Car condo owners, in here

Muscle car prices could fall?! Us younger guys are waiting.

I hate to point out the obvious, but the younger crowd is not waiting. Hence why prices are falling. The younger crowd has mostly realized that 2020 Camery will out perform a 60s, 70s, or 80s muscle car especially if there is a corner involved.

The cars my generation grew up with as iconic are mostly imports. Supras, Skylines, 3000GT, Defenders, Porsches, and BMWs are the what we grew up with. Later Mustangs and Corvettes are the exceptions. You can see it in the market. Those cars are going up in value and the traditional "classics" are crashing as the generation dies off.

Superbowl said:

It varies. From my experience, the market was good in the late 1970's. I got licensed in 1981 when a 30 year mortgage ran up to 18% and the real estate market was horrible. It got better in 1985 when rates dropped below 10% and boomed in the late 1980's. The market went off a cliff in the early 1990's when even the federal government was laying off employees. Things picked up again around 1999 and boomed in the early 2000's. The market collapsed in 2007 when the great recession hit. Things picked up again around 2018. Covid hit and everyone was sure the market would crater but instead it boomed because the government flooded the economy with free money and low interest rates. Here were are now in 2026 kind of overdo for another bust.

If these car condos got started in 2008 as you say, then that specialized type of property has not yet seen a big recession and a major drop (25-30%) in real estate prices. Eventually it will come. It always does.

I just sold two apartment condos in Germantown, MD who's owners bought brand new at the peak of the market in 2007. Even after owning them for about 19 years, neither one could get what they paid for their units.

When a recession hits, unnecessary things like vacation beach/mountain properties can drop 50% or more. I would put car condos in the unnecessary category.

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I would argue the reason that this sector was not hit as hard in the great recession and hasn't crashed is the people who purchase car condos are generally pretty well off. A 400k garage condo is nothing when you are storing two, three, or four million in Ferraris or GT40s. It is not really aspirational or a flex. It is generally not an impulse purchase. It is probably not an "investment" but more the cost of a hobby. When the economy turns, they can ride it out. While the market is probably overly hot, I doubt the facilities that follow the country club model and have active member participation are going to crater. At worst they are probably going to stall. The ones without a strong community are built to maximize developer profits quickly. They will crash and burn and drive up process at the places that survive.

gte718p said:

Muscle car prices could fall?! Us younger guys are waiting.

I hate to point out the obvious, but the younger crowd is not waiting. Hence why prices are falling. The younger crowd has mostly realized that 2020 Camery will out perform a 60s, 70s, or 80s muscle car especially if there is a corner involved.

The cars my generation grew up with as iconic are mostly imports. Supras, Skylines, 3000GT, Defenders, Porsches, and BMWs are the what we grew up with. Later Mustangs and Corvettes are the exceptions. You can see it in the market. Those cars are going up in value and the traditional "classics" are crashing as the generation dies off.

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I think you meant to quote me. If so, nobody in my "crowd" wants any:

Supras, Skylines, 3000GT, Defenders, Porsches, and BMWs.

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Nice, tasty, muscle cars will do. Thanks.

Norcal said:

What about utilities? Some PoCo’s will only supply one meter to a residential property.

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I have a friends prior 40 x 60 steel building with a nice 3br/2ba home on it I rent out. Luckily he got a three phase transformer and second meter set for the shop (in city would not be approved today), but we share water and gas, they pay water n sewer, I buy fiber optic cable and share (have my own secure router, but their like family now so no worries) and we split gas. It works ok. I think the gas can still get/used to be separate as there are two lines teed together just before meter, and locally the gas company is more amenable (water n power are city). If it was on propane you could probably set another tank for the shop.

Just FYI, this IS a concern, but can be worked out. I knew I wanted tenants I liked / trusted even if it took longer. Sometimes you luck out, this young couple were the first I interviewed (knew I didn’t want most replies) they have been great; 28 & 30? I went to their (small) wedding reception after they moved in! So yea we get along.

gte718p said:

Muscle car prices could fall?! Us younger guys are waiting.

I hate to point out the obvious, but the younger crowd is not waiting. Hence why prices are falling. The younger crowd has mostly realized that 2020 Camery will out perform a 60s, 70s, or 80s muscle car especially if there is a corner involved.

The cars my generation grew up with as iconic are mostly imports. Supras, Skylines, 3000GT, Defenders, Porsches, and BMWs are the what we grew up with. Later Mustangs and Corvettes are the exceptions. You can see it in the market. Those cars are going up in value and the traditional "classics" are crashing as the generation dies off.

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You're kinda right, but:

I grew up with 60s and 70s muscle cars and they were prehistoric compared to current cars. Properly configured, they could be terrors in a straight line, but don't even think of doing high speed corners with most of them. -- I'm leaving out resto-mods as that is a COMPLETELY different story.

However, your second comment is more in line, aka "The cars my generation grew up with as iconic". These are the cars the generation either grew up with and couldn't afford, or had them, but later had to sell them when life, i.e. wife, kids became more important.

A mechanic friend of mine retired in 1981, he spent the rest of his life restoring model A's and T's. Another friend retired around 1990, he spent his retirement restoring 1930s and 1940s cars. These were the cars of their youth.

These gentlemen have passed on, and the prices for the cars they loved have been steadily going down. Not because their 0-60 times are poor, or they can't corner well, which most of them can't, but because the folks of that generation have passed on.

In most cases, not all of course, people are buying memories.

I would actually be shocked if more than a few of your younger generation drooled over 60s and 70s muscle cars.

I have been looking hard for more car space and it's interesting just how many buildings are out there unusued. It's an ocean. The idea of a car country club is a great idea, one of my favorite ideas, but I will never have the geography and probably also not enough money, even if I thought it was worth it.

You are hitting the nail on the head there…. Empty cheap space and the country club for car guys, that was the entire concept and why I think ours was successful where others have failed. The facility I am at wasn’t targeting the higher wealth and didn’t come loaded with amenities, at least not to start with, it began as cheap land and a Morton building that was subdivided. The price of entry wasn’t “cheap” but you could work out a tangible ROI over a given period of time when we first got our unit. As time went on, the prices escalated significantly and those of us who bought early will definitely do well at today’s market prices, but it really did just start out as a place where sorta regular guys that like to wrench on their cars could meet, borrow tools, etc. and hang out. The “rich folks” at our facility were the ones that were storing their RVs there.

Now, we have new folks that are coming in with Italian super cars and whatnot, but that wasn’t where we started.