Downtown condo prices have not reached or surpassed the prices from the beginning of the year. Some say it’s the beginning of the end for the dramatic drops.
Downtown Realtor Lew Breeze reported more year-to-date decreases in the last week’s condo asking prices, according to data from the MLS. The average asking price was $739,047, a 7.01 percent decrease from the beginning of the year. The median price was down 7.78 percent year-to-date, at $599,450.
There was one fewer condo unit this week than last week on the resale market, bringing the inventory to 557.
Some recent weeks have seen week-to-week increases in prices, but the market has seen only decreases in the year-to-date comparisons. Breeze said the fluctuations haven’t been very dramatic, however, and said he thinks the market’s starting to reach a flattening period.
“A lot of people think they’re going to go down more,” he said, “but for me, I think we’re at the bottom, which is 7-10 percent (decrease from peak prices).”
He said he thinks we’ll see prices stay flat for quite a while, then start to increase again slightly. “Quite a while” could be a year or two, he said.
Breeze said he’s heard other opinions forecasting that the market will decrease to 15-, 20, even 40-percent-below-peak levels before it reaches the bottom.