April 2008: Raising Prices to Entice Buyers—wait, what? (Awesome plan, Escala!)
Developer Lexas Cos. said this week that on June 5 it will raise the asking prices 3 to 7 percent for about 70 unsold units that have been on the market since last spring.
Another 22 units that will be released for sale May 1 also will have higher price tags.
Lexas principals John Midby and Eric Midby said prices are going up partly to send a message to prospective buyers: If they’re waiting to buy until prices drop, they’re reading the local market wrong.
July 2009: Some Luxury Condo Developers Finally Dropping Prices (not Escala!)
At Escala, another luxury downtown Seattle condo tower near completion, Eric Midby, of Lexas Companies, said the developer has no intention of reducing prices.
January 2010: Escala prices are scaled back (third story, scroll down)
Escala was completed last fall. Now it’s … dropping its prices.
…
“We’ve all been waiting for yesterday to come back,” said Bob Rennie, whose firm took over marketing of the 269-unit tower at Fourth Avenue and Virginia Street in November. “It’s time to make business decisions.”Just five units have closed at Escala, according to county records. Rennie says 67 more buyers are under contract — but he knows that in this market, that doesn’t guarantee much.
They’ll all be contacted over the next few weeks and offered reduced prices as an inducement to stay, Rennie says without giving specifics.
Who could have possibly foreseen that raising prices on luxury condos as the housing market experienced the largest collapse in history would not succeed in enticing buyers? That’s just crazy.