It’s no secret that
Atlanta’s condo market is both saturated and stagnant. Look at all the
dark windows in the nighttime skyline, says Jon Gollinger, cofounder and
East Coast CEO of Accelerated Marketing Partners (AMP), a national
residential real estate marketing and consulting firm that stages
auctions of new condominiums. “When you have declines that are this
dramatic, the market needs to determine value,” he says.
So far this year, AMP has conducted nearly sold-out auctions with
high-end Atlanta high-rises such as Aqua Midtown, Cosmopolitan at
Buckhead, Element, Horizon at Wildwood, and Tribute Lofts.
For the Cosmopolitan at Buckhead auction, for example, more than 250
bargain hunters filed into a local hotel ballroom and started bidding at
a reserve of $105,000 for one-bedroom units, which had original asking
prices of up to $299,500. At the end of the day, forty-three luxury
homes were sold at prices ranging from the low $100,000s for
one-bedrooms to $272,000 for a two-bedroom.
So will condo auctions gain more steam? “One day we’ll be unnecessary,
but right now, we’re essential,” Gollinger says. “I’m really, truly
looking at Atlanta as an arbiter of what I expect to occur around the
country.” Visit acceleratedmp.com to find out about current auctions.
Illustration by Alex Eben Meyer
