NYC Auction Offers Sneak Peek of This Weekend's Big Auction in DC

• March 9th 2009

by Will Smith

Real Estate Disposition Corporation (REDC) auctioned off hundreds of foreclosed homes from around the New York City area on Sunday at Manhattan’s Javits Center. The event provided a glimpse of what DC’s own auction could be like this coming weekend (see our post for auction details).

About 1,000 people attended Sunday’s auction, according to The Associated Press. Bids started as low as $1,000, and many properties ultimately sold for well below their most recent assessment value. Many of the properties reportedly need some work, but the general consensus was that there were good deals to be had for the real estate investor.

Outside the auction, a handful of protesters gathered to rally against what they perceived as profiteering from others’ misfortune. “We think the auction adds insult to injury to the people who have been thrown out of their homes and all the millions of people who have either been evicted or who face foreclosure,” said one protester in video footage from Euronews.

Auctions are rare in New York City, especially in Manhattan, but this one is a sign that even the Big Apple, which just a year ago many were predicting would be immune to falling home prices, has been unable to escape the ravages of the housing crisis. “Auctions have not been used in New York in any significant way since the early 1990s,” wrote The New York Times a few weeks ago in a front-page story about condo developers being forced to auction unsold inventory.

It will interesting to witness this weekend’s auction in DC, where dozens of properties from across the metropolitan area (32 from DC proper) will be up for a quick sale. Will there be a big turnout? Will there be deals to be had? And, will there be protesters?

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/nyc_auction_offers_sneak_peek_of_this_weekends_big_auction_in_dc/633.