Yesterday The John Ross Condominium in South Waterfront held an auction to accelerate sales of the remaining developer units.  47 homes were sold in a day – a big win for the seller . . .  at very attractive prices between 8% and 26% below the recent price – a big win for buyers!  That’s right, I said “win/win”!  In one case, a buyer managed to buy a NW facing penthouse for only $426,000!  That is a 26.5% discount from the most recent asking price and a cool $220/SF on a model home that had window coverings and closet packages already installed!  That one is a steal, even though the buyer’s compromise is the impact of freeway noise.  The seller’s big win came from selling a large number of small lofts.  They sold at prices from $161,000 -$206,000 which meant sales at the highest price/SF of all the homes.

You might be confused if you listen to the buyers and sellers talk about it today.  While buyers bought for substantially reduced prices, even by today’s standards, there are some who will tell you that they are happy, even thrilled, with their “deal” but they had hoped to buy for less.  And, the seller had hoped to sell homes for 180% of minimum, but the auction resulted in prices of about 155% of minimum.  Not rich, but also not bad for an auction, and they did sell 47 homes so sales velocity was achieved!  Sorry, guys, you can’t have it both ways, except to say “win/win”!

The moral to the story is two lessons, actually.  The first is one of human nature – no matter what we want, when we get it we can still have remorse for what might have been.  The second lesson also speaks to our human psyche – when the market is uncertain (have we hit the bottom yet, or not?) people obsess about their choices and second guess their decisions.  In this case, all sales are final!

Here below is a sampling of some sales from the auction.  Call or email us for a full spreadsheet in Excel.