Posted on 01/16/2007 12:59:04 PM PST by overtaxed_canadian
By VIKAS BAJAJ
WASHINGTON — David Franco’s illuminated model of a proposed 10-story condominium tower dominates a sales center that, in spite of the “Now Selling” banner still fluttering outside, is conspicuously closed for business.
“We could have waited it out and kept pushing and pushing,” Mr. Franco said about the decision to abandon plans to sell 180 luxury condominiums with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the Washington Monument and Capitol Hill. “But it would have taken significantly longer.”
After six weeks of failing to lure more than a couple of dozen buyers, Mr. Franco and his partner, Jeff Blum, joined the builders of nearly 6,000 condominium units in the Washington metropolitan area who have decided in the last three months to recast their projects as rental apartment buildings.
Since the middle of 2006, the frenzied condominium market here and in several other big cities like Las Vegas, Miami and Boston has collapsed. Once roaring sales have slowed to a trickle, sparse inventory has mushroomed into a glut and soaring prices have flattened out and started falling.
In many cities, banks have significantly scaled back loans to condominium builders. Some have demanded that developers sell half or more of the units in a building before even beginning construction.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Where has this happened? it's CERTAINLY not typical!
Ah, an idiots dream when they can't understand a 5.5% fixed 30 year, and believe that they are wise because they do nothing but sit.
It is still a great market. But folks, like yourself will invest in credit cards, pickup trucks, quads, and sticky fingered portly children.
I've been looking for my very first home. I'm not having fun anymore.
"Even the rent in DC is too high."
hey, you can find a 1 bedroom, 1 bath in the suburbs for only $1600/month.
just totally insane !!!
Lease with option to buy. Look for opportunities like that.
Maybe not. Japan has never recovered from its real estate bubble in 1989. But then Japan has a declining population. However, the US has a zero population growth if you exclude immigration.
Without the Hispanics, our birthrate would be around 1.8, but our population would not decline for another 20 years or so, if there's no immigration at all.
So the market was still catching up with the cost of living?
That monthly condo fee you mentioned covers lawncare, snow removal, garbage removal, and ammenities like tennis courts, meeting center usage, swimming pools, and onsite gyms. Sometimes for far less than one would pay as a homeowner purchasing each of those services himself/herself for a traditional home. Lots of singles and busy professionals dig condo-style living.
~ Blue Jays ~
"you get to"....pay a monthly condo fee forever and live in one of the most violent and disfunctional cities in America"
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In the USA you get to do whatever you choose to do.
I am astonished at the sour grapes and vengeful remarks about the FREE market on a "conservative" thread.
Don't be a loser, be an American!
Certainly the 1954 dollar purchased alot less.
I think that's the one I was reading about.
What the hell are you talking about? What's especially "American" about buying a condo and paying condo fees? If you want to do that be my guest, just don't be an ass about it.
I've got nothing against condo living, per se. When my wife and I were first married our first home together was a rented condo that I really loved. But that was in Virginia Beach which is a wonderful place to live, not DC (where I also lived for 4 years) which is a crime ridden, poorly serviced, dysfunctional hell hole.
When my wife became a real estate agent, her very first sale was a condo to a lady in her early 40's. She spent more time on that sale than any other, and it was less than half the value of any other. I met the lady and she had two adult children living with her. Collectively they probably weighed 700+ lbs. She was a whiney liberal that needed help to get out of the car.
Anyway, she ended up suing the previous owner, my wifes company and the condo association because of mold.
Since then, my wife (and all GOOD agents) separate clients into four groups based on their quality and the expected quality of their referrals: A, B, C, D.
"D" stands for "delete". Some people are a waste of your time, and the experts spot them early.
A friend in Hawaii said wait till next year. Will be even better for buyers.
With all due respect, I think it is impossible to teach the discipline of financial analysis to people who have decided that their "feelings" are more important than objective facts, spread sheets, interest rates and net present values.
The "savvy" get rich. The "not-so-savvy" do not.
Free markets are like that.
Still, it DOES seem curious that many people who seek to buy gold because of imminent "inflation" also seek to rent their homes because of imminent "deflation".
This is a "not-so-savvy" strategy, IMHO.
"If you want to do that be my guest, just don't be an ass about it."
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Freedom of expression -- ain't it great!!!!!!
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