Bob Rennie Selling Cut-Price Condos in Seattle - "We've all been waiting for yesterday to come back. It's time to make business decisions."

For Vancouver, ‘Yesterday’ [the peaks of 2008] did miraculously come back [the peaks of 2009-2010], but basic principles will reapply themselves, and yesterday will become yesterday again. -vreaa

Excerpts from the Seattle Times ‘Sunday Buzz’ 30 Jan 2010 10:04 pm (third story on the page) -

Escala, a 31-story downtown luxury condo development completed last fall. Now it’s … dropping its prices.

“We’ve all been waiting for yesterday to come back,” said Bob Rennie, whose firm took over marketing of the 269-unit tower at Fourth Avenue and Virginia Street in November. “It’s time to make business decisions.”

Just five units have closed at Escala, according to county records. Rennie says 67 more buyers are under contract — but he knows that in this market, that doesn’t guarantee much.

They’ll all be contacted over the next few weeks and offered reduced prices as an inducement to stay, Rennie says without giving specifics.

Meanwhile, the sales center has shut down. It won’t reopen until everything’s sorted out, perhaps by mid-March. “We’re trying to stabilize the building,” Rennie says.