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'Bookend' groups drive condo-buying binge

Sunday, December 25, 2005

By Cami Reister

The Grand Rapids Press

Lois Medema and Yulia Barai are at different stages of life, but when it comes to home sweet home, they are looking for the same thing -- a condominium.

With the last of her three children soon to leave home, Medema is looking to downsize from her 5,200-square-foot house in Southeast Grand Rapids.

"When you're a growing, active family, you need lots of space," said Medema, who is in her 50s. "Now that it's just me, slowing down, I don't need so much."

Barai, a 24-year-old software engineer at Siemens, wants to stop paying rent and start building equity. But she travels a lot for her job.

"I don't have time to maintain a yard, do snow shoveling or landscaping and all that kind of stuff," she said. "Condos just seem to be low maintenance."

AJS Realty Vice President Pat Vredevoogd said people such as Medema and Barai are driving the condominium market in West Michigan.

She calls them "bookenders" -- young singles or couples with first jobs and the baby boomers with empty nests and plans to travel.

"Both are sets who don't want maintenance and don't want the burden of taking care of a yard," Vredevoogd said. "They want to be able to pick up and go when they want to."

The "bookenders" have been busy this year. While single-family home sales in the metropolitan area are down 1.2 percent for the year, condo sales are up nearly 18 percent, according to the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors.

Condo sales along the Lakeshore from Muskegon to Saugatuck show similar gains -- up 17 percent for the year, according to the West Michigan Lakeshore Association of Realtors. That compares to a 5.5 percent dip in single-family homes for the same period.

On Monday in East Grand Rapids, people got in line at 3:30 a.m. to buy one of the first 22 condomimiums that went on sale as part of Jade Pig's project in Gaslight Village. The units were gone two hours after the doors opened at 7 a.m.

One reason condos are popular is the price, Vredevoogd said. Some of the new condominium developments and conversions of apartments into condos have prices that rival rent payments.

"You can buy one for $67,000," she said. "That's cheaper than rent, and you're building some equity."

Greg Carlson, a co-partner of Five Star Real Estate, agrees the trend toward condominiums is changing.

"The mentality used to be, 15 to 20 years ago, that it was only for retired people," said Carlson, who moved into a condo at age 43.

"I wanted to simplify my life," he said. "It's about lifestyle, and I think you're going to have more people getting into condominiums."

Others are drawn to living on a single level or they are buying a vacation home or a future retirement home.

Still others look at condos as an investment. Debbie Yealin, vice president of sales and marketing for Redstone Group, which has been building condo developments since 1977, said they are getting a lot of interest from investors.

"Currently, 5 percent of our customers buy condominiums as an investment. I expect that percentage to increase over time," Yealin said. "If you get into the right project that has strong velocity, condominiums can be a great investment."

Building boom

Those looking for condominiums in West Michigan have a lot of choices.

In the City of Grand Rapids alone, more than 1,150 condo units have come on the market, are under construction or have been proposed in recent years.

The Jade Pig project in Gaslight Village will add 107 condos to the market, with prices ranging from $400,000 to $2 million.

Builder Track, a local publisher of building trends, reports condo starts through the third quarter are up 39 percent over 2004 (241 units to 334). In Ottawa County, they are up 11 percent over last year (219 units to 242).

Prospective owners can take their pick from high-rises to converted factories to site condos to traditional multi-unit buildings. Barai is looking at four developments, "but I just started my search a week and a half ago," she said.

Medema recently spent a day looking at eight developments. At their first stop -- Inglenook, a new, detached-unit development off Burton Street SE -- she found little that did not meet her criteria.

The Inglenook units sell for $247,000-$298,000 -- a figure Medema said is right in her price range.

She liked the 2,200-square-foot mission-style unit's large, open kitchen with enough room for a cabinet to display her crystal. It also had maple floors, a three-season porch and the option of finishing the lower level with two more bedrooms so her children can visit.

Medema said she lived in a multi-unit condo for a few months when she was first married. While she found that lacked privacy, "these (detached units) seem very private," she said.

"It's been a good year" for condo sales, said Amy De-

Kleine who has been selling condos and homes for DeKleine Builders in Byron Center for six years. But the slower single-family housing market is starting to affect her business.

"I've had a ton of reservations on our condos, but they can't sell their current homes to get into the condos," she said. "So, here we sit in the waiting game."