Buying real estate at auction usually conjured up visions of the county courthouse steps and massive fixer projects.  The last couple of years has changed that.  We’ve seen numerous builders unload inventory of new construction homes in the Portland area via auction.  On September 20th you’ll have the opportunity to buy brand new luxury condominiums in the Portland’s South Waterfront at a live auction. The Atwater Place auction will have a minimum price of $169,000 and feature forty units.

But the reality is you don’t even need to get out of bed to buy real estate at auction.  Though Ebay has had real estate on their website for years there is a new crop of sites out there dedicated to real estate auctions.  Auction.com has both online and live auctions.  The Portland area auction is September 13th.  The online version for Oregon does not include any Portland properties as of this writing but the auction at the Airport Sheraton on includes a two bedroom Meriwether Tower unit with an opening bid of $99,000.

You’ll find two John Ross condos and an Elizabeth unit (Pearl District) at auction on Realtybid.com.  The site is online only and you can place your bids now.

The South Waterfront has always been been a conundrum.  When prices competed dollar for dollar with the Pearl District, the Pearl seemed like the logical choice as it had all the services and infrastructure in place.  While there are some services and the street car now loops through the area, the proliferation of additional services is almost certainly hampered by the current economy.  But maybe now, with prices reduced as much as 63% from their original asking prices, the South Waterfront is worth a closer look.  The other question is whether other developers will be able to hang on and avoid having their buildings going to auction (the Waterfront Pearl was recently foreclosed on)?