Condo clearance in Jersey City

From the November issue: After the binge comes the purge. The condo auction market is heating up in Jersey City, as developers look to move the glut of apartment inventory amassed during the heady building boom in recent years. Distressed sales of properties are also expected to accelerate in the area, with lenders increasingly looking to wipe their hands clean of troubled mortgage loans. The urge to purge is the fallout from a frenzied period of condo construction in Jersey City — a stone’s throw from Wall Street — where about 5,000 new units came on the market at premium prices, sources estimate. Condo prices in Jersey City, which saw a steep run-up during the boom, have dropped between 15 and 25 percent since the height of the market in 2006, experts estimate. Meanwhile, the number of condos closing today in Jersey City is down about 45 percent compared to the peak of early 2007, according to the Marketing Directors, which sells new developments in markets across the country, including Jersey City.