Condos Going Cheap: Bidders Get Great Deals on 31 Units at Hub Auction

Boston Herald ^ | 10/8/2006 | Brett Arends

[ex-Texan]

Just how weak is the Boston real estate market?

We got an idea yesterday. And if you’re looking to sell your home in the near future, the news isn’t good.

Brand-new luxury condos downtown saw hundreds of thousands of dollars wiped off their value in the Hub’s first public real estate auction in a decade.

The 31 condos up for sale in the Folio building on Broad Street sold on average for 30 percent below their asking prices. Some barely fetched their minimums.

Even the building’s marketing boss couldn’t hide what happened.

“I think the buyers got a better value than anybody expected,” Paul Gollinger said after the two-hour auction. “But we’re satisfied, very satisfied... We hadn’t had a sale in the last four months.”

Nearly 400 people crowded into a room at the new Seaport Hotel at lunchtime to watch the sale.

The most expensive properties fell hardest. A $1,760,000 penthouse plunged $600,000 to just $1,140,000.

A $1,600,000 three-bedroom apartment with a terrace crashed by half a million dollars, selling for less than $1.1 million.

Husband and wife Kevin and Daire Starr couldn’t believe their luck. They got a 1,910-square foot apartment with three bedrooms and two bathrooms for $837,000 - almost $400,000 below the list price, and just $12,000 over the auction minimum.

[ex-Texan]

Great news for bargain shoppers! Condos are selling at 30% reductions. Wow! On some real estate forums the posters call this type of activity "a 30% haircut." But the truth is that cutting that much off the top is very painful. Occasionally, the truth hurts. Oh, well . . .

For all the naysayers out there I reiterate your favorite themes: "Nothing to see here. Not in my neck of the woods. Time to move on."

[ex-Texan]

*Ping*!

[oceanview]

gee, maybe the asking prices were TOO HIGH.

the recent real estate price declines are good news in my opinion. for many in the middle class, housing costs have been forcing them deeper and deeper into long term debt, and impossible mortgages. these price declines will bring some relief. and I could care less about people who have lost money speculating in real estate - to hell with them.

[Drango]

[Moonman62]

Over a million for a condo in Boston is a bargain?

[proudofthesouth]

Granted the condos I'm living in aren't luxury but quite nice and in a good part of town and they are going up in price.

[Petronski]

Does this represent a reduction in value, or an absurd asking price being brought to reality?

[stylin19a]

man, you picked the wrong example....

showing that brand new condos sold for 1.1 million instead of 1.7 million doesn't bolster anything you espouse...just the opposite...it is showing that people are buying homes..

good grief man...get a grip

condos sell for a million dollars - ping !
sky is falling up - ping !
trillions l,ost inquity - pinf !

[palmer]

But the truth is that cutting that much off the top is very painful.

I doubt it unless the developers are stupid. If I wanted to live in Boston and had that money, I would buy there for that price and both the developers and I would be happy.

[stylin19a]

that's "trillions lost in equity - ping

[goldstategop]

Its a buyer's market. I've had to cut my asking price and may need to make still more cuts. If you're on the other side, the grass looks greener. You can name your price or just walk away leaving the seller nowhere to go.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[kinoxi]

“I think the buyers got a better value than anybody expected,” Paul Gollinger said after the two-hour auction. “But we’re satisfied, very satisfied... We hadn’t had a sale in the last four months.”

[durasell]

Okay, that's pretty bad.

[goldstategop]

Sellers and their suppliers want to get paid. If it doesn't sell, no one gets paid.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[wagglebee]

400 hundred people attending an auction to buy just 31 condos where condos that are under 2000 s.f. sell for over $1 million sure doesn't sound like a slump to me.

[ex-Texan]

You ought to read the entire editorial. As the article says, the prices were reasonable only one year ago. But not today. If the price was really "too high," it is not hard to predict dozens of lawsuits being filed tomorrow:

"The big losers yesterday? The people who paid full price for the other 65 homes in the building during the last few years."

I noticed the same naysayers show up every time I post a new housijng bubble report. Every single time. The same group of stalkers show up.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

You are missing a big point. It very well may have cost $1 million for the developer to build it...

[goldstategop]

I wonder if they're waterfront condo properties.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[wagglebee]

Very unlikely.

[wagglebee]

They probably back up to an interstate.