Condo sales crimped
Delta Associates' new condominium report, released yesterday, noted a trend in sales that makes a marketer shudder: A grand total of 13 condos sold in the Baltimore metro area in the first three months of this year. The area had 263 sales in the first quarter of 2007, Delta says. (It defines the area as Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Harford County and Howard County.)
That's actually not the worst quarter of the slump. July through September of last year, the metro area recorded -12 sales of condos. Yes, negative sales.
Delta defines a sale as a binding contract with a deposit, but buyers have been backing out of contracts. The company, speaking of the Mid-Atlantic region as a whole, said in a press release that "projects are seeing buyers fail to settle -- back out of sales contracts -- from 15% to 50%."
Developers have dropped their listing prices but pulled back on other concessions, leaving the bottom-line price for buyers down only modestly from a year ago, Delta added.
Comments
Hi Jamie,
Condo sales are tough. Take a look at the bubble bench I featured in my blog www.hibantellsthetruth.com
The investors ran the prices up on them for a few years and now they are coming crashing down. They will be the first to be hurt tremendously along with the upper end in this downturn.
Pat Hiban
www.hibantellsthetruth.com
Posted by: pat hiban | April 3, 2008 7:19 PM
Hi Pat,
I don't quite understand your description (at your website) of how to charge commission twice, without selling the house. Can you run us thru again please?
Posted by: John Williams | April 4, 2008 5:45 PM
In Baltimore City, new condos are still priced way too high compared to single family townhomes. You can buy a nice, old townhouse for the same price as a new 1 bd/1ba condo. It is crazy. It is pretty obvious that the developers thought they could snag a lot of out of towners that hadn't done their homework.
The silver lining is from the outside those condos look great and they improve the look of the city.
Posted by: Gordon | April 4, 2008 6:32 PM