“Chicago’s real estate market may not be normal in terms of the enormous glut of supply (thus the auctions)…the glut of supply isn’t really so much from prices being too high but rather from there being an insane amount of high rise condos being built and condo conversions taking place over the last few years. I do agree that it will take at least a few years for this excess supply to be absorbed.”
– Sir Isaac Newton, commenting on a Chicago Tribune story that we ripped on Monday
If only Sir Isaac had some numbers to back up that theory it wouldn’t seem quite so insane.
This bubble-babble is tiresome in the extreme when there are no numbers to back it up.
You don’t need numbers, all you need is a pair of eyes. You can hardly walk a couple of blocks anywhere in this city without seeing construction. Who do you think is going to move in to all these new homes? Retiring baby boomers? Chicago’s population isn’t exactly increasing much at the moment.
Jane,
I get around this city quite a bit. I’ve walked a lot of blocks in a lot of places where you’d be foolhardy to walk.
You can walk more than a couple blocks in very many places in this city without seeing new construction. Open your eyes and try it some time.
The simple fact is that the tired song you sing has been sung for all the years that virtually all the new homes continued to be absorbed.
Give me some supply and demand numbers, and I’ll open my eyes for them. How many completed new homes, for example, are vacant and for how long? Absent some hard numbers, I read your comment as just more bubble babble.