May 04, 2006

New Condos Pricey!

Of the 58,900 new condominiums completed during 2004 in buildings of five or more units, 26,700 or 45 percent had a median asking price of $300,000 or more, according to preliminary estimates based on the Survey of Market Absorption (SOMA). For all condos built in 2004, the median asking price was $265,100 (not statistically different from the 2003 median).

The Census Bureau publishes data on the market absorption of apartments each quarter and then in two annual reports. The data cited above come from the annual Characteristics of Apartments report, available in PDF or in downloadable form. The other annual report has data on absorptions in the preceding year and extensive historical data.

The characteristics report also has data on rent, number of bedrooms, furnished and unfurnished units, utilities, and amenities (e.g., swimming pool available, parking, dishwasher, etc.). One final note: The quarterly absorption report has data for metro areas.

[PDF] or denotes a file in Adobe’s Portable Document Format. To view the file, you will need the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader available free from Adobe.