Sound the Alarm: ‘Default Phenomenon' Spreading?

Finally, some of the doom-and-gloom real estate market coverage we've been waiting on ever since Wall Street died. The Sun reports this bombshell: "Developers of new condominiums are finding that apartments they thought had sold are unexpectedly coming back into their hands as buyers — not just layoff victims, but some who are wealthy and employed — default on contracts." KABOOM! But while the topic of buyers giving up their deposits and backing out of buying is a tantalizing one, we're not quite at epidemic status. A small handful of examples are cited, at buildings like Brooklyn's One Hanson Place, Tribeca's Zinc Building and 101 Warren Street and the Financial District's, uh, District. DISTRICT! Oh no, hopefully the couple that stars in the renderings put the money they saved on wardrobe costs toward the purchase of their apartment! But while the examples are still few and far between, they cannot be overlooked. One mortgage expert estimates that "the number of buyers struggling or failing to close on signed contracts leapt to 10% from virtually nil in the past year."
· The Default Phenomenon Comes to N.Y. [Sun]