Tuesday, May 01, 2007

TX: For half a mil, your dog can poop in luxury The Austonian, the swank 55-story luxury condo tower that will be going up at Second Street and Congress Avenue, is going to have a toilet for dogs.  Hey, when you charge $550,000 to $3.8 million per unit, you've got to have something for the guy who has everything, right? 8:13:53 AM

FL: Condo Saturation Soaks Developers Condos For Sale. The loud signs flaunted from street corners across the Bay area are meant to grab the attention of potential buyers. Developers advertise slashed prices and promise flat-screen TVs and computers. They put up inflatable gorillas and even pay people to dress as superheroes at busy intersections. All the hype hasn't worked. 8:12:32 AM

IL: Condo boom thunderous As the debate over affordable housing picks up steam, a new study analyzing 15 years of Chicago's boom in residential construction found that for every 1,000 condominium units a neighborhood gained, it lost, on average, 27 small apartment buildings and about six large ones. 8:07:20 AM

CO: Condo dwellers guide to gardening The words "spaghetti pot" likely conjure up images of a tangled mess of pasta, covered in bright red sauce. At Johnie's Garden in Minturn the term refers to a 12-to-14 inch container filled with five plants - oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil and a canning type tomato, like Roma. 8:04:12 AM

NE: Wrangling about road responsibility A public hearing about public and private county roads morphed into a request for a county commissioner to recuse himself from voting because of a conflict of interest. 8:02:16 AM

CO: Don’t be the one with ‘that house’ An overwhelming 81 percent of homeowners say they have a neighbor on their block who needs to do more to improve the appearance of their home, according to a survey conducted by contractor agency, 8:00:42 AM

FL: Officials work to allay fears of debris falling from hurricane-blasted condo Just looking up at the hurricane-ravaged 1515 Tower was enough to cause some nearby condo-dwellers to lose sleep. 7:59:33 AM

NC: Fire Levels 12 Beach Condos Twelve homes in a three-building condominium complex at Shutters-on-the-Shore were destroyed by fire Sunday afternoon and the exterior of a third building in the complex was damaged. Several of the homes were occupied at the time of the blaze, but everyone escaped without injury, 7:55:47 AM

CA: Open the books Now it looks like the foundation, which residents call "The GRF," may have to admit what it really is: An HOA. An Orange County Superior Court judge in December ordered Golden Rain to open its books to Leisure World's 9,000 residents. 7:52:37 AM

NC: Windy Pines South hit hard by foreclosures Windy Pines South was built on promises: affordable homes, easy financing, a brighter future for working families. What’s left of the subdivision today is a testament to what happens when the dream of home ownership fails. 7:49:54 AM

Housing Counsel: Foreclosures are Impacting Condominium Projects Question: Our condominium is in trouble. Many of our owners obtained those “favorable” interest only rates a couple of years ago, and now that their monthly payment has increased, their units are being foreclosed upon. This is putting a burden on the rest of us, since those owners are no longer paying their condominium fees. We are a small association with a tight budget. The developer left us with very little reserves, and now we are struggling to keep alive financially. What should we do? 7:47:18 AM