
While the sale of single family homes is on the rise and the market is beginning to make a come back, the condominium market has been slammed by the suffering real estate market pretty hard.
Corus Bankshares, Inc., a lender based out of Chicago and one of the biggest lenders to high-end condos all over the nation, including Miami-Dade County, is looking at a deadline to sell itself or to raise $390 million in capital by mid-June of this year! This could be the largest bank failure this year and the fourth largest since the beginning of the economic crisis.
However, according to the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR), existing condo sales have risen 19 percent during the first quarter of 2009 in comparison to the first quarter of 2008. Perhaps if the rise in sales continues, Corus will stand a chance; in the meantime, the thought of Corus being sold in pieces is attracting interest with a number of buyers.