The New York Times has this report on condo mania. "When developers in Arlington, Va., threw a party 18 months ago to showcase plans for Clarendon 1021, a condominium development that had not yet been built, 3,600 prospective buyers stood in line just for the chance to book reservations to bid on the apartments. Now, less than a year after the building opened, speculators in this and other buildings are putting dozens of units on the market at the same time, causing asking prices and profits to slip."

"Of 23 investors who sold since Clarendon 1021 opened last summer, the three most recent sellers actually lost money. 'I hate it when people say prices can never go down,' said Frank LLosa, a resident of the building. 'The speculators make the profits more volatile.'"

"The Great Condo Gold Rush is fading from memory and the Great Sell-Off has begun. 'Money Down! Motivated Seller, Want More? Just Ask!' screamed an investor's online advertisement last week for a one-bedroom apartment in Clarendon 1021 that had never been lived in."

"As more speculators look to cash out in recently hot condo markets around the country, some economists say they could put even more downward pressure on prices in those buildings where for-sale listings are swelling. In Miami, at the Jade Residences, more than 20 percent of the building's 352 units are on the market. In San Diego, about a third of the 96 units in the Alicante, a condominium that opened last fall, are listed for sale and sellers are already starting to cut asking prices."

"In Donald Trump's luxury condos at 120 Riverside Boulevard in Manhattan, owners of more than one-fifth of the building's 250 units are currently marketing their apartments. With so much inventory, said Ilan Bracha, 'the buyers are coming in, checking the best views and then they negotiate. This is the reality.'"

"This is not the first time that condo markets have been influenced by investors. In the late 1980's, developers converted thousands of condo units in the Northeast and many of them were bought by speculators, said Karl E. Case, an economist at Wellesley College. Many of those investors, he said, ended up losing money when they sold in the early 1990's. 'It was ugly,' he said."

"A little over a year ago, Shabana Qureshi, a 26-year-old engineer, put deposits down on two condos in Arlington. 'My friends were making hundreds of thousands of dollars off of properties,' Ms. Qureshi said.But having taken a pay cut with a new job, she can no longer afford the mortgage and maintenance fees, which are almost $3,000 a month."

"Having scrimped to buy at what she said she believed was the peak of the market, Ms. Qureshi said she regretted her investments. If she had to do it all over again, she said she would have spent more money on travel and a new car. 'I would have been more carefree and invested once I had a family,' she said."