possible to get sale prices of condos in my building ?

Easiest - if it's a condo, there's someone managing it. Whether it's small and 'self-managed' or larger, and a company doing the job. They have to keep these records. Just call them and ask.

Not as easy - your town hall has an assessor's office and tax collector dept. One of these keeps track of property transactions. These are public records.

Maybe - Your city has these records loaded for web access. Google for your town web site, and search for the records from there.

Lastly -

has this info, but it's not real-time. Client sold her house, and I saw the transaction hit zillow about 4 months later. But, that lag may depend on the town, your mileage may vary. JOE

Here in the twin cities, housing sales are reported in the newspaper each Saturday. If your newspaper doesn't do this, then you have the option of going down to your local courthouse and looking up the records. The county that I live in, Dakota County, has a GIS system on line. From there, you can look up a property, find its current owner, and see the last sale price along with the current tax appraised value.

-john-

I have a good friend who owns a realty company. He can produce a "comparable market analysis" at the drop of a hat. The report provides the sale price and specs of all houses sold within a given time period and within a given radius of any address chosen. I believe that any member of the National Association of Realtors can access the info.

My wife and I found it invaluable when we recently purchased our home. Many of the final sale prices had begun falling to reflect the market correction, but the asking prices had not. The CMA gave us leverage (or perhaps "evidence") to negotiate with the seller.

"john" wrote [in the state of Pennsylvania--]

In the vein of what kastnna wrote, any real estate agent that uses MLS can get recent sales prices. So if you're working with an agent, put them on this. Some agents will do it only with the promise that you might work with them (though I hate jerking people around and won't ask unless I have strong intentions of working with the agent).

In addition, since Pennsylvania is what is known as a "[home sales] disclosure state," you might simply go to realtor.com. About halfway down one can type in one's zip code and street address and get recent sales near that address, plus prices. Read the caveats on the prices at this site.

One other caveat for now: Discount agents are becoming increasingly popular. Not sure if they're restricted in Pa (they are flat out illegal in some states). If this is an option, then their sales data is not necessarily going to appear on the MLS.

is one example of a discount agent company. They do appear to have offices in PA.

MLS people and discount agents have been feuding (with plenty of legal overtones) in the last five years or so.

There is a real estate newsgroup that I read now and then that can offer advice, too.

Yahoo real estates:

City hall. Thumper

Thanks to everybody. I used some of the web pages people gave and found prices but the best thing was going to the county web page and they had what seemed like all the units that were sold in my building.

Next step is going to meet with the builder. A representative said he will meet with me and show me how the prices have changed since I bought.

I'm basically needing this info because unfortunately it looks like I will be getting divorced so I need to know the change in value of the condo from date of marriage to date of separation.

Some courts use appraisers but I think in my case since this is new construction and because the exact same units are selling right now in the market that is the best appraisal one can get ( the actual selling prices ).

Thanks everybody.

I have to ask - couldn't you just call the management company? JOE

Right now the builder is the management company so they are the same people. It moves to another company once

80 percent of units are sold - so when I say I called builder it is the management company right now.

In many (perhaps most) jurisdictions, city/county records are available online. In Sarasota FL, for example, the assessor's web site shows the ownership info, most recent sale price and date, and tax info on every property. There is a delay between actual sale and official recognition, but it's not long. A real estate agent may know the price agreed on before the actual closing (official sale date), however.

David

may have information in your area. It willthrow up a map with for sale and recently sold homes. Zillow.com is another possibility.

-- Ron