More Good News for Buyers - for the rest of us? not so much...

Downtown 2008 4th quarter condo sales cratered. As the kids might say, Duh!

Lets try to quantify that. According to Crain's, quarterly sales were actually negative 253 for the quarter. Put another way, more buyers walked away from contract than signed new ones. For the entire year, only 644 new construction condos sold. Compare that to 2007 when 3,724 units sold or 2005 (the market peak) when 8,162 units closed.

So where is the good news for buyers? Another 4,734 condos are expected to be completed this year downtown. This is on top of thousands of other condos that are completed but haven’t yet sold.

Developers are going to be stressed to the max, trying to sell off unsold units. Their lender's are going to start pressuring for loan repayments. The likelihood of developer defaults and foreclosures seems pretty strong.

Then consider the folks who did not walk away from their downtown condo contracts. A great many were "investors" who wanted to buy and flip. Those speculators are out there too, also hoping to unload their properties. As soon as possible.

Prices are going to drop. Downtown Buyers are going to see (I predict) some truly wonderful opportunities.

What do you think?

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Title insurance is a critically important part of any real estate transaction; or at least it should be. The title company guaranties the "quality" of an owners interest in the property - that there aren't any (unknown) liens or defects. No buyer that I work for will purchase a property without it. Title insurance is only as good as the insurer. We want to know that the insurance company, like the Rock of Gibraltar , will always be there. We want to sleep easy at night, knowing that the client is protected. That said, it was a bit distressing to see that PLM Title Company shut its doors, without any forewarning last week. Worse still, this morning's news is that there is a criminal investigation underway - and that we do not yet know why. Old timers like me shudder with memories of the great Intercounty Title debacle five years ago. Here's to hoping that this one is nothing like that one. Set aside the problems involved trying to make a claim against a defun

So.... about the blawg

Nov. 2022 Hello Dear Reader. I started blogging on this site 15 years ago. Crazy right? May or may not Chicago's longest-running blog about real estate law. I think so, but who knows, Whether it is or isn't doesn't, of course, really matter. Either way, it's been a blast. But things change. We've pulled up the tent stakes here and are relocated on other platforms. Want to follow along? Join us on the mothership I'm also writing on LinkedIn Thanks for everything.

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