Foreclosures and fancy condos

Today’s entry is a quick look at what's going on with the haves (as in those who have enough money to afford housing in Boston) and the have-nots (as in those who have not got enough money to make their mortgage payments).

First, the have-nots.

The Warren Group said earlier today that foreclosure deeds rose 72 percent in Massachusetts during the first three quarters of the year. There were 9,600 foreclosure deeds –- that’s completed foreclosures –- filed in the state between January and September, compared with 5,600 in the same period of 2007.

And it looks like the temporary relief offered by the state’s so-called right-to-cure law is wearing off. The law says lenders have to give people facing foreclosure at least 90 days to “cure” their mortgage troubles, and it had slowed the pace of petitions to foreclose over the past four months. But in September, the number of petitions to foreclose in the state was 2,258, more than double the number filed in August (943), according to Warren Group, which publishes Banker & Tradesman.

Now, on to the haves.

In today’s Globe Business section reporter Kimberly Blanton writes about a new project by developer Ted Raymond, who will be filling up the last empty, developable residential lot in the Back Bay. He plans to build a five-story luxury condo building at 161 Commonwealth Ave. where the units will be in the same price ballpark as the condos at the new Mandarin Oriental Boston. The units will be, as you can imagine, rather upscale and the development will have an underground parking area.

But due to the credit crunch, Raymond says he won’t start building the project until he sells the three units, which will run in the $6.4 million to $8 million range. “This is the way things are probably going to be financed now,” he told Blanton.

This sounds like a reasonable approach to building a development these days. But I’m curious to see how quickly those units will be spoken for after they are listed in November. I know the wealthy always have money to spend, but since I still can't afford to buy even a starter home here, it's really hard for me to comprehend a $6 million condo purchase. I’d start a pool asking people to guess how many days, weeks, or months it will take to find buyers, but I’m pretty sure that’s not legal and would get me in some trouble here at the Globe. So, I’m just going to ask for guesses –- no money -– about how long you think it will take to find buyers. Me, I’m going to say it will take about 3 months. I’m basing my guess on the Greater Boston Real Estate Board stats that put the average days on market for condos in Boston at 103 in the second quarter.

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