What a time to be building
I’ve got a couple condo developments under construction a few blocks from my house in Natick.
One sits near the train station, overlooking the police station and its picturesque parking lot on one side, the tracks to Boston on the other.
Condos were listed there recently for nearly $600,000. Most, so far, are unsold.
The other project features townhouse-style units in the $400,000-$500,000 range grafted onto one those castle-like, former National Guard armories built in the early 1900s. Work is still going on there.
Have I missed something, or aren’t we in the middle of one of the worst real estate markets since the Great Depression? New home starts have hit their lowest point in sixty years.
Not to single out anyone, though. There are a trio of new luxury towers well underway in downtown Boston. Sales have slowed for some of these developers as well.
Still, on closer inspection, some of these ventures may not be as crazy as they seem.
Just, to put it politely, very ill-timed.
I have no reason to believe it won’t be an uphill battle filing units, whether your fancy new condo project is in the suburbs or a choice spot in downtown Boston.
But after the smoke from the great market implosion clears, the good old development adverse Boston area will be stuck with the same problem it has had now for years. Not enough homes and condos for everyone who wants to live here.
In Miami and Las Vegas they put up a new condo tower on practically every block. It’s going to take an awful long time to clear out all those empty projects now.
We haven't done anything like that here, even with two new condo developments taking shape in my hometown.
That’s the good news for some of these new condo developers. Now all they have to do is survive until the start of the next upswing.
