I heard over the weekend from a future buyer at Vantage Pointe, the biggest residential condo building ever built in downtown San Diego.
In my story, I'd referenced a $5,000 refundable reservation deposit that 337 initial buyers in the project made when Vantage Pointe first started selling in 2004. Those that signed full contracts — about 220 of them — in 2005 agreed that their $5,000 would no longer be refundable.
But this reader pointed out that in addition, those buyers signing contracts put their $5,000 toward a 5-percent non-refundable deposit.
From that e-mail:
In my case it's about 25K…a lot of money to walk away from. … If the loss was only 5K, I along with others would have walked away from this project by now.
The reader belongs to the online community that's been set up for future buyers at Vantage Pointe, and expressed some concerns about the project as it nears completion, such as what will happen to the unsold units, how the building's homeowners association will be funded in light of those 390 so-far unsold units, and others.
There are currently 289 committed buyers for the project.
It takes a lot to make it here. Some of our most important decisions -- where to live, whether to buy or rent, what to do for work, how to imagine the future -- are tied inextricably to the ebb and flow of the local economy, no matter where we fit in the continuum. In Survival in San Diego, reporter Kelly Bennett reports the latest about these issues, tells stories about the 
