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SXM Condo market past it's prime?

Every bubble bursts eventually and SXM's real estate market is primed for a big pop, the signs are everywhere. Most of the buyers of the ridiculously high priced condo's going up everywhere are assumed to be from the US where the housing loan market is suffering and defaults on mortgages rising.

Aquarius, Westin, Barbaron, Shore Point, Rainbow, Cliff, Cupecoy Yacht Club, Millenium, Indigo Bay, Blue Marina, The Cove, Caravanserai, Pelican Marina and Mullet Bay, to name a few of the most recent and 'under construction/planned' projects, are all targetted at the same dwindling number of clients who can afford what they offer.

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A local real estate agent informs me that sales are slow all over, at Westin, Aquarius and others, hardly surprising considering what's on offer and the prices. If you want to spend $1/2 Million, which is an average price for a concrete box surrounded by other concrete boxes, then you may as well go buy a piece of land and build one without the neighbors. I guess some people just like living in boxes.

Purchasers are told that they can join rental pools and this will help them pay for the mortgage, but when you add 2000+ units to the market, this dilutes the amount of time your unit is going to be rented out. Some people are going to be left over extended and if the US does enter a major slump, which there are signs that it could, then they will be in trouble.

Indigo is trying desperately to get some movement behind it's project, now claiming to be enviro friendly, something we have heard so many times before from greedy real estate developers. This comment is worth a read and here is Indigo's website.

Below are a few photos from Cay Bay. The first is from about 1950's or 60's, before the hill road was built.

These two are from 1995, before Hurrican Luis washed the beach away.

This is from October 2006 when they started clearing the land.

These are from last week, the whole valley has now been cleared in the same way. You can see the few trees that Indigo have decided to save. Also, note the big pile of rocks by the beach, an back hoe was observed working down there. Is it legal to remove materials from a beach?