The Trump Towers luxury condo complex in Atlanta is the latest in a long line of real estate collapses, being listed as a foreclosure last week, and probably signaling the start of the commercial property bust which began shortly after the sub prime mortgages hit the news, and has been delayed for a number of reasons. .
Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren predicts things will even get worse, once the banks admit their losses. Warren heads a congressional oversight panel that came recently to Atlanta to assess just how bad the picture is. “These mortgages are going to fail, and they’re already starting to fail,” says Warren. “And we fear we’re going to see more failures in 2011, 2012, 2013. We’re only on the front end of this crisis.” PBA online
Things seem a little rosier in Vancouver, where,
“foreign buyers are the primary force behind luxury real estate in this city,” says Manyee Lui, luxury home specialist with Macdonald Realty in Vancouver. In fact, the rate of Metro Vancouver luxury home sales in the second half of 2009 was almost double that of 2008, the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board says. In Victoria, 12 homes over $3-million sold in 2009, up from seven in 2008. National Post
Much of the purchasing going on seems to be Chinese buyers, so the money poured into China’s economy is slowly working it’s way into the rest of the world.
An historic fire station in Charlotte is facing demolition after the owner rejected an offer from the city to buy it. Seeing as the offer was close to what was paid for the building at the height of the boom, the rejection is a little surprising.
The owner of the historic Dilworth Fire Station No. 2 has rejected an offer from the city and county to buy the property, and has indicated he plans to destroy the 100-year-old building.
The station, built in 1909 to house two horse-drawn fire engines, sits next to the luxury Arlington condos and parking deck. It’s a dramatic contrast of old and new.
Fire station property owner Marcel Starks applied for permission from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission to raze the building last May.
Although the fire station has local and national historical designation, state law requires the commission to allow demolition of a landmark if the owner requests it. But the commission can delay the demolition for a year, to try and find solutions to save properties.
On Tuesday, the commission sent Stark an e-mail indicating it wanted to purchase the property, located at 1212 South Blvd., for $950,000.
Stark, who purchased the lot with another investor in May 2006 for about $1.03 million, said no, said commission director Dan Morrill. Charlotte Observer
