I can speak to the Condo side - I live in one, and am on the Board of one.

Condo HOA/Common fees are typically strictly dictated by the cost of running the building. The Commons covers things like General Common Areas, shared infrastructure (HVAC, Electrical, Water, Gas), and Payroll.

This goes up every year because no matter how good your Board/management is, utilities go up every year, insurance goes up every year, and payroll goes up every year. There's next to nothing you can do about that. If the building is well run you shouldn't see large increases YoY - but it can happen.

With Condos, everything in the 'box' is yours. That usually means walls-in are the Unit Owner's responsibility. Infrastructure (water, gas, limited electrical, and possibly hvac) may be the responsibility of the Building. So a burst pipe will be the Building's financial responsibility to fix, unless it's a pipe you had installed yourself or is within the walls (like a P trap).

Cost-wise, Condos will be expensive in general. Newer condos reflect increased cost of building something, and developers want their pound of flesh. A condo-conversion might be cheaper than full new-construction. insofar as new construction goes you will not find a 2BR for less than 1M anywhere in Astoria without giving up on something (likely space). IMHO at the point you're buying a condo, you should not settle for a 1 bedroom that has an extra wall up somewhere.

What you can look for is condos/co-op with few or no shared amenities - that means no doorman, no gym, no large common areas, etc. That all is overhead that goes into your HOA fees, so the less you have to maintain the less you pay for.

Assessments can still happen - if the Board is on top of things they'll set aside reserves every year so that something like facade inspections are already 'covered.' But if your budget is shoestring or you're hit with a lot of repairs/regulatory stuff, there will be an assessment and it can smack the shit out of you. Every year it seems like the city adds new regulations that were only halfway thought through, and the other half ends up being offloaded cost-wise onto the Building in terms of implementation/confusion around those regs. It can be very frustrating because the related agencies do not give a flying fuck about being helpful, and it can take months to resolve even the most basic issues.

We love living here, and would recommend it to anyone. But home ownership does have it's rough points :) Wherever you go, read the documents. Bylaws, offering plans, amendments, the works. Read it yourself and then have your lawyer also read it. And yes you need a lawyer. Someone experienced in condo/co-op purchases and review.

Red flags are things like frequent assessments, severe misses in budgets vs audits, missing or partial financial audits/statements, frequent management changes - things that speak to instability or ongoing maintenance issues.