San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

That's good news as far as I'm concerned.

I'm looking to buy downtown -- eventually.

Yes, also good news for me, as I have been patiently waiting. Has anyone heard how the Auction at Smart Corner went? The starting auction prices still seamed a bit high to me.

Gonna be a smorgasbord for cash buyers.

Yep, cash is king. If this gets applied to FNMA and FRE loans as well, then downtown condo might drop 50-70%, but you'd need cash to buy them.

Yeah wouldn't that be funny if all those folks at Smart Corner bid up to market and then this happens.

I think pricing downtown is going to continue to be under pressure for some time, but the situation in downtown SD pales in comparison to that of Phoenix (referenced in the article).

But, more importantly, can I really take anyone with this photo too seriously? I'm sorry...

http://housingstorm.com/author/patrickbu...

A downtown developer, Constellation Property (originally from Australia) lost the Stella project to the bank (built 2 years ago and been sitting vacant, unfinished).

Their other developments in San Diego and National City are on hold.

Their Lumina project in Tempe, AZ is built and in trouble.

If Phoenix is bad, Tempe is even worse.

I remember a conversation with that developer, Eugene Marchese -- smug and full of it.

I'm not a condo guy, so does this mean alot of those downtown buildings will be turned into apartments?

I told those downtown condo sales people in 2004 I would be back in a couple of years to buy at 1/3 the price. They laughed and the crackheads never sold out 5 years later... hahaha!

We were downtown just tonight and talked about buying a nice 2/2 for a low price. This is good news! :)

except rents aredeclining, so they are hard to finance as commercial too.

A unit with 90% apartments and 3 sold units becomes a nightmare to
finance as apartments either.

patb, it's nothing that a nice downward price adjustment can't fix. ;)

true but the building can death spiral and hang up for a couple of years.

if the building has 4 owners and 96 unsold, the owners may stop paying
the mortgages, but the bank may not foreclose, or worse if one owner
was in on cash and doesn't want to walk away, they can lever a lot of
money out of the prospective buyer, it's a mess.

It gets worse if you have 30 owners and 70 units unsold....

now I might not mind living in a building with some trouble being the only person there, i could play "The Omega Man" in the hallways, or have
some amazing paint ball games with buddies.