After the craze: Condo conversions leave fractured communities
Michael Jacob was living at the Monterra apartments in Bonita Springs in 2006 when the wave of condo conversions came through.
Jacob, and everyone else in the 244-unit complex, was told by management to leave if they didn’t want to pay the sky-high price to buy – it was the very top of the wave to turn rental apartments into more lucrative condo sales.
Luckily for Jacobs, he and his wife didn’t buy their one-bedroom apartment for owner Tarragon Corp.’s asking price of about $200,000. Prices crashed almost immediately and Tarragon hastily canceled its plans even before the last tenants left.
“Poetic justice,” said Jacobs, who works as an assistant Lee County attorney. “It was just such an outrageous price.”