risk long term is not that the condo will not sell. It is that your buyer pool is a little narrower and your days on market can run longer, which means you may have to price to the exposure the same way you should be pricing to it now. That is the key move: since this is the best you can do on your budget and the location does not bother you, use the tracks as leverage on the way in. You want to buy that exposure at a discount, not pay a premium for the convenience you personally value, so that when you resell you are giving up a discount you already captured rather than eating a new one. A few things to check before you write the offer: Which side and which floor the unit faces. Units facing away from the line, and higher floors, hold up better on both livability and resale. Ask about the windows too. Dual-pane or laminated glass and good insulation make a real difference in how loud it actually is, and a well-soundproofed unit resells better than a raw one. The condo fundamentals, which matter as much as the tracks. Ask for the HOA reserve study and the recent meeting minutes, ask whether any special assessments are pending, and ask what percentage of units are owner-occupied. If the building is not warrantable for conventional financing, that shrinks your future buyer pool more than the El does, because if a buyer cannot finance it, neither can the buyer after them. Whether an appraiser can find comps. If nearby track-adjacent units have sold, that both confirms it sells and tells you the real discount to negotiate against. Bottom line: a nice, larger condo you can actually afford beats a fixer you cannot, and the El is a manageable tradeoff if you buy it at the right price. Just do not pay the same number a set-back unit would command, and make sure the condo association is financially healthy before you fall for the extra space. I am a real estate professional in the Los Angeles and South Bay market in California, where we see the same pattern along the busy corridors and rail lines: units right on the line trade at a discount to the interior ones, and the smart buyers capture that discount going in. If you want, send me the two or three units you are weighing and I am glad to talk through how to price the exposure so it works for you at resale. Zoltan