Have folks been to check out Brix and Gallery?
I hear from owners at Gallery that their building has been busy with lots of folks into see the units. However, this post in the Redfin forums indicates that only 25 people have registered for the Gallery auction. Personally, it seems like my friends and acquaintances are more interested in the Brix auction but I haven’t heard how many people have registered for it.
The reaction I’m hearing from owners is mixed; they’re conflicted as they want their buildings to sell out but at the same time seeing a similar unit with a minimum price half of what you just paid can be disheartening to say the least. You can also say goodbye to re-financing. But on the other hand there’s an opportunity to dollar cost average down by buying a neighboring unit or two.
In terms of why Schnitzer is auctioning off a large subset of units the reasoning they give is that they want to set a new market price for the remainder of their units. However, I’ve heard some speculate that with the language of the auction contract stipulating that deals must close by October 27th that a large balance of their initial construction loan may be coming due at the end of October.
How is this impacting others buying and selling? I see that numerous condos continue to come on the market. But to list your condo as 83 units head to the auction block seems foolish. I certainly wouldn’t buy a place until I saw the results of the auction, even if I wasn’t interested in Brix or Gallery.
