Miami Beach Real Estate Blog

Below are sales statistics for the overall Miami Beach (South Beach) luxury condo market for the past three months :

• As of late July, there are 450 units for sale between $500K and $1.1M
• As of late July, there are 209 units for sale between $1.1M and $2.1M
• As of late July, there are 111 units for sale between $2.1M and $5M
• As of late July, there are 43 units for sale over $5M

Continuum II South Beach – 50 South Pointe Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139

I’ve received many inquiries about CONTINUUM II South Beach since its opening, so far there have been nine closed sales and one pending sale as recorded on the Multiple Listing Service. This is a significant slowdown in sales activity, especially comparing the re-sales activity that took place with Continuum – South Tower a few years ago. However, the latest sales have been averaging well over $1,000/s.f. for higher floor units. Currently there are 46 condos for being offered for sale at Continuum 2

ARE YOU SERIOUS ABOUT SELLING? – If you own a condo or a single family home (especially those on the water), and have had trouble selling, please call us for a free market analysis. I believe in telling it “straight” to clients (or potential clients), as wishful thinking will not carry the day in this real estate environment.

Once again, the market has shown that it rewards sellers who work with experienced, knowledgeable, detail-oriented, and top producing real estate salespeople. Thanks to aggressive and creative targeted International Marketing Campaigns, we have sold ALMOST our entire Miami properties’ inventory from the first half of 2008.

The foreclosure problem has left many struggling homeowners looking for a means of relief in order to avoid having to give up their cherished South Florida homes and thus become the next foreclosure statistic. While positive efforts are being made to stop foreclosures and give homeowners some relief, others are taking advantage of the foreclosure situation to scam homeowners.

Foreclosure scammers often keep any eye out for public foreclosure notices and then drop business cards or even handwritten notes in the homeowner’s mailbox asking to be contacted. Upon the initial meeting, a scammer will promise the homeowner peace of mind and they will also sell the home back to the homeowner eventually. They will also suggest that all contact with a lender is cut off. Eventually the scammer or “rescuer” will set the rent much too high for the original homeowner to afford which essentially forces them out of their home altogether due to delinquency. The homeowner still owes mortgage payments but is now without a place to live.

The first method of knowing whether someone is legit and is actually looking to help you keep your Miami Beach home is when they request that contact with a lender is ceased. If foreclosure might happen, it’s imperative that the homeowner stay in contact as much as possible with the lender in order to try and reach a mutually agreeable solution at all times. With that in mind, any request for payments by a third party should also be a cause of concern. All payments should be made exclusively to the lender and no one else.

A scam can usually be “sniffed out” by the average homeowner but desperate times can sometimes cloud judgment. If a homeowner becomes a victim, there are legal routes to use but they can become a headache. Usually, simply taking the time to contact a lender before delinquency becomes a problem can lead to a payment schedule or loan term adjustment that the homeowner can agree with.

Statistical Source: The Miami Herald 6/19/08

Everyone is well aware of Miami’s downtown building oversupply, but just how bad is it? In the last six years, 22,737 units were built or are now under construction in Miami’s urban core — more than double the number built in the nearly 40 previous years, it’s a large figure, but still less than many predicted. Perhaps no section of Florida has seen more building in recent years than downtown Miami’s urban core.

However, with the housing market turning in 2006, the credit crunch of 2007, and inexperienced developers having to cope with rising construction costs & mismanagement, many proposed projects never went beyond the planning stages. With few new projects starting in the past two years, the real scope and size of Miami’s downtown condo craze is starting to come into focus. Although the downtown market still has a vast surplus of condos- it is not 50,000 or 80,000 new units, it’s estimated that 22,000 new units. The bad news is that it is still 22,000 new units.