Here’s a minor roundup post for you, with a few stories from the last few days that are worth a brief mention:
After selling just 17 out of 114 units, an in-progress condo complex near Seattle Center will instead be completed as “luxury apartments.”
In recent months, developers have shelved plans to convert several Seattle apartment buildings to condos and changed some new projects from condos to apartments. Another example of a new apartment project that was once condos is Aspira, a 37-story tower at Stewart Street and Terry Avenue, by Los Angeles developer Urban Partners.
Developers have attributed the shift to a glut of announced condominium projects, skittishness among the investors who fund condo towers, and an apartment supply that’s shrinking because of conversions and a lack of new construction since the dot-com meltdown in 2001.
Apparently, the Skagit County real estate market is even more special than Seattle, because up there, real estate agents claim that the worst is already over.
Despite continued fallout from the subprime mortgage markets and growing talk of a recession, local real estate professionals believe that the worst may already be over for the Skagit County housing market.
Looking back, the low point came sometime in spring 2007.
And also entertaining is this one from today’s New York Times: Feeling Misled on Home Price, Buyers Sue Agent (also reprinted in the P-I).
CARLSBAD, Calif. — Marty Ummel believes she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing boom.
What makes Ummel different is that she is suing her agent, saying it was all his fault.
Ummel claims that the agent hid the information that similar homes in the neighborhood were selling for less because he feared she would back out and he would lose his $30,000 commission.
They’re also talking about this one over at the Seattle Real Estate Professionals blog today.