“That’s one reason it’s a little bit of a stretch—the market is just not used to real A-quality garden apartments; there’s not a lot of competition to compare to,” Gardner says. “We’ve set the bar a little lower in our underwriting than what will actually be achieved, because of that.” At the end of the day, distress and uncertainty persist in the condo marketplace, among both community investors and eventual unit purchasers—which is why NAR expects true condo sector recovery to initiate in 2011 but more broadly rebound the following year. “We expect to see condo sales activity picking up this year, but without changes to aggregate pricing,” Maloney says. “In 2012, we are looking for more meaningful improvements to the market.”
Editor’s note: This article first appeared online at www.multifamilyexecutive.com as a three-part series on condo sector opportunities and challenges.
