Update

Can you believe we are half way through 2008? The older I get the faster this life goes by. I thought I would catch you up on the market trends for our 3 complexes. It doesn’t always have to be bad news.

So far in 2008 there have been 13 units sold in the 3 complexes. 5 in The Diplomat, 5 in Windrush and 3 in Windward East. In the same period of 2007 there were 4 sold in the 3 complexes. 3 in The Diplomat and 1 in Windrush.

Now the main difference is of course the price but any movement is good to bring prices back to stabilization. I believe we have a ways to go for stabilization because I feel the lenders are still hiding foreclosures by not foreclosing. I believe we will see the foreclosure rate increase for the rest of the year. Keep in mind that lenders try to hold their bad debts to around 3% in order to attract investment money.

The 3 front buildings sold in The Diplomat sold for an average price of $159,300. The Windrush with over 1800 sq ft sold for $475,000. This is what happened in 2007.

So far in 2008 there have been 4 units sold in the front of The Diplomat at an average sold price of $131,750. This would be a decrease of 17% of sold price. This figure is typical of the market. The 3 units in the Windrush tower sold at an average price of $312,500 this compares to the unit in 2007 sold for $475,000. This would be a decrease of 34% but the unit sold in 2007 had about 300 more sq ft which would equate to the difference in price.

Bottom line is you can’t take too much stock in the talking heads or the media in general. You have to get specific data when comparing markets.

Peace to all!

Jim