1.14.2010

Mercer Condos - Rent Them Cheap

One of our favorite wiping posts is the fabulous Mercer Luxury Apartments. This is the housing development in downtown Walnut Creek that gives you the San Francisco experience, well really just the cost, 30 miles from San Francisco.

We've written numerous posts on the absurdity of paying say 1 million dollars for a 3 bedroom condo that also comes with a $500 HOA fee.

Apparently the home-buying population agreed with us as the condos were turned into rental units except for the unlucky few that actually purchased. We call them suckers.

Today's update is about an ad posted on Craigslist for one of the rental units. Love the pukey ad title.


$600 deposit?? These developers are getting a little desperate don't you think? By the way, I'm pretty sure that picture isn't Walnut Creek.

UPDATE: just got back from a lovely dinner in the urban suburban setting of Walnut Creek and confirmed that the picture above is NOT Walnut Creek. The lamp posts that Walnut Creek has are different. How lame is that ? Come rent with us because we pay marketing firms for really "cool" pictures to advertise with.

6 comments:

reddog said...

I prefer the subtle, Town and Country ambience of Pleasanton. Walnut Creek is so pretentious.

W.C. Varones said...

Wiping post - nice Freudian slip. I was taking my morning Mercer as I read that.

The combo of high rent and tiny deposit smells like desperation to me. My guess is the developer is having trouble making the bank payments and needs someone to pay high rent or they will go bankrupt. So they'll take any drug dealers or call girls who are willing to sign up for such an overpriced rent.

Bankruptcy would be the best thing for the Mercer. The bank could take it over and then dump all the unsold units at $400k or $500k each.

Negocios Loucos said...

$400K to $500K?? I still say that's overpriced when you count in the $500 HOA fee.

Anonymous said...

hahaha! welcome to yuppie gentrification hell.

I always get a chuckle out of that stuff having been raised in rural Mississippi.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

900 s.f. condos in NYC go for $1.3 million and have $800/month hoa.

HOA fees NEVER, EVER go down. They only go up. Usually faster than taxes.

Anonymous said...

I nearly bought a 1br at Mercer for a bit over $400k, but then got smart and didn't do it. In reality, I'm guessing a 1br there is actually worth about $150k when the market comes back down to Earth. The numbers don't lie:

http://www.housingbubblebust.com/OFHEO/Major/NorCal.html

Nailed it!

July 5 :