Miami Real Estate News -
Home

South Florida home prices fall to 2003 levels; sales are up
By MATTHEW HAGGMAN - January 06, 2009
The median prices for South Florida single-family homes dropped in November to 2003 levels as residential real estate values continue to plummet, according to figures from the Florida Association of Realtors. ( view all ...)

Miami, c`est pas fini ...
By Laetitia Cénac - December 30, 2008
Débarrassée de sa patine bling-bling, Miami, plus chic que jamais, est devenue une plaque tournante de l’art contemporain et du design. Sous les palmiers, un rendez-vous ultra-fashion. Reportage. ( view all ...)

Local experts analyze real estate meltdown
December 15, 2008
Jack McCabe and Michael Cannon covered a lot of ground in their conversation about the South Florida real estate market recently at The Miami Herald. Here is a sampling: DISTRESSED PROPERTIES How bad is [the real estate market] and are the vulture investors swooping in? ( view all ...)

Forecast 2009: Your home
By STEPHEN GANDEL - December 03, 2008
The prediction: Prices will fall further before year-end. Ouch! Home prices in the nations 10 biggest metro areas are projected to keep falling in 2009, with Miami and Los Angeles suffering most. ( view all ...)

Closings better than expected for new Miami high-rise condos
By MATTHEW HAGGMAN - November 20, 2008
The number of closings at new downtown Miami condos has been better than many expected, a survey showed, but a big test still looms for the revitalizing urban center. Miami's latest building boom is creating 22,000 condominium units in the city's urban core, more than double the number built in the last 40 years. But a long-standing question remains: How long will it take for all the condos to actually sell ? ( view all ...)

Homeowners cling to false optimism about own home
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE - November 11, 2008
The housing market may have bust, but many homeowners are still living in a bubble. Despite dismal housing headlines and reports showing falling prices nationwide, owners in some once-hot areas still believe their home is gaining value or at least holding its own. And by hanging onto too-high expectations, sellers are unwittingly keeping the market from finding a bottom. Real estate professionals across the country are reporting difficulty convincing sellers the true market value of their homes. ( view all ...)

Sound Strategies for Today's Market
JUNE FLETCHER HOUSE TALK - September 24, 2008
The financial markets are shrouded in gloom, but R. Donohue Peebles is still bullish about real estate. Head of the Peebles Corporation, a Coral Gables, Fla.-based real estate investment and development firm with a $4 billion portfolio, he focuses on properties in Nevada, California, Florida and the Washington, D.C. metro area. His latest book is The Peebles Path to Real Estate Wealth: How to Make Money in Any Market (John Wiley & Sons:2008). Here's what he had to say in an interview yesterday in Vienna, Va. ( view all ...)

Florida Real Estate Bottom Signaled by Sale of Distressed Condo
By Bob Ivry - September 24, 2008
Sales of distressed Miami properties have begun, signaling a bottom for south Florida's real estate market and the end of waiting for vulture funds armed with about $30 billion to spend. The sale of 120 condominiums last month to a Philadelphia private equity firm and Related Group of Florida, a development company led by Jorge Perez, "broke the logjam" for investors targeting the oversupply of ... ( view all ...)

Condo Meltdown - Investors buy condos in bulk
By Paola Iuspa-Abbott - September 24, 2008
Ig investors eager to cash in on South Florida’s depressed condo market are starting to see their patience pay off. Developers of such far-flung projects as Ten Museum Park in downtown Miami and Keys Gate in Homestead are cutting their losses and selling blocks of empty condominiums and townhouses at significant discounts. Most of the buyers are newly formed investment funds that plan to rent their cut-rate acquisitions until values rebound, according to real estate consultant Peter Zalewski, founder of Condo Vultures Realty in Miami. ( view all ...)

Miami's condo boom falls short of expectations
By MATTHEW HAGGMAN - June 20, 2008
Miami's condo boom falls short of expectations When the dust settles, the housing boom will have produced a record number of new condos in Miami's city center, says a new report. But the building frenzy is not as supersized as some thought. ( view all ...)

Florida for Sale!
By BRETT ARENDS - May 22, 2008
NAPLES, Fla.-- You can hardly escape the real estate crash down here. Even the young woman who checked me into my hotel just lost her home. So if you are looking to buy a place, someone is going to make you a deal. The surprising twist: It isn't just at the bottom end of the market. As my colleague June Fletcher noted in March, there have been huge price drops in areas where foreclosures are at record highs. But you also see deep discounting in the snazzier parts of town. For three years, Americans have been using Web sites like Zillow to rubberneck the biggest real estate crash since the Great Depression and, maybe, to scout for values. But there's only so much the Web, or the statistics, can tell you. So I decided to come down here to see it up close. I'll be writing a series of columns over the next few days to tell you what I've learned. ( view all ...)

For offer on a home, just how low can a buyer go ?
By MARCIE GEFFNER - May 18, 2008
Reduced price is advertised on a 'for sale' sign in front of a home in Stockton, Calif. The town leads the nation in foreclosures. Home buyers are looking for a steal; home sellers are looking for an out, and builders and banks are selling homes at cut-rate prices. Combined, these conditions have triggered a wave of lowball offers to buy homes in distressed U.S. housing markets. ( view all ...)

Condo crunch in S. Florida good news for bargain hunters
By Paul Owers | South Florida Sun-Sentinel - May 18, 2008
The glut of condominiums for sale in South Florida is attracting a legion of bargain hunters. Out-of-state and international buyers are descending on the area in search of deep discounts as prices continue to crater. They want to get in now and wait out the housing slump because they think the region remains a powerful long-term draw. ( view all ...)

The Housing Crisis Is Over.
By CYRIL MOULLE-BERTEAUX - May 6, 2008
The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now... ( view all ...)

Property-tax proposal could give South Florida big savings
By MARY ELLEN KLAS - March 18, 2008
A state tax panel is offering Florida voters a historic chance to cut property taxes by eliminating taxes that pay for schools... ( view all ...)

Florida Bust Spawns vulture Culture
By Jeff D. Opdyke - March 03, 2008
Miami has a new vice: bottom-fishing for condo bargains. Home buyers from around the U.S. and abroad are descending on Florida to buy condominiums that have suffered sharp price drops amid the housing glut, subprime-mortgage crisis and credit crunch. Some are searching for investment properties, confident home prices will eventually rebound. Others are hunting for vacation or retirement homes. Yet pitfalls abound, and experts warn that prices could dip even further ... ( view all ...)

Placing a Bid On a Short Sale
By June Fletcher - February 15, 2008
Question: My husband and I are first-time home buyers and found a beautiful house being sold as a short sale. It almost seems too good to be true, and our real estate agent referred to short sales as playing a game of roulette. Are the risks and time involved with a short sale too much for us to handle as first time buyers? ... ( view all ...)

Miami Beach, FL Market Update for September 2007
10/22/2007
Here are the latest real estate market statistics for Miami Beach, FL area. These numbers represent single family home (SFR) sales only. ( view all ...)

 

As Housing in Florida Plummets, the Top Tier of the Market Just Dips
By Geraldine Fabrikant - October 27, 2007
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Oct. 20 - Despite a record number of foreclosures and a raft of public auctions of unwanted houses, the upper tier of the real estate market in Florida remains relatively immune to the spreading disaster ... ( view all ...)

 

South Florida real estate outlook
By Matthew Haggman - October 15, 2007
Jack McCabe and Michael Cannon covered a lot of ground in their nearly two-hour conversation about the South Florida real estate market last week at The Miami ... ( view all ...)

 

Miami Condo Glut Pushes Florida's Economy to Brink of Recession
By Bob Ivry - July 20, 2007
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- In the middle of the biggest glut of condominiums in more than 30 years, Miami developers keep on building The oversupply will force prices down as much as 30 percent, the worst decline since the 1970s, and help push Florida's economy into recession as early as October, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Moody's Economy.com, who owns a home in Vero Beach, Florida ... ( view all ...)

 

Miami Real Estate Market Contradictions
Diana Olick - 05/11/2007
Forbes recently listed Miami as America 's second most over priced real estate market. Now CNBC lists Miami as number 4 in its top five metro areas in (property value) appreciation. ... ( view all ...)

 

In Florida, a Home Market Still in Flux
Ernest Beck - 05/06/2007
FOR several years, the defining images of Florida's frenzied real estate boom were crowded open houses and speculators flipping preconstruction condominiums. But since the market sputtered in mid-2005, as sales fell and inventories soared, property auctions and price cutting have become commonplace. ... ( view all ...)

 

Housing Slump Pinches States in Pocketbook
The New York Times - 04/07/2007
State tax revenues around the country are growing far more slowly this year and in some cases falling below projections, a result of the housing market slowdown that has curbed voracious spending on real estate, building materials, furniture and other items. ... ( view all ...)

 

Down the Middle
By Anna Bernasek - 03/18/2007
For the past few years we've been flooded with national housing-market statistics chronicling a boom, predicting a bust. But as any homeowner knows, national numbers don't tell you much about what's happening in the local housing market. For that you have to go deeper. "What's striking if you look closer is that different patterns emerge," says Jonathan J. Miller, chief executive of the New York-based real estate appraisal and consulting firm Miller Samuel Inc. "In New York, for instance, we're finding bidding wars in some markets and prices dropping in others."... ( view all ...)

 

The Death of Real Estate Is Greatly Exaggerated, Again
By Justin Ford - 03/15/2007
Like it or not, we are entering a time when a growing number of properties will be unloaded at bargain-basement prices and a handful of investors will make a fortune. Let me explain ... The last time real estate died was in the late '80s. The Tax Reform Act of ( view all ...)

 

How Good Are Zillow's Home-Price Estimates?
By James R. Hagerty - 02/16/2007
In the year since its launch, Zillow Inc. has made millions of Americans familiar with computer-generated estimates of home values, created a new online addiction and become a staple of dinner-party chatter. But just how accurate is it? A Wall Street Journal analysis of 1,000 recent home sales shows that Zillow's "Zestimates" often are very good, frequently within a few percentage points of the actual price paid. But when Zillow is bad, it can ... ( view all ...)

 

U.S. Markets Where Home Prices Are Most Likely to Decline
By Lauren Baier Kim - 01/31/2007
Over the next two years, housing markets in California and the Northeast are the likeliest to see declines in home prices, according to PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.'s U.S. Market Risk Index, released last week. Showing the highest risk for drops in housing prices is the Sacramento, Calif, metro area ( Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, Calif. ) which has a 60.4% chance of seeing price declines, according to the ... ( view all ...)

 

Low-End of Luxury-Home Sector Shows Some Signs of Chill
By June Fletcher - 01/30/2007
As the national housing market continues to weaken, prices of homes in the $1 million range are slumping in many parts of the country. In once-golden Sunbelt cities like Miami and Santa Barbara, Calif, as well as in major Midwestern cities like St. Louis and Chicago, prices fell in the fourth quarter of 2006 from a year earlier, in some places by as much as 7.2%. In other ... ( view all ...)

 

Housing Glut Gives Buyers Upper Hand
By James R. Hagerty and Ruth Simon - 01/26/2007
Amid a continuing glut of homes for sale in most of the country, buyers should have plenty of choices and lots of bargaining power in the spring selling season typically the busiest time of the year. Many builders and real-estate brokers, for their part, hope the housing market will start recovering this year as buyers respond to price cuts and other ... ( view all ...)

 

Home prices mostly end '06 with gains
By South Florida Business - 01/26/2007
Despite all the cries about the real estate bust, year-end median prices for both existing single-family homes and existing condominiums did manage to rise in every part of South Florida , with the exception of a 1 percent drop in median single-family home prices in West Palm Beach-Boca Raton ... ( view all ...)

 

Luxury Real Estate Snapshot: Florida
By Maya Roney - 01/12/2007
Florida has been hit hard lately. Not by hurricanes but by sliding home sales and prices in this former hot market for speculators. Homes in the $10 million-plus category, however, seem to be weathering the storm. Existing single-family home sales in Florida were down 30% in November, 2006, from the previous November, according to the ... ( view all ...)

 

Think Small: Getting Started As a Real-Estate Investor
By David Crook - 01/11/2007
The real-estate bubble has burst. Get over it. In areas that saw big home-price run-ups in the first half of the decade, prices are stagnant, or worse. New-home inventories are up; new-home builder stocks are down. A kind of real-estate weariness has set in. Who's the cocktail-party boor? The guy still talking about making a killing on Miami Beach condos ... ( view all ...)