Potential buyers are scouring the market in pursuit of “broken condos”: A wide variety of potential buyers are actively looking at the Downtown Chicago market in pursuit of distressed condominium developments, looking to either purchase the unsold inventory or the debt at a discount. The game plan is generally to either continue marketing programs with substantial discounts or to operate the unsold inventory as rental units for an interim period. However we are not seeing any large deals occurring, although it could begin to happen within the next six months. Currently, there is no consensus as to pricing. Until there is a narrowing of this gap, the deals will not occur.
– From the executive summary of Appraisal Research Counselors‘ 3rd Quarter 2009 Downtown Chicago Residential Benchmark Report.