“I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry. I feel a hell of a lot better in 2011 than I did a year ago.”
– Belgravia Group President / CEO Alan Lev, on accounting for more than a third of all condo sales in the downtown market last year. The latest Appraisal Research Counselors Downtown Chicago Residential Benchmark Report says Belgravia sold more than 180 homes at 565 Quincy and Union Row, Crain’s reports.
In late January we met with Alan to talk about the state of the downtown market. You can hear that conversation in the video above.
Just 498 downtown condos sold in 2010, compared with 572 in 2009. Appraisal Research Vice President Gail Lissner says it will take two to three years to absorb the 3,000 unsold units downtown, but she expects sales to perk up a bit in 2011.
Last week, analyst Tracy Cross told Crain’s that Chicago-area developers sold 678 new-construction homes in 4Q 2010, up 26% from 4Q 2009, but sales for the full year were down 7% from 2009, and a whopping 90% from 2005. He expects about 4,000 new homes to sell in 2011, about 21% more than in 2010.