When does purchasing a condo make sense financially?

I live in a hcol city. Prices have been falling quite a bit. The hesitancy from buyers like myself is from the high hoa fees. Avg hoa is around $700 with highs of $1300. Anything lower than that is guaranteed to have a special assessment in the future.

When i calculate my housing budget it’s hard for me to understand how to determine what the right price is for condos due to their unpredictable monthly costs. With townhouses, the maintenance costs are invisible monthly and since you own the land they dont depreciate so losing money if you need to sell within a few years isnt all that bad. For condos, you dont have this deferred maintenance luxury and can find yourself in a financial pickle if hoas increase too dramatically yoy and selling can result in massive loss because the property didnt appreciate.

Condos seem to only make financial sense when its newer and purchased at a cheaper price. New ones still sell at high prices but older ones built in the 1970s-80s seem to suffer from this hoa uncertainty i.e. hard to predict future monthly costs. Ive noticed selloffs of condos always happen right when a special assessment happens so im assuming this is why new condos always have low hoas

For context i dont view condos as invesments. I actually see them as depreciating assets but want to makee sure they fit in my budget