Salt Lake, A Place In Condominium History
The first Condominium project in the Continental United States was built in Salt Lake City in 1960. So said Keith Romney back in 1974 in his book Condominium Development Guide. The "Father of Condominiums" also reported predictions that Condos would account for 40 - 50 percent of all multi-family Real Estate construction by 1975.
That was almost 30 years ago and while we havn't seen that kind of Condo explosion we have seen an increase in Condominium conversions and development in Salt Lake over the last few years. The reason is an ever increasing cost of land and the need to provide affordable housing for an ever expanding Real Estate market.
But this isnt an article on Real Estate economics, I thought it would be a fun history lesson. Condominium ownership has an interesting history and for the fun of it I'd like to quote a bit from that same book. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
Historically, the term "condominium" dates back to the sixth century B.C. when the Romans passed the first enabling legislation permitting the construction of homes with a form of cooperative ownership, in which individuals were entitled to separate use and ownership within a multifamily project.
During the middle ages, individual ownership of rooms and entire stories of buildings developed in Western Europe as a response to over crowding conditions in the walled cities. As threats of attack and invasion became less serious, urban populations migrated to less congested settings outside city walls.
Over ninety percent of residential development in Paris, France after World War II has been condominium units. In South America, four out of five commercial buildings are condominiums. Even the Scandanavian countries, the foremost proponents of cooperativism in all forms, has felt its influence. Furthermore, in countries like Mexico and Venezuela, the condominium has been used by government in leiu of public housing with surprising success and effectiveness.
So thats the history lesson, Stay tuned for a lesson on the future. Because of the unbelievable cost of land,I think history may be about to repeat itself.