lofts_big_10.jpgMore on the ongoing unraveling of the real estate market here from this month’s Real Deal. Hey, turns out, even if you’ve got a stellar credit score and 20 percent down, banks might not offer you a mortgage because, as you well know, they’re holding tight to their cash, and some properties may seem riskier than others. “There are certain buildings that some lenders just won’t lend to, period,” one expert tells them. “There are a lot of buildings with very low presale numbers, far below the numbers that lenders typically require. It’s become much more challenging to get them approved.” None are called out as officially blacklisted here, though Lofts on Lex, at 95 Lexington Avenue (which got a price chop last week), gets a look.

Though the units have been on the market for roughly eight months, only five are in contract, Neinast said. When several banks increased their presale requirements to 51 percent just weeks away from closing, she almost lost three of those buyers in one fell swoop. “I knew right away they wouldn’t be able to get their financing,” she said. “We would have had to have 10 units to start closing.”

Makes it harder to have a buyers’ market when those units sitting there the longest, and most eligible for price cuts, are the hardest to fund.
Ominous Signs from New Condos [The Real Deal]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Come on people – don’t confuse lisa with facts. She’s got an agenda to push: Developers = greedy evildoers who should be forced to spend all their money subisdizing the poor and not making any profit on their investments.

  2. streetwise seems to be right here.

    I just checked out the real deal article here is what it continues to say:

    “A seasoned veteran in the business, Neinast moved quickly. She scrambled to find two banks — Wells Fargo and Countrywide Savings — that would write mortgages for the buildings despite the low presale number, and began the long and tedious process of pre-approving Lofts on Lex with them.

    “It was a long process, but it was worth it,” she said. “Now, people can come in and close without 51 percent.”

    The stricter requirements have made brokers’ jobs much more difficult, she said.”
    -REAL DEAL

    So while you say in your blog it isnt officially blacklisted perhaps it would be best to expand on how sponsors, bankers, buyers, and brokers are all working together to get these units closed which is what they are doing at 95 Lex-moving trucks were there this week and closing dates have been set.

  3. Once again Brownstoner has gotten it wrong!
    If someone actually took the time to READ THE ARTICLE, they would see the whole story about Lofts on Lex (the above picture). This building is ABSOLUTELY NOT “blacklisted”, and its WRONG for Brownstoner to make assumptions that it was/is/or ever will be, when in fact, one of the units has already closed with 4 more closing by the end of this month.
    Again, if someone would have taken the time to read the ENTIRE ARTICLE, and not just pull pieces from where they want to make their story go in the direction they wanted it to, they would see that banks are lending to this building and will continue to without the necessary 51% sold.

    I think blogs are a great way for people to express their opinions about certain topics…but when the moderators are making assumptions that some people might quickly look and take as fact and picking quotes from here and there from people to twist their words…that is neither beneficial to the people reading them and just plain WRONG!

  4. hood or otherwise, this seems like the kind of conversion that more developers should have undertaken. unless the world completely collapses, this seems like it will stand the test of time given another price cut or two or three. real estate has aways been a long term investment and i dont think i’d be unhappy living here in 10 years.

  5. Well well well… Lookie here! The gravitational field is collapsing around the Mutant Asset Bubble! I would like some to explain to me why Real Estate will be “better” in 2009.

    Gentrification in Asshat Hill is on life support….

    The What (Real Estate always goes up,NOT)

    Someday this war is gonna end…