" He said Anderson will be more expensive bc of the name but Viwinco is just as good. "

He is BS'ing you. Viwinco is not anywhere near as good as anything Andersen. What are your existing windows made of? Have you looked into a quality vinyl insert replacement window?

I happen to have Anderson 400's on my primary house (not 100% sure but definitely Anderson - I seem to remember we got a good deal so we got 400s) and ViWinCo on a vacation home.

The Viwinco's are their coastal series with impact glass. Not sure how that matches up to the S series.

There is certainly no comparison on quality. Viwincos aren't bad and when we were building it was a 50% cost savings. So for your use, they might be fine. But, they are not at all what Anderson's are. But, I've had better luck with the casement cranks on the Viwinco. They don't look as nice but I have had to glue some of the Anderson handles on. Sure - some of that is probably workers using vice grips on the gears to open the windows during construction but that can't be the whole issue.

Marvin Elevate/Essential are fiberglass options.

I use Andersen a lot I am curious as to replacing windows in a townhouse . Usually townhouses are in a HOA environment and reuire approval before any exterior changes are made. I had the tilt ones and loved them no more climbing a ladder to clean the top floor.I like triple paned for the whole house BTW but I lived in Calgary Canada on a busy street

You want to stay with wood I take it?

No does not have to be wood.

the townhouse value will not really get back high end top of line products

its a 90s mid-grade townhouse

i am not the original owner

bought in 2022 as real estate market was climbing

Well...vinyl will have about 10X the amount of options at an upper end performance level than you will find in wood or fiberglass...for (usually) a bit less on the budgetary side. So, I would probably lean in that direction.