What accounts for June's dramatic numbers is actually activity from months and years past, according to professionals. When a condominium project begins, the developers will seek reservations for units with deposits. When a sufficient number of reservations are made, they are turned to hard contracts with a 20 percent down payment. These contracts are included in the developers' collateral used to secure a construction loan needed to complete the project, Guidry explained. These sales are known as pre-construction sales.
Actual building begins, and over time, the units are completed.
When finished, the county issues a certificate of occupancy and the sales are closed. When the sales close and the document stamp fees are collected, the numbers hit the statistics as new sales, when in reality, the sales were actually made several months to a couple of years prior to closing, Guidry said. Often, when a huge increase such as June's shows up in the figures, there is a preponderance of units sold in one development. And indeed, Guidry accessed figures on Listit, a computer database available to real estate professionals that is based on reports from Multiple Listing Service, and found just that. All is not lost for the local condo market.