You may have seen the ads; they've been in the Classifieds section of the News-Gazette for the last few Sundays.
Today's paper features a story about the Capstone Quarters Condominium Auction scheduled for 4-19. It says that there are 208 units in the complex, and 60 are being sold at the auction.
A few questions that I'm dying to get the answer to, and probably won't for a long time:
1. Are the units that are for sale units that were never pre-sold to anyone, or are these units that had signed contracts but did not close when finished?
2. How many (if any) of the units in the auction are being sold by current owners who've decided they don't want a condo 1.2 miles from the U of I?
3. How healthy is the owner's association, and what kind of restrictions are placed on owners? Who will be managing the association after the auction finishes?
Given the current state of the condo market (a few weeks ago there was a story in the Wall Street Journal saying we currently have a 10 months supply of condos for sale across the U.S., with several thousand more scheduled to come online over the next 6 months), I would think a 70% sales rate is pretty good for this development.
Are these the "california money" properties?
Depending on the price, they might make attractive section 8 properties.
They're based in San Diego, yeah. But they have condos all over the country.
Similar story with those various gated in "luxury apartments" places that pretty much advertise only to students, up on N. Lincoln and down in Savoy. I can't recall the exact details at the moment but when I was looking up information on them a few years back, it was interesting to see that each was from a different state (they all pretty much build series of similar developments near college campuses). I see now the College Connection ones are College Park, otherwise known as GMH Communities, out of PA. University Commons is out of Alabama.
We got to talking about the condo deal around the breakfast table this morning, and were wondering if maybe the market for those is special, in that there are still people who want to buy a condo for their kids to live in for school. I have no idea. Though I suppose the auction says it all. Still... the general real-estate bubble has got to be interesting for them?
I did sort of laugh at some of the advertising for the latest student-aimed townhome development in Savoy (the ones that are supposedly going to get MTD service sometime "soon," and in the meantime have special shuttle vans run by the company). The sort of funny part was all the emphasis on how close to campus the place is. I guess, if you're used to living in a sprawly city where it's all built up and everyone is commuting, yeah. But on local terms of "close to campus," not so much. They did play up US 45 as being "the major route through town" though, and as people have to spend at least one year in the dorms or similar places right close in, I suppose they know what they're getting.
If bozo Urbana had a competent city staff, it would have been able to attract shopping so close to the interstate, rather than condos that the developer is desperate to get rid of, and which within 5 years will be crime infested.
Michael Fuerst