Originally Posted by
high_flyer
So what is the difference between a condo and a luxury condo. Other than the added price?
I suspect a good realtor would tell you more about the market.
This looks very much like "The Domain" they have built in Austin. It's very attractive to young professionals, and they have apartments from the $900 to $2200 range. I suspect most "young" professionals can't afford a $600-750K condo though. I think "high end" condos is where the current market is struggling. Getting a "jumbo" loan for a condo must be challenging.
But California real estate doesn't stay down for long
"luxury condo" is their marketing buzz word I guess. Typically I've only seen that term thrown around in areas where upscale shopping and 4+ star hotels are within the vicinity. Although in this area seems to be going in that direction. The one bedroom apartments in the area start at $1200 a month and many of the residents in the gated community where I bought a home look to be well off since almost everyone drives a MBZ or BMW including about a half a dozen ferraris, lambos, astons as well. It shows alot considering majority of Ontario residents are low income or have a HHI of under $45k.
You're right about the "high-end" condo market. At least in the US. I closed escrow on tiny condo (750 sq.ft) in Hong Kong last year that is built on top of a "upscale" shopping mall (LV, Gucci, Cartier, etc.) for approximately $1,000 USD per sq.ft. It sounds crazy, I know but the market over there is insane right now and still showing growth. The value of the property has increased 30% since I closed. While that type of growth rate
reminds me a lot of what happened to the US market, 80% of the building was purchased by foreigners mostly. My neighbor who lives in the 5,000 sq ft unit next to mine paid over $10 mil for it. So typically in the HK market very few are high risk.