Another great article from Scott Van Voorhis writing for the Banker & Tradesman.
Downtown condo market dead? Not so fast, says top broker Kevin Ahearn, the dean of the downtown condo market, offers an interesting counterpoint to my B&T column this week on the struggles of the downtown condo market.
In my column, I detail the findings of the PrimeTime Urban report, which looked at 13 new downtown luxury condo projects. Sales actually fell in the first half of 2009, to an anemic 1.03 sales per month for each project. Ahearn doesn’t quibble with the sales slowdown, though he notes activity is picking up again. (The study only goes through the first half of the year.)
But he rolls out a barrage of statistics pointing to continued price gains in the luxury market downtown. In particular, Ahearn took a look at four years worth of condo resales at several major downtown projects, including the Ritz Carlton towers, One Charles and the new InterContinental. He came up with 134 resales from 2004 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 Of these, 84.3 percent saw their owners walk away with a gain, 3.7 percent sold for the same price, while just under 12 percent lost money. Of these, just five owners lost 10 percent or more on their resale.
Your thoughts on Scott’s article?
File Under: Hmm….I have to be careful here. How about:
Top dog barks back
