Condo Blog - A Non-Corporate Blog From CondoDomain HQ

Our trust Google Alerts provided us with some great condo articles for today.

1. Manhattan is still an Island (New York Observer) Comparing this condo market to ultra markets like Tokyo & Paris and not to brethren Americana like Chicago Condos or Boston Condos.

2. Manhattan Apartment Prices Rise 3.2%, Sidestep U.S. Declines (Bloomberg) Manhattan apartment prices rose 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the smallest annual gain in a decade, as the country’s most expensive urban real estate market sidestepped declines in the rest of the U.S.

3. Webcam provides view of project’s progress (Orlando Sentential) With investor-owners located worldwide, from Ireland to South America, The Point Orlando Resort near the Orange County Convention Center faced a challenge in keeping buyers updated on progress of the two condo-hotel towers now rising near Wet ‘n Wild.

4. Developming a Condo Hotel (Condo Hotel Center)Why the sudden proliferation of condo hotels? The main reason is that they make good financial sense for the developer in a variety of ways. Construction loans for condo hotels are often cheaper and easier to obtain than hotel construction loans. Condo hotels allow the risks inherent in property development to be spread to the individual condo unit owners.

5. Ownit Mortgage Files Bankruptcy (Chron)Ownit Mortgage Solutions Inc., a subprime mortgage lender, filed for bankruptcy last Thursday, just a few weeks after it stopped making new loans. — NO SURPIRSE HERE…maybe Wells is next

6. Connecting Home Buyers Dot Com (Website) Looks pretty serious…its either going to be a killer website or a blockbuster hit…either way its coming in 2007!!! (and it will be at Inman next week)