Condo sales up in December

Developers are willing to deal when it comes to loft prices, and buyers are responding: December 2007 Detroit condo sales were 33.9% higher than the same month in 2006.

Excerpt:

Take the Wayne State University-area loft being bought by Valerio della Porta and Monique Horton, a couple now renting downtown. They're buying the stylish 1,300-square-foot unit with huge windows, hardwood floors and granite countertops for $163,000, reduced from a starting price of $230,000. Besides the $67,000 discount, the seller also agreed to pay the couple's closing costs and a portion of the down payment.

"Why wouldn't we buy at this price?" said della Porta, a software engineer. "The only question we had was that should we wait and get a better price. But I can't see it getting much lower."

Austin Black, a Realtor with Max Brock Consulting Group, said the number of people interested in buying downtown "went from dead to wow" last month.

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