“These cancellations were almost 100% out of fear — fear that they were going to lose their jobs or that they were paying too high a price.”
– Gerald Fogelson, chairman and CEO of Fogelson Properties, on Museum Park’s 15-percent contract fallout rate. Fogelson and The Enterprise Companies have filed lawsuits against approximately 100 buyers who didn’t close on contracts on condominiums at new Museum Park towers like 1600 Museum Park, Crain’s reports. The developers’ cases “generally seek recovery of earnest money deposits and half the cost of upgrade,” according to the article.
Crain’s has already had a look at the latest Appraisal Research Counselors Downtown Benchmark Report, which states that just 55 new condos and townhouses were sold in the downtown area in the first quarter of 2009. That’s an improvement over the fourth quarter of last year, when the market lost a net 253 contracts, but it’s also a 73-percent drop over the first quarter of 2008. We should get our copy of Appraisal Research’s benchmark summary any day, and we’ll be sure to pass along any noteworthy data and observations.