Friday, February 29, 2008

Sales are slow for new and existing luxury condominiums. Olive 8, the luxury project in downtown Seattle, placed an ad in last weekend’s Seattle times and sent out a mass email to prospective buyers with a special offer designed to boost their own sales in a time of economic pessimism.

In their ad, Olive 8 correctly attributes slow sales to psychological factors. David Thyer, president of Olive 8’s developer RC Hedreen, is loosely quoted in the ad,”…concern about the economy has many people taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude. People are afraid that they may buy a house today and find that it’s been reduced in price later this year”.

Data reported in the Seattle Times indicates that our local real estate market is slowly picking up, but this is less evident in our luxury home market than it is in other segments of our housing market. People buying luxury homes usually have more flexibility in buying or selling a home, so even though our market is turning, luxury home sales will recover more slowly than other types of home sales.

So Olive 8 is offering some price protection to their buyers. If you purchase a home at Olive 8 and prices for other units with the same floor plan are reduced before your purchase closes, then your price will also be reduced. This kind of purchase price protection is good for buyers and for our housing market. Buyers can rest assured that they won’t lose equity before construction is completed, and this peace of mind could encourage more home sales.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home