Quote:
Originally Posted by LAofAnaheim
I ask this, b/c people are starting to say downtown is saturated w/ condo bldgs. Well, when I was shopping for a unit in January, I could only find Library Court and the Skyline that had my preferences. All other buildings were loft / open floor plans. I think we are missing a huge market.
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I like to think that a big reason Astani's condo bldg on Wilshire, Vero, sold out so quickly early in 2007 was cuz it, unlike most other projs in the hood, had a more traditional layout. If that's a correct assumption, then it would give some devlprs, in their attempts to be more competitive & successful, another option to select. I'm also assuming the same non loft format will be used for Concerto. I wonder if Meurelo's 717 tower will have a loft, or soft loft, type of design? For the sake of not overdoing that type of devlpt in DT, I hope not.
However, even if more ppl prefer conventional spaces to open lofts, all the news about so many problems throughout the country with falling housing prices, bad subprime mortgages, & defaults on loans, & even a growing oversupply of housing in countries like South Korea, is making me increasingly unsure whether it's realistic to expect any new major condo or apt devlpt to sell out in a reasonably short period of time & to justify any groundbreaking in DT in 2008.
That's why I think it will be a stroke of luck if LA Central really does start construction in the next few months. As for Parkfifth & the Glass Tower, maybe it will be a miracle if they're underway no later than summer 08.
Right now, the only sure thing is groundbreaking on the Grand Ave proj in early February.
Foreign Buyers Snap Up 2nd Homes in US
Dec 24
By LESLIE WINES
AP Business Writer
Cosmopolitan cities like New York and Miami have long served as second homes for affluent and accomplished foreigners. But the trend is growing. One in five American realtors has sold a home to a foreign investor in the past year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
"At this point the English are more actively looking in Manhattan than American buyers," said Ivan Hakimian of New York's Itzhaki Properties.
Mia Wilkinson, a transplanted Englishwoman who works for Rubloff Residential Properties in Chicago, deals often with British and other foreign executives transferred to the U.S. for a few years. "Before, people would stay in corporate rentals," she said. "But now these same people are turning around and buying properties."
The expansion of foreign real estate investment in the U.S. also means that areas that once were not popular with international buyers are now receiving interest. Doug Aitkin, who works for North Carolina's World Trade Center, said the Research Triangle area—comprising the cities of Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill—is now getting inquiries from French and Scandinavian home buyers, a new phenomenon.
In Boston, property purchases by foreigners are strongly linked to the city's booming biotechnology and life sciences industries. In addition, Boston venture funds are drawing large numbers of German, Swiss and Irish workers, some of whom take advantage of favorable dollar rates against the euro to help buy some real estate.
Similarly, Charlie Jefferson, a Philadelphia developer, was surprised when two units in a new development in the University City area, home to the University of Pennsylvania, were purchased by foreign students. "We had never seen that before," he said. "In the past we didn't see foreign students with that kind of money."
In Los Angeles, demand from wealthy South Koreans for attractive condo towers and mid-level rise buildings has helped revitalize the once forlorn downtown neighborhood, according to Johanna Gunther, a senior vice president with the Ryness Co. there. "Downtown has not been an attractive urban residential market until recently, but Korean demand has been a big factor in the change," she said. In recent years, the South Korean government has loosened restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, facilitating a large rise in Korean purchases of U.S. properties.
And Scottsdale's phlegmatic residential real estate market reportedly is getting a boost from Canadian buyers eager to enjoy Arizona's dry warm climate.
The National Association of Realtors found that 7.3 percent of the houses sold last year in Florida were sold to foreign buyers. Miami in particular is a magnet for buyers from throughout Latin America and Europe, helping to mitigate the fallout from the area's housing slump.
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