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Peter Goyke of Sterling Heights will be a resident of downtown Royal Oak come Friday. The condo market is going gangbusters and his three-month search is ending at Main North Lofts. Craig Gaffield/Daily Tribune
Buyers, renters snatching units; developer planning more.
ROYAL OAK — After almost three months of watching and waiting, Peter Goyke is close to having a condo to call home in the downtown.
The 27-year-old, self-employed Sterling Heights man is buying a seventh-floor unit with a view at Main North Lofts. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two parking spaces and costs $220,000.
“To find something right on Main Street in my price range … I pounced on it,” Goyke said.
Six days after it listed, the unit was flagged as a sale pending with Goyke scheduled to get the keys on Friday. The condo that sold for $404,900 in September 2006 went into foreclosure and caught the eye of Realtor Deborah O’Leary the day it went on the market.
“We were the first to see it and Peter jumped right on board,” O’Leary said. “There is a shortage of every kind of housing, especially condos in downtown Royal Oak. Right now there are only 12 condos for sale. In the price range up to $250,000, there are three. That’s it.”
Across from Main North Lofts, Main Street Lofts has been sold out. Skylofts has two condos for sale — one for $199,000 and a double-unit for $650,000 — SkyLofts Marketplace has three condos for sale, and The Fifth has a short sale listed for $199,000.
“Since the beginning of the year there has been little on the market,” said O’Leary, an agent with Sine Monaghan, Realtors Real Living.
“The prices are going up, but they are still good when you consider what someone else paid for it. Basically, it’s still a good time to be a buyer and the sellers are getting happier. They’re seeing multiple offers.”
Lindsay Wagner said she was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of interest in the Main Street Center condo she and her husband bought seven years ago and then decided to rent when they found a house perfect for the family they are starting.
“We got an offer for a one-year lease at a good rate and then a second caller offered us a little more and then a third offer came from a woman who had been searching and searching. She offered us a two-year lease for even more money. I wouldn’t call it a bidding war, but we did get three offers and each one was better. We were so happy.”
The couple moved to a house in north Royal Oak with lots of room for them, their dog, cat and little one on the way.
“We got a good deal on a house and a good renter,” she said. “We feel very blessed.”
Even if a condo doesn’t get multiple offers, many sellers are pleased to see them move quickly. Two weeks ago a 1,000-square-foot condo built in 1967 on West Lincoln Avenue sold for $122,000 compared to $170,000 in 2006. The brick townhouse near Hagglestein’s Bakery was on the market a mere month.
“The sellers had put something down on it so they did get money at the closing,” O’Leary said. “The buyer was an empty nester moving back to Michigan from Louisville. If something isn’t a short sale and it’s priced right, it will go.”
Goyke said he found something to like at almost every Royal Oak condo he saw, but he couldn’t let go of the one at Main North Loft.
“I didn’t want anyone else to see it,” he said. “Two theaters and any restaurant or bar that your heart desires is in walking distance. Then there’s the view. When the sun shines at noon it looks like someone took a pencil and shaded in the General Motors building at eye level. It’s perfect” — for him and he said his close-knit family, which hosts out-of-state friends and relatives.
“My mom is already asking me to have Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Goyke said.
Amber Properties Co. is doing its best to fill the condo void. The 42-unit Amber Crossing Townhomes and Lofts opened in January on Sherman Drive and has been full of renters ever since. Amber Corners is coming in fall 2012 to Crooks and 14 Mile roads and Amber Landing should be built and ready for tenants in summer 2013 at Crooks and 13 Mile roads.
The company has more than 1,000 studios, apartments, townhouses and lofts in Royal Oak, Clawson, Troy and Berkley with five new complexes opening or planned in seven years. The latest Amber properties have an industrial look with a coated sheet steel exterior called Galvalume.
“Out of the 120 newer townhouse units, we have one coming available,” said Amber rental agent Ross Mason. “Things have really picked up compared to 1½ years ago and especially to three years ago. The vacancy list was long then and at one point we had a move-in special of $200 off.”
The condo sales and rental market has moved from survive to thrive, according to Mason.
“This summer we have been really busy with a lot of auto, engineering and medical people moving into our area,” he said.
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