Condos make a comeback: Prices in many markets are going up, but getting a mortgage is no sure thing

摘要

THE HOUSING BUST WAS ESPECIALLY CRUEL TO CONDO OWNERS, WHO SAW THE VALUE of their properties plummet 41%, on average, from the market's peak in 2006 -after a spectacular 51% run-up in the three and a half years before the bust. Now, prices are scraping bottom in many cities and have started to rebound in others. Condos are making a comeback. For Christine and Frank Caltabiano, of Brooklyn, N.Y., rising rents changed the answer to the buy-versus-rent question. Their two-year lease on a rental condo was set to expire last June. They passed on an option to buy the unit from their landlord when they discovered that the price exceeded recent sales of comparable condos by $100,000. But to rent an equivalent apartment (with two bedrooms and two bathrooms) would have cost them $3,500 to $4,000 a month - way more than the $2,950 they were paying.