Condos in 55 metro areas showed that the national median existing-condo price was $178,000 in the third quarter, down 15.4 percent from the third quarter of 2008. Four metros showed annual increases in the median condo price and 51 areas had declines. According to the NAR® report, Portland's condo market had a -7.0% drop in prices. That's the 30th biggest decline nationally.
Image: 3 Year Condo Median Prices As Of October 2009. Courtesy RMLSBob Chiodo in his Oregon Financing Update in September reported on this. The Federal Housing Administration says it will implement a new approval process for condo financing on Dec. 7 – the second time the deadlines have been pushed back. The delay also brings a relaxation of new rules, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, which has been negotiating with FHA.
Under the latest revision of the rules, 50 percent of units in a condo project will be eligible for FHA funding and up to 100 percent will be eligible in “well-established” projects with a minimum of 10 percent reserves. Half of the units (50% of the total units) will have to be sold to owner-occupants before FHA will back any loans.
In an important move, FHA said it wouldn't require the recertification of some 40,000 projects that have already been certified for FHA financing. Source: Inman News, Matt Carter (11/05/2009)
Here are the Federal Housing Administration's new guidelines for owner occupancy and spot approval. Hopefully this will make mortgages for condominiums more accessible. I have a blog post coming soon with more details.
Meanwhile, the Oregonian reports that the Atwater Place's auction was a success in that 75% of the auctioned units have closed. The company that's trying to unload the Atwater Place at fire sale prices wanted to close its auction sales within 30 days of the Sept. 30 event. As of last Friday, they'd recorded 30 sales among the 40 units they accepted winning bids on.
The units that haven't sold run throughout the building from a $319,000 unit on the third floor to a $681,000 unit on the 19th floor. The auction accomplished another feat: The publicity helped generate six other new sales at comparable if not slightly higher prices per square foot.
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