One reason the scheduled February 13 auction of condos in Astoria and Washington Heights is notable is because condo auctions have turned out to be much rarer than predicted at the start of the recession. (There have been a total of three in New York City, only one of them in Manhattan.) Today Crain's tries to figure out why. The answer: shockingly, condo auctions don't make developers or their projects look particularly good. (And marketing them can cost developers a pretty penny, up to $5,000 per apartment.) Nor do auctions always work. Take what happened at the Solaria, the Riverdale project where only half of the 54 units on the block sold at the November 2009 auction, and those at 45 percent discounts. Hey, makes going nondo seem less like failure!
· Will city see more condominium auctions? Don't bid on it [Crain's]
· Auction coverage [Curbed]
Filed under:
Loading comments...