Russ not sure if you caught it but the front page of today's Oregonian is about the CONDO GLUT in Portland.
<<<Shadow falls on condo market
Once, Portland's demand appeared insatiable. Now, shelved projects and stalled construction dot the city
Tuesday, October 09, 2007RYAN FRANK and JEFF MANNING The Oregonian Staff
In the hot real estate summer of 2005, the futuristic John Ross tower generated a buzz never seen before in Portland.
Within a week, 222 potential buyers plunked down $5,000 or more to reserve their condos in the 31-story tower on the Willamette River. The talk around town was that developers couldn't build new big-city condos fast enough to keep up with downsizing baby boomers and newcomers.
But two years later, the condo boom is over.
Today, the John Ross has seen so many canceled purchases that developers actually have fewer buyers -- 192 -- than they did two years ago.
The John Ross got caught in the first slowdown after a historic run-up in condo construction that has reshaped Portland's skyline. For the first time, Portland's condo pioneers are suffering through an inevitable downturn.
The city has a condo glut, and thousands more are rising out of the ground. In the past six years, developers built 4,042 downtown condos, more than twice the figure from the previous 30 years. Today, developers have nearly 2,114 condos under construction.
No one can predict when sales will pick up again. Two towers already switched from condos to apartments. Other projects were shelved, and construction has stalled on smaller projects from Beaverton to Northeast Portland.
Bankers and developers say prices won't fall so far that condo buyers will lose money. But investors expect lower profits, owners will struggle to sell, and speculators will find it harder to turn a quick profit.
At the John Ross and elsewhere, developers had a harder time holding onto buyers who reserved units during the craze. Developers of The Civic, for example, had deals to sell all but eight condos. But cancellations pushed that figure to 37, a higher rate than normal.
Nelda Newton, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo, is generally positive on condos long term but acknowledges that current condo sales can barely keep pace with cancellations.
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