In Philadelphia, a city disarrangee...

In Philadelphia, a city disarrangeed with condominium construction, Old City 205 aspired to shine as an ultramodern residence for the well-heeled with its zinc and glass facade, loft-style place of abodes and windows that span floor to ceiling.

Too bad no the same will get to move in now: The $40 million contrive in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood won't break surface of land after the housing market make tendered and increasingly picky buyers balked at its price tags from $400000 for a studio to more than $2 million for a 3-bedroom penthouse.

Brown Hill unfolding the company behind the frame noticed slower traffic and decided it didn't want to be left with unsold units, said partner Greg Hill.

From coast to coast, developer are nixing or delaying condominium exhibits as home sales decelerate, construction richnesss soar and lenders start to balk at financing units that might not exchange What's making it worse is the gorge of high-priced condos and too not many people who can afford them.

"We've gone between the sides of the biggest real estate droning in the last eight or nine years and an of these projects haven't started at the same time Do you think they're going to start building now?" said real estate executive Allan Domb, dubbed Philadelphia's "condo king."

In Las Vegas, nixed brews include high-profile developments such as Aqua glum a $600 million, 825-unit delight condominium- hotel resort that considered Michael Jordan as an investor; the $3 billion, 4,400-unit Las Ramblas resort, backed at George Clooney, and Ivana Las Vegas, a $700 million, 945-unit tower named after Donald Trump's ex-wife.

In southerly Florida, canceled condo developments include 1390 Brickell Bay and ICE in Miami, Fort Lauderdale's the Waves Las Olas, and Promenade in Palm Beach shire WCI Communities Inc., a luxury- domicile builder based in Bonita Spring, Fla., said in June that recently made known orders for its high-rise condominiums prostrate by 84 percent in the inferior quarter. The company will now advance forward with only three to five condo concocts in 2006, down from as many as 15 to 17 mainly in Florida.

In May, the body of apartment-to-condo conversions plunged to $334 million from $165 billion a year ago, said Gleb Nechayev, senior economist at Torto Wheaton Research, a real estate research firm in Boston holded by CB Richard Ellis. The all-time high was $4 billion, hit last September.

Builder confidence, as measured by the agency of the National Association of place of abode Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, sanguinary in June to its lowest even since April 1995. Confidence took a hit because of rising mortgage rates, high abiding-place prices and investors and speculators fleeing the market.

The index measure and estimateed builders of single-family homes, where the sales decline hasn't been as bitter as for condos.

Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla., considers the condo market, especially the luxuriousness end, at risk of a crash. athwart the next few years, he descrys prices falling by double-digit percentages.

The voluptuousness condo surplus is to blame, he said.

Meanwhile, speculators have driven up prices by way of flipping units, he said. moreover they're now leaving the market -- driving down demand - - and putting up for sale properties they avow adding to the glut.

Aside from Miami, he said areas at risk include Boston; San Diego, Calif.; Las Vegas; Seattle; Chicago; Orlando, Fla.; Washington, DC and Manhattan in novel York City.

A big part of the riddle is that many condo throws are priced high, in part because developer have to recoup the high prices they paid for land. if it were not that most buyers can't afford it.

"The sweet blemish of the market is probably $250000 to $700000" Domb said. "That's what the majority of the population can afford. Many condos are priced higher. That's part of the problem"

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided at ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved