If you're interested in the Optima Camelview Village condos real estate market, this is certainly a quick video that you should watch. Scottsdale Realtor Geoff Lilienfeld explores the Optima Camelview real estate market including condos presently on the market in Optima Camelview, as well as those recently sold.
For those that prefer to read the market update we have included the transcript below:
Today we're going to take a look at the market trends for the Optima Camelview Village in Old Town Scottsdale. Many people are familiar with the Optima. The Optima is a 700 unit condo complex located just off of North Scottsdale Road, just north of Fashion Square Mall.
We're taking a look here at trends for the past three years. Going back to the first quarter of 2016, for those that don't know there was a developer lawsuit that you see occur here and really hit the Optima sales prices pretty hard at the end of 2016. If we come back here we see average price per square foot at about $390 in the beginning of 2016, and by the end of 2016 we are down to $345 per square foot, so that lawsuit that the Optima went through definitely hit it pretty hard, but once that lawsuit is settled we can see it really rebounding.
Let's talk real quick about why it is that lawsuits cause the market to drop. A lot of it is fear that you won't be able to sell the condo because once a lawsuit is actually in litigation it's very hard to write loans against that condo. They're no longer warranted, and they pretty much cannot be borrowed against through conventional financing. In the Optima's case it never actually entered litigation, is my understanding. It was settled beforehand. I am not an expert on this litigation, but that's my understanding from hearsay at least.
We see that it definitely rebounded quite a bit once that was settled, and as we get into Q3 of 2017 it's up to $405 a foot, so actually higher than what we saw a year and a half earlier. Unfortunately, we've started to see prices continue to actually drop since that point in time bringing us to today where thus far for Q2 of 2018 the average price per square foot is actually down to $369 at the Optima Camelview, which is significantly lower from that $405 price point. That's almost a 10% fall, so we have seen prices go down.
In terms of the number of sales, the fact that 25 units have sold, and we've just barely began the second quarter, definitely says that we should expect to see a decent number of condos exchanging hands this year, even though yes, the spring is notoriously high season, especially for the Optima. The fact that we've already seen 25 units close would lead us in the direction to believe that inventory will be turning over and exchanging hands this year. Hopefully for everyone that owns units at the Optima, we will see this continue to change and go back to rising a little bit instead of dropping.
Now lets compare this to the rest of 85251. You'll see that 85251, this is the main Old Town Scottsdale zip code, has certainly been on the rise over the last few years. If you look at the two of those it does not bode well for the Optima. Again, hopefully this changes, and that's all homes including single family, and if we look specifically at our townhouses and condos, again in Old Town Scottsdale, we still see a very similar trend to what we just saw for the single family. Overall I'd say bad news for Optima Camelview Village prices at this exact time, but that doesn't mean that they won't rebound. We have seen that Optima can be somewhat of a volatile market in the past, so we will be looking for that to change.
The Optima is just one of several Old Town Scottsdale Condo communities. If you have any questions about the Optima, Old Town Scottsdale houses or condos, or anywhere else in the AZ valley, please reach out, you can fill out our contact form or please give us a call at (480)-387-3990.