the ex-garage at Willow and Morrison

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

So. There was an auto repair garage at the corner of Willow and Morrison on Thursday morning. It was not there on Friday morning. That was the first I'd heard of that building going anywhere. :-}

I doubt it's a great spot for a retail establishment, so that means either two multi-family dwellings or a block of flats/condos. If I had to guess, I'd say that we'll end up with a block of flats/condos there.

If high-density housing is built in that location, this could present quite the sticky wicket for parking and related issues. There's already not enough parking in this area (I live several houses up Willow from that intersection). I also wonder whether what ends up there will end up being a Willow address or a Morrison address, since that has possible visitor parking permit implications, if they don't build parking into the plans.

Of course, this is all complete conjecture, as I haven't heard a damned thing about it. Has anyone heard about plans for that site, or any zoning hearings, anything at all?

Comments

[artemii.livejournal.com]

condos are going up there.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Once the condo market crashes, they'll likely sit vacant for a good long time. Real estate values are already off quite a bit from their peak last summer. The bubble has popped. In fact, I doubt they'll even get finished.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

indeed. and yet, it doesn't stop the developers.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

yeah, but vacancy will help the parking problem. :-)

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

I sure hope you're right. I never had enough savings for a good-sized down payment until now, and we all know what prices are like now. From what I can see, most people keep saying that the drop will be modest and we're in for a mini-slowdown rather than a crash because things now are nothing like they were during the last crash. *sigh* Most discouraging.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

When buying a condo costs twice as much in a monthly payment[1] as renting an equivalent apartment, you can guess what's going to happen. At that rate, a landlord owning a rental property isn't even earning enough rent to cover his carrying costs; he's banking on being bailed out by price appreciation.

You can pretty much use rents as a "P/E ratio" of sorts when talking about real estate.

At this point, unless you *know* you're going to be in the property you're buying for the long haul and can afford to ride out any temporary downturns in value, it's cheaper to rent.

[1]Assuming you're coming up with 10% down and using a 30yr fixed mortgage.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I don't know... I know plenty of people waiting to buy until the market comes down!