The North Douglas Condos
The North Douglas Condos - One of the newly built condominium complexes near the University of Notre Dame

The South Bend Tribune is preparing a follow up to their March 2007 coverage of new condos near Notre Dame. I’ll be sure to include a link to the story when they run it, but you can expect that they spoke to the people behind the projects, and that they all said sales have slowed but they are optimistic that their project will shrug off the larger economy and be a success. That would mirror a recent survey by online real estate web-site Zillow which reported that many homeowners believe that housing prices are down but their personal house in an exception.

So what has, is and will be happening with the new Notre Dame condos?

There have been two markets that operate independently of one another. The first, and older is for affordable condos close enough to Notre Dame to be a long bike ride or a short drive. Shoppers in this market are price sensitive, and willing to settle on a few items from their wishlist or make updates on their own. They have generally settled in complexes that include Woodbridge, New London Lake, the North Shore Club, and now the North Douglas condos. Prices run about $75,000-$150,000. The lowest selling price I’m aware of in the last few years in this market was $53,900 in the North Shore Club.

The North Shore Club Condos
The North Shore Club Condos - site of the least expensive sale near Notre Dame in the recent past, $53,900.

The second, and newer market is glitzier and much more expensive. The product is newly built high-end townhomes that could have been airlifted from Lincoln Park in Chicago. They generally have 3+ bedrooms, fireplaces, granite counters and brick accents. Most are walking distance to campus. Complexes that appeal to shoppers in this tier of the market include Irish Crossings, Wexford Place, Stadium Village, Pendle Woods Ivy Quad and many of the coming Eddy Street Commons condos. Prices run about $300,000 to $500,000. The most expensive sale I’m aware of in this market was for $588,754 in Pendle Woods for a villa – a detached structure with a condo-like association. The most expensive condo or townhouse sale I’ve seen is for $454,830 at Irish Crossings.

Pendle Woods
The Pendle Woods Villas - site of the most expensive sale in a newly built "Notre Dame Community," $588,754.

These two market segments don’t include every condo that sells near Notre Dame, but they cover most of it recently. There are projects that fall squarely between them like Dublin Village which started the Notre Dame condo boom in 2006. Hovering a bit over $200,000 they fall between affordable and luxury. There are also oddball projects such as Waterford Estates Lodge which is now a mix of condo-hotel, timeshare, and traditional hotel rooms. It can’t really be compared to any other condos in South Bend.

Irish Crossings Townhomes
Irish Crossings Townhomes site of the most expensive attached-unit sale, at $454,830.

With the continued construction of condos near Notre Dame and the softening economy, it’s anyone’s guess which projects will succeed and which might stall. But you should know you don’t have to buy condos in South Bend at their sticker prices today. There are more sellers than buyers and you can get a bargain if you look around and work with someone who really knows the market. If you’re looking for a condo and you’d like personalized advice, contact me for an in-person, on-the-phone, or e-mail consultation.

4 Responses

  1. Dublin Village wasn’t the project that started the Notre Dame condo boom…they just happened to be ones that were able to roll out construction faster. Irish Crossings and Pendle Woods were before DV and DV originally was not planned to target the ND market they sorta fell into it then ran with the ball. To date, I am not aware of any actual sales at Stadium Village Townhomes, but one could have slipped through since last I checked.

    Ivy Quad is a bit premature to comment on since the land is still in the development stage and the density is beyond anything we’ve seen in this market (62-64 units on 2.7 acres?) and the floorplans appear very cramped with different floors of a townhome owned by different people…I can’t figure out what was going on with those except that they needed to pack in the number of units to cover land and development costs. Ivy Quad will be an interesting project to watch that is for sure. My gut tells me it will end badly but I hope I am wrong. The same people started Keenan Court which seems to be for all practical purposes DOA like North Douglas Condos. Both KC and NDC need to drop prices by 25% to make a go of it in this area since they are priced at single family home prices for our area and neither location is ideal…KC is next to a large public housing type complex and NDC is next to some sort of environmental issue site (I’m sure it is safe, you just need to be on city water). NDC should have just been an apartment complex instead.

    Eddy Street Commons should do OK albeit will go slowly. ND is pushing it and some alums will rally to buy there but the first roll out will take five years probably. ND is a small school and it is doubtful SMC and HC and IUSB and Bethal will all congregate there. Sure it’ll be packed 5-6 weekends a year but is that enough to support those businesses year round (oh I guess JPW and graduation too)? ESC will also kill SB downtown from ever being a place to live and shop. Whatever demand, the little that there is, for living/working/shopping in downtown SB will get absorb by ESC. Only Mishawaka has a plan that combines these things effectively to build a year round residential community…Mishawaka also has most of the best retail and restaurants too.

    The enthusiasm to buy extra homes is long gone now. We’ll see how many people snap up ESC and Ivy Quad homes. Moreover, retail shopping (and to some extent restaurants too) has been way overbuilt. It really was the wrong time to move forward with ECD, but ND is really pushing it so I guess it’ll be moving forward….the positive is it is in SB city limits so the second home buyers will be adding to our property tax base (at city tax rates!) and same with the retail. Now if only the county could tax football tickets (10% tax) and parking at ND ($5/car or $10/car), we’d solve most of the budget problems with zero complaints from St. Joseph County residents. Why our local government caves to ND about this stuff and buys the argument that ND contributes so much to the local economy that they should get off the hook on taxes is beyond me….ND can’t move and most of the taxes would come from non-locals….seems to me to be a no brainer who to tax. SB (or Roseland…where are those crazies when you need them) should just annex ND instead of letting them walk all over over the county.

  2. Almost forgot about Stadium Club….is that thing back to apartments now? Was condos, then apartments, then attempt back at condos, the condos to rent out, now back to essentially what are apartments??? I’m sure Little Flower is happy…and that hideous yellow is just crazy.

    Lastly that “graduate” house thingy near Little Flower is another development too.

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