In the down residential market, New York City developers are catching auction fever. The Solaria condominium in the Bronx’s Riverdale neighborhood is the latest new building in the region to use an auction to spur interest — the Saffron condo in Jersey City recently used an auction to kick off sales and Greenpoint’s the Locale sold off units at auction earlier this month for 44 percent below asking — hosting an auction yesterday afternoon. The tactic seemed to pan out well for both buyers and Arc Development, which has been struggling to move units. By the auction’s end, 54 condos sold, with the average winning bids hitting 35 to 45 percent below what the asking prices were on the units. [Crain's] and

TreeTop Development’s 16 new Greenpoint luxury condominiums at the Locale are going up for auction, a move that the company hopes will speed sales and reduce the costs involved with a conventional marketing process. Units range from 600 to 1,000 square feet, and bids will start at $150,000, a steep discount from the original asking prices of between $445,000 to $599,000. The building’s first showing is this Sunday. The Nov. 11 auction, which will take place at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, will be the first of its kind for Brooklyn, but not for TreeTop, which is also working with real estate auction firm Sheldon Good & Company to auction off the first nine units at the Saffron in Jersey City on Nov. 8. [Crain’s]  [more]