Star Riverside has announced plans to proceed with construction of the first two planned buildings with completion expected in the first quarter of 2010. The project may be the last major condo development to break ground during the current building boom. With tight credit markets and slack demand, most drawing board projects have been indefinitely…
Brazos Place: Auction Fine Print
In eleven days, B razos Place will auction as many as 20 units to the lowest bidder. The May 17 auction has received lots of press and attention — in particular because the units are being promoted with incredibly low opening bids. The opening bids start at a too-good-to-be-true $80,000 — as much . . . Become a patron to…
New Condo Mortgage Restrictions
Earlier this year, Fannie Mae stopped guaranteeing mortgages in new or newly converted condo developments in which fewer than 70 percent of units have been sold or are under contract. Fannie’s previous rules set the cutoff at 51 percent. Freddie Mac recently sent a bulletin to sellers and servicers announcing plans to adopt similar restrictions…
Star Riverside Auction: Bizarre Side Show or Outright Scam?
Star Riverside, a large condo project under way on the south shore of Ladybird Lake near I-35, has announced that it is going to auction 64-units in partnership with ibidcondo with no minimum price and no minimum bid. Before you call your mortgage broker and grab your credit card checks, the fine print on the Star…
CNN Report: Condo Auctions Common (Mentions Brazos Place)
An article from earlier today on cnn.com discussed the national condo auction market (it is growing fast) and the incentives provided to move condos nationwide. The issue is that condos take years to develop while condo demand can change very fast. As real estate markets across the country have retracted over the last year, condo developers…
Exclusive: March Downtown Condo Sales Disappoint
We’ve updated the AustinTowers Downtown Condo Market Index for March and the news is not good. While month-by-month results fluctuate wildly, March saw a drop of 71% in the number of units sold — from 14 units last March to just 4 this March. For the first quarter of 2009, sales dropped from 25 units sold in 2008 to 14…
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