With foreclosure looming for Carriage City Plaza, one two short sales in the building went on the market two weeks ago within the past month. A check of Realtor.com shows at least four units in the 16-story building on the market by owners.
About 62 of the 222 units were sold since the building opened in 2008. Another 72 leased were through the developer — Carriage City Properties (CCP)/Silcon, Inc. — leaving 88 units unsold or not leased. All 160 units owned by CCP — not the 62 owned by individuals — are expected to go into foreclosure, along with the hotel and retail space on the first three floors.
Among the first 30 or so units that sold in the building, Unit 512 went for
$231,250 in September 2008 and at one point was listed for rent at $1,700 per month. The one-bed/one-bath, which appears to have some upgrades, is now on the market for $139,900.Unit 1002, a two-bed/two-bath,
closed for $395,250 in December 2008 – two years ago tomorrow, to be precise. It listed on
Realtor.com for $199,900 earlier this week and today is $99,000. Base units,
sans upgrades, at Carriage City Plaza were starting at about $220,000 during the pre-construction phase in 2006.
Meanwhile, New York City-based Spandrel Property Services was named this week to manage the remaining unsold units being marketed as rentals in Skyview at Carriage City Plaza.
What exactly is a short sale? Wikipedia explains
here: “When sale proceeds fall short of the balance owed on the loan, often when a borrower cannot pay the loan on the property but the lender decides selling at a moderate loss is better than pressing the borrower.”
Note: This original post was updated Dec. 10 to reflect the 1002 short sale.
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With foreclosure looming for Carriage City Plaza, 
damn, i invested everything in this city hoping it was going to turn around. i do like it because i grew up here but man i should have moved to clark. better yet i shouldnt have bought anything.
The owner pd $231k and change back in 2008. I think it will be difficult to get a bank to approve $139k or less. If the owner put 20% down when purchased that's quite a loss percentage wise for the bank. Just because someone lists a short sale doesn't mean it will get approved.
O yeah and where is the pool that the listing notes?
It seems that unit 1002 is listed as a short sale as well 2 Bed/ 2 Baths $199,000. This building has definitely lost its value.
Who is the owner for the 72 leased units? Silcon? Are these units headed toward foreclosure?
Mark – It seems as though the bank would foreclose on all the Silcon assets – including the unsold units(88), the leased units(72), the hotel (I believe Silcon owns the hotel), all storefront property (even the one occupied unit – as this is leased, not owned by Raymond James). I am not sure why you are reporting that only 88 units will be foreclosed upon. It seems as though 160 will be foreclosed upon. The only assets not affected by the foreclosure will be those 62 units that have already had a transfer of ownership.
Thanks Anon, you are correct, only the 160 units owned or leased by the developer are heading toward foreclosure, as well as the hotel and retail space. The 62 units owned by individuals are not the developer's property anymore (obviously) and will not be part of their foreclosure.Thanks for noting that, I've corrected the original post.Not sure how/why I wrote it that way since I had it right in the first post about foreclosure last month. Sloppy writing/editing on my part I suppose. Thanks again for catching that and letting me know.
We were thinking of renting an apartment in that building, do you think it is worth it or it will be lot of trouble and we might get kicked out if the property is foreclosed?
The $139,900 and $99,000 Skyview units caught my eye as well. One pricing tactic is to ridiculously underprice the property in hopes of starting a bidding war that gets you to where you really want to be. It's how Ebay works. While certainly not indications of a healthy market for Rahway condos I wouldn't panic based on those two listings.Instead, I'd wait until they closed to panic.
Anyone renting there should consider the possibility of being denied a renewal once your lease is up. As the building's managers/owners are ultimately looking to sell the unsold units, renting at Carriage City will be viable for as long as condo sales remain at their currently low levels.
just heard about the short sale for unit 1002 going at 99k. This sounds to good to be true, does anyone think it is worth checking out or should i stay clear of this building due to the foreclosure and other legal issues with the building.
It sounds like a pretty good investment. I spoke to a real estate agent and told me that only cash offers would be considered because it is impossible to get a mortgage for this building.
Yes, you are right. I also called today and they said it has to be cash price because no bank would give you a mortgage. My question is that what would happen to the people that rent? What are they going to do with all those units?
I am assuming that whomever buys those units would have to honor the leasing contracts. They can not evict the current tenants. What are they going to do with these contracts when these leases come up… who knows? Only the person or corporation purchasing those units can decide what to do with them.
Also if you rent from an owner, not a foreclosed unit you wouldn't be at risk of being kicked out.
As the building is mixed-use (being a condotel), banks are reluctant to provide a mortgage to such a place especially in these bad times. I imagine that the new managing company might be tasked to find a lender willing to risk funding.Renters, as leaseholders, cannot be thrown out by anyone – at least not until their lease is up (where the bldg manager has the option to renew).Until banks are willing to grant mortgages for a mixed-lease property like this (i.e. economy vastly improves), renters at CC will likely be able to renew their leases for a while yet.
If that's the case as far as banks lending, it sort of defeats the purpose of mixed use developments that most towns plan, no? Convention wisdom being that landlords/developers have revenue coming in from residential during times when retail might be vacant.Perhaps a little different in this case with condos, but there's still the hotel.
Does anyone think that once most of the units are sold in foreclosure/ short sale and there is a new property management company, the value of the condos will rise eventually? The current prices, if approved by the bank, are almost too good to pass up.
You are in the mindset that the new firm is going to sell the condos, but the way the economy is with everyone not sure about tomorrow i am leaning towards them renting it out.
Lenders can change conditions on short sales is one of the first reasons why you should not buy short sale. The lender will make sure that they will reserve the right to have the ability to change the terms of the short sale at the last minute. They can make changes to the terms if the market has any sort of fluctuations. Also, lenders will always have lawyers at the ready and most buyers and sellers do not.
I'm moving there very soon. I rented a 1 bedroom for a pretty decent price. NJ law states that a tenant may not be forced to leave EXCEPT in the case where the units are being converted into condos or co-ops (which is exactly the circumstance in this case). My lease clearly states that the rental units are being converted over to condos and they have the right to evict me within 60 days notice. However, from what I undertsand, this property is in pre-foreclosure and the actual foreclsure process can take up to a year to complete. After the foreclosure is complete the bank then needs to find someone to actually purchase the property. And only THEN can renters be asked to leave. Honestly, I'm not too worried about it. I know that my security deposit is protected and I'm confident that this prperty won't be purchased by a new owner for at least 2 years.