The condo market stalled a long time ago. I was a pretty good Realtor in San Diego for the past 7 years and specialized in resale condos. I left the business last August and now am semi-retired in Asia.
All this talk about condos increasing in value in the last year is B.S..
A few examples:
I had a client whose property I sold a year ago in a good complex on the 56 corridor. He bought it a year before in the frenzy with 100% financing…Then a year later he decided to move out of the country and sell.We sold it for $15K less than what he bought it for…When you add commission and closing costs he lost $30K on the deal. Luckily he had profit from selling another property to complete the deal or his only other option would have been to give it back to the lender.
A downtown example:
I had a client who bought pre-construction at Park Place for $440K (only $50K deposit)in 2001…when it was completed in 2003 we put it on the market and sold it in 1 week for $650K…Things were good. He was so happy with the results he bought another pre-construction condo from the same builder in 2003 for $880K in The Grande (Now deposit required was $150K)…It was finished in 2005 and put back on the market immediately…Sold for $959K…When you factor in commissions and closing costs on both the purchase and the sale he barely made $30,000….and He’s lucky to have sold at that time. It wouldn’t sell for that much right now…and the HOA was I think over $800/month…not to mention the mortgage payment if he had to carry it any more months unsold……In a nutshell, downtown flippers made a lot of money a few years ago..but now these speculators would be lucky to get their money back..and as the downtown inventories continue to grow, prices will come down more…
Sorry for the rambling……I just wanted to let people know that these things were really happening a long time ago but somehow the media tries to paint a rosy picture…
