In what must be a major league sign of the times, dueling and competing auctions are planned tomorrow for the Bahia Vista condominium project in Ocean City, Maryland:
“Developer and landowner Spiro Buas will auction 11 units from the Bahia Vista I & II condominium buildings. At the same time, his former partners — namely, Jeff Thaler, Lew Bush and James Bergey with Ocean Mist LLC — will auction 11 of their units at an Annapolis hotel.
Straddling Edgewater Avenue in Ocean City, the five-story bayside buildings feature three- and four-bedroom units now valued from $500,000 to $800,000. At the height of the market, some sold for as much as $1.5 million, property records show.”
Most interestingly, the comment by the auctioneer, Doug Marshall:
“Auctioneer Doug Marshall, who will conduct Buas’ auction, said auctions are good for Ocean City because they can quickly put “a great big dent in the inventory.”"A lot of people don’t realize that 600 units sold in Ocean City last year, and those condos are being removed from inventory on a daily basis,” he said. “What’ll happen here is, once there are 400 or 500 units left in Ocean City, there’ll be a run on them, and then the market will turn around. That’s why people need to pay attention to these auctions. You always hear people say, ‘I’m going to wait until the market hits bottom.’ When you see absolute auctions of bayfront buildings, you better pay attention.”
We shall see…
The full article-
