Atlanta
With financing for new condo projects drying up and would-be buyers facing stiffer lending requirements, Atlanta-area developers are turning to high-end rental apartments, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Developer Lane Co. had a 50-50 split in its portfolio of rental and condo units in 2006; today, 95 percent of the company’s housing units are rentals. Pollack Partners recently completed the first phase of a 400-unit luxury rental complex, Two Blocks Apartment Homes, in the affluent suburb of Dunwoody. The firm is also planning a 600-unit rental project near Midtown Atlanta.
There are 148,300 vacant lots ready for residential development in metro Atlanta, enough to supply builders through 2013, according to real estate research firm Metrostudy. In a healthy market, there would be two years’ worth of lot supply. Many lots are owned by local governments and community banks that are doing a poor job of maintaining the properties, which they took back in many instances because of bad loans. Now, thieves are raiding the lots, people are dumping trash, and runoff is polluting nearby lakes and waterways, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Boston
Although the median listing price for a condo around downtown Boston was up in April 2008, to $390,000 from $379,000 a year ago, the $300,000-and-under market has allowed first-time home buyers to buy low now and trade up later. There were 161 condo sales in the $200,000 to $249,000 range in five major Eastern Massachusetts counties in April, the largest number for any one category, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. Data compiled by real estate publishing firm the Warren Group show that the median listing price for a condo in this region in the first four months of the year was $265,000, compared to $274,950 a year ago, the Boston Globe reported.
Chicago
The retail vacancy rate in the Chicago area increased in the first quarter, with consumers spending less amid store closings, the threat of layoffs and fears of recession, the Chicago Tribune reported. The overall retail vacancy rate in the region was 7.93 percent over the first three months of the year, compared to 7.52 percent in the same period in 2007, according to CB Richard Ellis. The highest vacancy rate was posted in the south suburbs, at 15.31 percent. The North Side of Chicago had the lowest vacancy rate, at 4.71 percent.
Las Vegas
Sales at high-rise condo towers in Las Vegas are not keeping up with the stockpile of units on the market, which could create a major logjam as thousands of additional units come online over the next few years, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The city has around 9,200 completed high-rise units, according to research firm SalesTraq, with another 794 condos in presale stages and 12,497 units under construction. But only 4,202 units sold between January 2005 and April 2008, with just 20 closings coming from March to April of this year. The only completed residential high-rise on the Strip is Sky Las Vegas, where units go for $400 to $1,000 per square foot.
Los Angeles
The ultra-wealthy in Los Angeles County are continuing to build mega-mansions despite the housing woes and economic slowdown sweeping through the rest of the country, the Los Angeles Times reported. According to John Finton, a builder overseeing construction of a 32,000-square-foot house on Sunset Boulevard, there are at least 20 homes greater than 20,000 square feet in some stage of development in the affluent enclaves of Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Holmby Hills. Public records show fewer than 60 homes of at least 20,000 square feet in the county today and no more than 10 exceeding 30,000 square feet.
Philadelphia
Many would-be home buyers around the country may be hesitant to pull the trigger in the current market, but condo sales in Philadelphia have remained brisk over the past year, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. According to the City Recorder of Deeds Office, the number of first-quarter condo sales throughout the city remained about even with last year’s first-quarter sales, at around 500 units. The Arts Condominium at 13th and Locust streets was the city’s best seller in the first quarter, at 47 units sold. Only one of its 372 units was available as of early June. In Center City, 32 condos sold for $1 million or more in the first three months of 2008, compared to 115 for all of 2007 and 49 in 2006.
Phoenix
SouthBridge and the Mix shops, a $36 million complex featuring offices, retail and restaurants, opened late last year in downtown Scottsdale just as the Super Bowl vaulted the area into the national spotlight, but now its retailers are complaining about an ailing economy and sluggish sales. Sales for downtown’s small retailers dropped 16 percent in 2007 from the previous year after five straight years of growth, while restaurants reported a 12 percent decline in business. In the first quarter of 2008, small retail sales fell 9 percent from the prior-year quarter, and sales at downtown restaurants dropped nearly 4 percent, the Arizona Republic reported.
San Francisco
As the housing downturn continues to run its course in the Bay Area, fewer housing units are being built, especially for lower-income households. Last year, the number of housing permits issued in the nine Bay Area counties dropped 24 percent, to 22,843 from an average of 29,978 issued annually from 1999 through 2006, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments. Only 2,700 permits were secured in 2007 for low-income households and 3,350 were for moderate-income households. The remaining 16,793 permits issued last year were for above-moderate-income households, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Search engine giant Google recently signed a 40-year lease for 42 acres at Moffett Field, a former military air station near the south end of San Francisco Bay, with plans for a vast community of office facilities, entertainment outlets and even employee housing. Google will initially pay $3.7 million annually to property owner NASA to carry out its 12-building expansion. When completed, the campus could employ as many as 5,000 workers, in addition to the 8,000 already stationed in the company’s nearby “Googleplex” headquarters in Mountain View. Google expects to break ground in 2013 and build out the space in phases through 2022, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Seattle
The number of pending sales for single-family homes and condos in King County dropped 39 percent in May from the 3,966 recorded in May 2007, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The year-over-year period also saw a sharp decline in the number of closed sales in the county, which includes Seattle, to 2,081 from 3,514. The median sales price of a single-family home and condo fell 2.89 percent, to $399,950 in May from $411,868 last year.
Washington, D.C.
The thousands of students that flock to the Washington area for summer internships are having a tougher time finding short-term housing this year in a tighter rental market, the Washington Post reported. Interns at government offices, law firms and nonprofits are competing for rentals with residents that are reluctant to buy in the uncertain housing market. The average rent for an apartment in Washington was $1,448 in the first quarter, 2.2 percent higher than in the prior-year quarter, according to locally based real estate research firm Delta Associates. Many students are turning to local universities such as George Washington University, where short-term rentals are offered for up to $270 per week for a five-week stay.