Friday, September 01, 2006

"Everybody wants to live in San Diego" Downtown Condo at Acqua Vista #959

This is a very interesting property as I believe this is the Acqua Vista unit discussed in this Union Tribune article from April of 2005.

This is more evidence of speculators taking losses on downtown properties. How many of the thousands of condos to be delivered downtown are under contract with speculators? Keep in mind that the buildings that are underway all started sales during a very pro-downtown "can't lose" environment.

Additionally interesting is that the Park Boulevard West unit discussed in this article generated approximately $75,000 in profit. The simplified loss on this unit is $46,060 however I doubt it sells for this price and as noted in the UT article it was a negative cash flow rental. County records show property tax of $5,986. Since this unit has only one parking spot and it's in a marginal building that was initially developed as a rental project it's unlikely it'll sell at this price point. At this point this investor experience downtown between the two properties is breakeven at best.

Type:Listed on MLS(#066037976)

Resale Price: $489,000
Cost: $505,720

Loss@6% Sales Expenses: $46,060
Loss%: 9.11%

Purchase Date: 08/02/2004
Holding Period: 25 months and counting...

Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 2
Square Feet: 987

Purchase Details: view

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love the for the reporter to do a yearly update on the how those investors are doing. :)

Anonymous said...

Well, as for the person who bought at Palermo, he still owns two of them, if he sold them he would lose money on both. I don't know what happend with the others he owned.

As for the guy at The Grande, his unit is worth $300,000 more than he paid for it. Not bad...but not the $600,000 he thought in that story last year.

But perhaps more importantly, he really loves it.

Mr. Brightside said...

Anon 1:12

I'd enjoy a "Where are they now" reprise of the article. I also think these examples are very important when trying to get an understanding of the market.

Anon 2:46

Interesting read, do you know these people? Also I think getting back to enjoying property rather than treating it as personal hedge fund is a very good for everyone involved.

Anonymous said...

I looked at a few units at Acqua Vista, and except those with very upgraded kitchens, etc. they still look like dreary apartments! I wouldn't pay 350K on a good day for most of them. At least Bosa buildings like the Grande, etc. have good value - if overpriced.

Mr. Brightside said...

I agree Mark, the kitchens there are very unstimulating. I also don't like valet parking.

Units at Acqua Vista are only attractive as positive cash flow rentals. While many of the units are listed below initital developer cost they have a long ways to go down before they hit a rational investor buy signal.

Also know that Embassy 1414 will be blocking a lot of views at AV so anyone buying there needs to do their homework.

Anonymous said...

Valet Parking. . .

Yes, I forgot that - we did look at an updated kitchen and hardwood floors 2 bedroom for around 500K with a nice view (thanks for the heads up on view problems)and I would consider it, but the valet parking (i.e. not enough parking) was a real turn off. . .not to brag, but I have a "vintage" 96 Vette (last of the production line of C4) and I don't want some Vallet Parker taking out on a joy ride (remember Ferris Bueller's Day Off) . . .

Anonymous said...

a "vintage" 96. funny.

Anonymous said...

He obviously meant a vintage '66. I hate valet parking and I drive a low-end car. I don't like other people to drive my car.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that mark really did mean a '96 Corvette. The fourth generation of Corvettes, also known as C4, were made from 1984 to 1996. It's "vintage" because the C5s and C6s look quite different.

I don't know why Acqua Vista uses valet parking. I've visited it and their parking garage seems to have plenty of empty unused spaces. They sell monthly passes to non-owners and allow owners to buy multiple spaces, so there definitely isn't any rationing of spaces.

Anonymous said...

Again. Funny. The 1961 Ferrari GT250 in Ferris Bueller sells for $500,000 today. A "vintage" 96 C4 vette might get you $25,000 on a very, very good day.

Is this similar to what a San Diego homeowner thinks their property is worth? Ouch, this is going to be a long fall…