Floor falls out for Boston’s luxury condo prices
The housing slump and the credit crunch continue to take a toll on Boston’s condominium market.
“High-worth individuals who are the potential buyers of luxury condos watched as their stock market portfolios were decimated by as much as 40 percent in the last year,” said Michael Albano, broker-owner of Metropolitan Boston Real Estate. “They’re waiting for it to rebound before they pour money into real estate.”
Sales of luxury condominiums priced at $500,000 or more fell by 39 percent for the first seven months of the year to 409, from 673 for the same period one year ago, according to the Warren Group.
For some of the developments, the prices are still too high, according to one buyer’s agent. FP3, the 89-unit building in the city’s Fort Point neighborhood, has struggled to sell units priced up to more than $2 million.
“I’m the biggest fan of FP3, but the prices are out of whack,” said Anthony Longo, owner of Boston.CondoDomain.com, an exclusive buyer’s agency. “People will buy it, but they want to buy at very low prices.”
Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of the Warren Group, noted that sales of Boston condominiums in all price ranges are off by 33 percent compared to last year and the median price has fallen by 10 percent to $500,000.
“It’s not just the upper end that’s not selling,” he said. “But high-priced condos are bankers’ least favorite thing to invest in these days.”
Boston Hearald Report
