Oakland's got a deja vu "hangover" these days now that its condo prices have recently fallen to their dot-bomb 2002 levels. In a three-month span ending this past February, the median price for an Oakland or Emeryville condo was about $42K lower than the previous year's, at $272,500. The culprit? Mostly a raft of condo foreclosures that's dragged down prices. Follow the bread crumb trail back to 1998, when Oakland's newly elected mayor Jerry Brown had big plans for 10,000 new residents downtown, and all the commensurate housing and jobs for the city's collective block party. They built up, but the party hasn't necessarily followed. According to the Chron, Oakland's probably achieved about half that — while vacancies continue to plague buildings. Meanwhile, the vacancies themselves are preventing owners from buying, as banks are leery of lending for properties that aren't yet 50 percent occupied. Anyone else love catch-22s?
· Oakland condo prices fall to 2002 levels [SFGate]
[Half-finished City Walk project in 2009, via Flickr/jdnx]