Here’s one consequence of a pricey real estate market: Smaller dwellings will always be in demand. Locally, that means that even though the real estate market is officially in the cooler, condo sales continue to simmer along, nice and warm. As C-VILLE reported last week, third-quarter numbers from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR) show a 20 percent drop in the number of overall sales compared to the same quarter last year. Still, anecdotal evidence shows that condos are still a fairly hot commodity.
The CAAR report, in mentioning that sales in Charlottesville are up 24.4 percent for 2006, attributes this fact to “amazing condo sales.” That increase, by the way, stands in contrast to sales numbers for every other part of CAAR’s market area (Albemarle County, for one, is down 14.6 percent). Carrie Slaughter, a realtor with Real Estate III, is in charge of sales for two high-profile condo projects, Walker Square on W. Main Street and Riverbend at Pantops. She gives a buoyant assessment: “I think condo sales are going great.”
Why? Between downsizing retirees, grad students and first-time homebuyers, the demand for condos is a bit more bulletproof than that for more expensive homes. Slaughter says her company’s condo-related websites get hits “from all over the U.S.” and beyond. She sees a bump in sales when a new crop of Darden students gets to town; she gets inquiries from relocating Floridians more comfortable with the idea of a condo than a decades-old Belmont bungalow. Most jaw-droppingly, Slaughter sometimes gets interest in condos from Northern Virginians with season tickets to UVA athletics. (First-time homebuyers: groan with disbelief and envy here.)
Though she’s headed into her slow season, Slaughter has no worries about rebounding in spring: “We’ll see a nice little bump like we always do.”
One thing has changed, she says. “I think that the guy that wants to buy a condo and hold onto it for a year and sell is not there anymore. A longer-term investment, three to five years, makes more sense now.”
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