There were at least two fairly major auctions that I know of that were shut down for lack of bidders this past weekend. The first was Peabody Crossing, and the second was The Modern in Boston’s South End.

Both of these sales were promoted with campaigns that have seemed to become the “norm” in condo liquidations. Each was promoted with published minimum selling prices for each unit at discounts of 30-35%.

If the auctions were shut down for lack of bidders, then the only thing one can assume is that even though those were published “minimum selling prices” that wasn’t exactly the truth, otherwise….why not sell them at the minimum…

Two questions, I think, come up here.

1. How does this happen? Meaning - How did it come to pass that in the 11th hour these projects were shut down? What went wrong with the seller and/or the campaign?
2. Why did this happen? Meaning - What is going on in buyer land that nobody shows up for a 35% discount on high quality new construction.

Answers (or attempts at some) to these and more in my next installment.