Crib Chatter

If you read the Crain’s article I posted about previously about the slowdown in sales in the South Loop (and the sale of a big piece of land by Lennar to AvalonBay, an apartment company that is going to build 984 apartments there instead of condos) and compare it to this Chicago Tribune article talking about the incredible luxury market in downtown, you might be confused.

The numbers that each article recites are a bit different:

• Crain’s: 7,689 units unsold as of the end of 2Q 2007
• Tribune: 5,772 units unsold as of the end of 2Q 2007

Both numbers were provided by Appraisal Research Counselors, a firm that tracks the downtown real estate market.

Maybe the 7,689 number includes older construction units (it’s not clear from the article.)  Because 2,000 is a big difference in inventory.

The Tribune article acknowledges the slowdown but paints it as orderly:

“We’ve moved into a slower pace of sales and a slower pace of new development activity,” she said. “We’ve had only 1,700 new construction units brought online this year, to date. Last year we had 6,600 [newly announced projects] that were marketing.”

Times obviously have changed from the go-go days a few years ago when people — especially investors — lined up at developers’ sales trailers to put down money on newly announced condo projects.

But no particular price range has taken a hit, Lissner said. “People ask me, ‘Is there one segment of the market that’s outperforming another?’ I don’t know,” she said. “All segments have certainly slowed together.

“We’re definitely at a different annual absorption level, but developers and the market are adapting,” she said. “The well-located projects with strong ‘view’ amenities are going to be the ones that, long-term, continue to do well.”

The articles states that out of 1500 ultra-luxury units for sale (those priced at $700 a square foot and higher), 845 have sold.