Lofty price tags leave lofts vacant

CRASH. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A LUXURY LOFT OR CONDOMINIUM IN DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE - YOU WON'...  More »

CRASH. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A LUXURY LOFT OR CONDOMINIUM IN DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE - YOU WON'T HAVE ANY TROUBLE FINDING ONE. DOZENS ARE VACANT. AS JEFF MAHER REPORTS, HIGH PRICES AND LACK OF AMENITIES DOWNTOWN ARE TURNING AWAY POTENTIAL BUYERS. 'the point of living downtown is to have everything around you and to get in your car and have to drive out of downtown doesn't really make sense to me' NOT LONG AGO, VINCE LE LOOKED INTO BUYING A PLACE AT THE LOFTS AT GOLD STREET IN DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE. AFTER SEEING THE PRICE, AND THE FACT THAT THERE'S NO SUPERMARKET NEARBY - HE DECIDED AGAINST IT. what we're discovering is anything about the 300 thousand dollar price range for a loft, that's kind of the break point for whether people want a loft or not'THE BANK LOFTS AT 2ND AND CENTRAL OPENED THEIR DOORS ABOUT A YEAR AGO - ONLY 4 OUT OF 27 LOFTS HAVE SOLD. THE PRICES RANGE FROM 300 TO 700- THOUSAND DOLLARS. 'the bank residences are having trouble, he really shot for the high end and I think he's restructuring it right now' 16 OUT OF 32 LOFTS AT GOLD STREET HAVE BEEN SOLD. PRICES HERE RANGE FROM 295 TO 450-THOUSAND DOLLARS. 'I would say the past four months have been somewhat sluggish but thankfully we've been fortunate to keep selling our products' IT'S A DIFFERENT STORY FOR THE ANASAZI DOWNTOWN. 34 OUT OF 45 CONDOS HAVE SOLD - AND THEY HAVEN'T EVEN OPENED YET. THEY COST ABOUT 300-THOUSAND DOLLARS EACH. 'there's nothing wrong with million dollar condos but that's a market that's a mile wide and half an inch deep - so there isn't much market for that' JEFF MAHER. EYEWITNESS NEWS FOUR. THE DOWNTOWN ACTION TEAM IS TRYING TO BRING MORE RETAIL STORES AND A SUPERMARKET TO DOWNTOWN. BUT SAY DEVELOPERS ARE WAITING FOR MORE PEOPLE TO MOVE IN BEFORE THEY START TO BUILD.  « Less