Isn the Austin condo market overbuilt?
The “O” word irritates all of the developers interviewed, Realtors as well. All insist: “No, we are not ‘overbuilt’!” Their key argument: After the four high-rise condo projects now under construction sell out, no other projects are in the pipeline. Due to the meltdown of the economy, which has frozen the capital markets and project financing, developers believe we’re unlikely to see any new projects get financed for one to two years. (Taylor Andrews is the exception; he is bullish on starting construction on his Ovation tower, much like the 360 and with similar “attainable” pricing, in early 2010.) The lag in project starts could in fact lead to a shortage of units by 2012 or so. Burns said his market stats for Downtown Austin show that 776 new condominiums were completed and available in 2008. Of those, 670 have sold, with a “net absorption” of more than 600 units in one year. (Most projects, with the exception of the Austonian, did not start construction until they had 40% or more p
