More on the ongoing unraveling of the real estate market here from this month's Real Deal. Hey, turns out, even if you've got a stellar credit score and 20 percent down, banks might not offer you a mortgage because, as you well know, they're holding tight to their cash, and some properties may seem riskier than others. "There are certain buildings that some lenders just won't lend to, period," one expert tells them. "There are a lot of buildings with very low presale numbers, far below the numbers that lenders typically require. It's become much more challenging to get them approved." None are called out as officially blacklisted here, though Lofts on Lex, at 95 Lexington Avenue (which got a price chop last week), gets a look.
Though the units have been on the market for roughly eight months, only five are in contract, Neinast said. When several banks increased their presale requirements to 51 percent just weeks away from closing, she almost lost three of those buyers in one fell swoop. "I knew right away they wouldn't be able to get their financing," she said. "We would have had to have 10 units to start closing."
Makes it harder to have a buyers' market when those units sitting there the longest, and most eligible for price cuts, are the hardest to fund.
Ominous Signs from New Condos [The Real Deal]
