"They were intended as ownership units and they were very, very expensive. - As usual, buyer beware... I think the poor need to bail these guys out as well... Hopefully it won't cause anyone to lose their own homes. But a stadium is still in the works.

I don't think the article goes far enough explaining why these buildings now are rental units. Banks write loans that they can sell to the secondary market typically. The secondary market guidelines will specify how many units in the building have to be sold in a building before they will buy them. This is part of a huge change in Fannie and Freddie guidelines in the past few years. Because Fannie and Freddie won't buy these loans now, no bank will lend on these units without 35% down. Your typical buyer for a condo does not have this, therefore, fewer buyers. Unless the owners of these buildings want to finance the deals, no units will be sold. The current owners have no incentive to do so because they are likely getting a better return off of them as rentals. Until there is some overall appreciation in the market, expect that these units discussed in the article will be rentals for a long time to come.

I think it's a just reward for the housing market speculators that bought and/or over built. I hope home values go down another 20%. I'm so glad to be a renter. My rent has gone up $50.00/month in 6 years. FYI, homes are not an investment for retirement or a cash machine. They are for when you retire that you no longer have a mortgage. To any nay say'r, keep deluding yourself otherwise.

Cities fueled the housing bubble by approving all sorts of mega projects like condominiums. Sensible people realized the country was in an unsustainable bubble in the early 2000s. City governments should have known that, too, as they have direct access to property value records and could have seen that housing values were rising by 8% a year in the late 1990s. Some cities are still approving mega retail projects in this bad economy despite a glut of vacant retail property. The city governments look at the potential amount of tax revenue, than they think about how much more money THEY will have to spend. The more money a city council has to spend, the more power they have. And that is what it is all about. Power.

A year ago I would have disagreed with Jeffport's comment about how renting is better. We just received our Hennepin County valuation statement in the mail and our house value has dropped 30,000 in ONE year. I thought last year was bad. THis is unreal!!! I can now understand why so many people are walking away from their homes.

I saw this coming. With the popularity of home & condo shows, I think the Midwest figured that would work here, too. To an extent, it does, but the reason why they are so hot in NYC, San Francisco, Toronto & Vancouver is because there's a shortage of available space, specifically downtown. Condos generally blend in well, but have become so out-of-reach for the new graduates just starting out. There's no choice but to rent. Look at those old single family homes that were ripped apart in Duluth by college students - now they're all group homes, halfway houses or Section 8. There needs to be an updated version of the type of housing the YMCA-YWCA provided...structured, downtown, walking distance to work, school; affordable, and most importantly, selective. Recent grads should have safe housing downtown that they can afford. Putting eight kids in a condo, whether it's downtown or by Ridgedale, is never appropriate.

What the story does not tell that Mr. Rockvam also owns a marina (Rockvam Marina) right next door to the condo units mentioned in the story on Lake Minnetonka. This marina offers dock and storage services. Since the condo units did not offer dock privileges, this is a complete conflict of interest from Mr. Rockvam who most likely would have used his marina to store their boats. Nice move by the mayor to benefit his own pocketbook.

Condo's are terrible investments. I bought in at Excelsior & Grand in St. Louis Park at the worst possible time too. While the building looks good on the outside, its cheap construction on the inside. Defective Windows/frost condensation problems, poor sound proofing, cheap cheap cheap. And if your neighbor smokes cigarettes, you smell it everywhere in your home! But body is accountable for anything, not the Developer who farts around year after year pretending they are going to solve the problem once and for all, the association management company, board members or the City in regards to there lousy building codes. I hate it here every day how many people for ripped off. The city cannot be sued, all they care about is their tax money.

Condos are horrible investments and ripe targets for being sucked dry by self serving management companies whom dictate board members. Every year there is talk about change to protect the homeowner from this sort of thing, but as usual the politicians are bought and paid for. When you live in a condominium, you basically have no rights. If you try to hold board members accountable for there actions, you get a letter from their attorney telling you that you are no longer able to speak to them. It's really pathetic, the whole system is an a disgusting exploited joke.

So many homeowners were united, we were going to sue the Developer and they were going to pay for shorting us the way they did and for their inferior efforts. So we proudly elected our board members and then the property management company began over seeing the board. WITHIN A MATTER OF MONTHS, OUR VERY OWN BOARD MEMBERS HAD BEEN ADVISED BY THE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY TO TELL HOME OWNERS TO SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS ON THEIR OWN!! It was unbelievable... Take about corruption, talk about UNETHICAL? And people wonder why their home values have dropped so much... It's such a pathetic scam.