Real Estate Trends 2008

Some Devel­op­ers Hold­ing Off Build­ing or Scal­ing Down

Although it is dif­fi­cult to estab­lish to what degree at this time, it is becom­ing appar­ent that some devel­op­ers are either putting their project(s) on hold, or releas­ing in phases, because of the slow­down in the mar­ket. In 2007 there were 50 new real estate devel­op­ments that were announced. Some of these projects didn’t actu­ally break ground, but “tested the waters” by mak­ing an announce­ment and then tak­ing pre­lim­i­nary orders or ini­tial deposits of small amounts. Some of these devel­op­ments that have not seen the response they were hop­ing for, can still hold off build­ing or even can­cel the project(s). Oth­ers have decided to re-evaluate the time­frame for the project, putting it out over a longer period of time, and/or releas­ing in phases. At the end of 2008 we will be con­tact­ing devel­op­ments to find out exactly what each project decided upon and what their plans are for 2009.

This can be seen as good news, as most likely the inven­tory for new real estate prod­uct is not as large as once estimated.