Condo Sales In San Jose

Report:

September was another bleak month for California new-home sales, but one segment of the Santa Clara County market bucked the trend: New-condominium sales were up nearly 150 percent from a year earlier.

Many of the units sold were in downtown San Jose, including at some expensive high-rise developments.

Buyers signed contracts to purchase 69 newly built condominiums in the county in September, up from just 28 condo sales initiated in September 2007, according to a report released Friday by the California Building Industry Association.

Five new-home projects accounted for more than two-thirds of those sales, said Jonathan Dienhart of Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, the research and consulting firm that provided the data to the builders trade group.

Of those top five, four are in or near downtown San Jose, and one is in Palo Alto. The San Jose developments that sold the most units in September are Cannery Square at Monte Vista by developer KB Home (12 units sold); The 88 by Wilson Meany Sullivan (10); Axis by KT Properties and Spring Capital Group (nine); and One East Julian by Regis Homes (seven).

Arbor Real by builder D.R. Horton in Palo Alto was also among the top five, selling nine units in September.

The median price of the 69 new condos buyers agreed to purchase in September was $550,000, down 12 percent from the median new-condo price a year earlier.

REPORT:

The 121 condominiums in Tamien tower are set to go on the market as rental units before the end of this year, according to development project manager Jessie Thielen.

The San Jose City Council and the Redevelopment Agency Board gave Barry Swenson Builder the OK Sept. 30 to convert the 11-story Skyline at Tamien housing development into apartments for up to five years. Thielen said the rental office is set to open by December.

City council approval was needed because the project is in a redevelopment area and required by the city's Inclusionary Housing Policy to have 20 percent of the units set aside as affordable housing.

"We feel that currently the sales market is not conducive to gaining the value that the building really holds," Thielen said. "Going to rentals allows you to preserve your asset to sell at a future date."

The controversial two-tower project on Alma and Lick avenues adjacent to the VTA station was originally set to include 242 units, but was put on hold after the first tower failed to attract the buyer interest that developers had hoped.

The marketing and sales office opened in March and closed three months later in June.

The rental plan has upset some neighbors who have been opposed to what developers pushed as a "luxury condominium" project ever since the San Jose City Council approved it in 2003.