This past weekend the New York Times reports, Buyers Scarce, Many Condos Are for Rent:
After six weeks of failing to lure more than a couple of dozen buyers, Mr. Franco and his partner, Jeff Blum, joined the builders of nearly 6,000 condominium units in the Washington metropolitan area who have decided in the last three months to recast their projects as rental apartment buildings.
Since the middle of 2006, the frenzied condominium market here and in several other big cities like Las Vegas, Miami and Boston has collapsed. Once roaring sales have slowed to a trickle, sparse inventory has mushroomed into a glut and soaring prices have flattened out and started falling.
While this article is primarily about the problem in Washington, D.C., SocketSite, a SF real estate blog comments about a SF condo project reverting to rentals for their unsold inventory. Overall I think the Seattle market is still in good shape but what are the exit strategy’s for the developers at struggling projects like Trio and Domaine? Are they considering rentals? Should the be?
I’ll try later tonight to pull the number on unsold and upcoming inventory, though if anyone has those numbers handy, please post them in the comments below.
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