143 responses so far ↓

• 1 ctvlateta /Mar 14, 2008 at 6:43 pm  Vote:    

  No way. I would hold for under $200/sf. Their maintenance cost its too high. Besides the worst its still yet to come.

• 2 jcrimes /Mar 14, 2008 at 8:01 pm  Vote:    

  lucas
  how do you figure that this is a good price?

• 3 Mr Flamingo South Beach /Mar 14, 2008 at 8:40 pm  Vote:    

  LUCAS: Let’s make a competition… First Person to drop a comment on your next post gets a FREE lunch with you….

• 4 Wild Bill /Mar 14, 2008 at 8:44 pm  Vote:    

  Property: 218 SE 14 ST TS105
  Sale Information:
  Sale Date: 1/2007
  Sale Amount: $950,000

  Assessment Information:Year: 2007
  Market Value: $455,800
  Assessed Value: $455,800
  Total Exemptions: $0
  Taxable Value: $455,800
  2007 Taxes $ 10326.19

  Can anybody look up orginal sale price on MLS?
  One 2/2 in 2006 went for 495,000, 1bed went for high 300,000. Cannot understand humongous difference in prices from one year. 2008 Unit 1208 a 1/1 826 sq. ft. sold for $700,000. Yet 2306 1/1 is listed at $299,000.

• 5 Lawsuit Charley /Mar 14, 2008 at 8:57 pm  Vote:    

  Way over priced………………..especially compared to other short sales in this particular building.

• 6 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 14, 2008 at 9:35 pm  Vote:    

  Lawsuit Charley,

  What other short-sales are you referencing? This is the best priced 2 bedroom in the building and it’s a tower suite with a direct view of the bay. The even numbered units in the building don’t have a direct view of the bay. The one bedroom units that are listed have a horrible view.

• 7 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 14, 2008 at 9:37 pm  Vote:    

  Mr. Flamingo,

  Deal! But if the next person to leave a comment resides in another state or country then you have to pay for their airfare. Deal?

• 8 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 14, 2008 at 9:39 pm  Vote:    

  Wild Bill,

  The MLS doesn’t show the original sales price when it is sold through the developer. You’ll find that on the county website. It’ll take at least 2 hours to find that info though.

• 9 perez /Mar 14, 2008 at 10:55 pm  Vote:    

  Original purchaser paid $536,600 on Sept. 2006. He found a cash buyer and sold it Feb. 2007 for $950,000. That’s ~185% return per annum on a 2007 sale. Now the unit is for sale for 47% less a year later.

  Now that’s what I call timing! Let’s hear from that guy!

• 10 Buyer Tom /Mar 14, 2008 at 11:19 pm  Vote:    

  Could fraud have been involved here?

• 11 BFG /Mar 14, 2008 at 11:48 pm  Vote:    

  perez - If it was a “cash buyer”, then it wouldn’t be a short sale.

  There are 2 mortgages on this:

  OR 25374-1371 - $760,000
  OR 25374-1398 - $190,000

  TOTAL: $950,000

  Yes - it looks like fraud to me. 2007 was already a crappy year for real estate sales. There is no way something would legitimately sell for more in 2007 than in 2006.

• 12 Buyer Tom /Mar 15, 2008 at 12:08 am  Vote:    

  No wonder car sales are down. With all this fraud, a bet a LOT of money went to buy big expensive vehicles. Now that’s stopped.

• 13 Mr Waverly /Mar 15, 2008 at 12:58 am  Vote:    

  Fraud written all over this puppy.. Cash? give me a break.. Do the math people, this is a clear example of fraud. Fraud on the way up and I am now wondering about fraud on the way down.
  Waverly #704 had been listed for sale just above $500K.. All of a sudden the property was quit claimed to Resurrection Equities. Now the Management is telling me the unit was sold as a short sale just below $350K.
  The unit was never offered on the open market at that price and the Lender would never allow this crap.
  The unit is all of a sudden offered for rent at below market as well.
  C’mon Miami Dade Fraud Task Force, get your heads out of your a$$ and start protecting consumers.

• 14 Richard /Mar 15, 2008 at 8:54 am  Vote:    

  Remember the old days when you had to have a down payment and show where it came from. Guess “Underwriting” has been on vacation for a few years.

• 15 BFG /Mar 15, 2008 at 10:30 am  Vote:    

  The owner of this unit looks like they were involved in a bunch of properties. They would buy a unit, finance it 100%, and then later quit-claim it (using a self-made quitclaim deed) to someone else.

  What’s the idea behind the quitclaim deed? I’ve seen this in other mortgage fraud cases, but I didn’t understand it. What does that do for the owner of the property? I know it likely isn’t legal to deed property to someone else without paying off the mortgages (unless you’re adding or subtracting a name, like a marriage or divorce). Anyone have any insight on this?

• 16 perez /Mar 15, 2008 at 10:40 am  Vote:    

  BFG, thanks for correcting my mistake, it was not a cash deal. The owners last name was spelled differently on the mortgages than on the deed, and I didn’t find the mortgages.

  This doesn’t appear to be a case of an unsophisticated buyer overpaying. This owner has about 5 other properties, and has been buying and selling for many years in the area.

  This may be a good case study. Could someone check the MLS and see what the asking price was prior to the Feb. 2007 sale for $950,000?

• 17 Buyer Tom /Mar 15, 2008 at 10:41 am  Vote:    

  I would speculate that someone using a quit claim deed does so in order to transfer the property without paying off the mortgage. Either both the seller and buyer are involved in fraud or just the seller with a really dumb buyer. I think this type of thing was mentioned recently in the Chicago Tribune. Needless to say, it can make the foreclosure process a bit more complicated with competing ownership interests, combine that with what company really holds the mortgage note and it could be a long drawn out affair. I am for putting these types of fraudsters in prison and make them work off their debt at $5 per hour.

  I can give you a quit-claim deed for any property you want….even the Brooklyn Bridge….since I don’t warrant that I actually own any interest in it.

  In the alternative, it could be, but doubt it, that X&Y were part of a Company. X is out so X quit-claims his interest, whatever it may be, to Y. Also used in divorce situations, etc.

  It is a HUGE red flag however.

• 18 Buyer Tom /Mar 15, 2008 at 10:46 am  Vote:    

  I recently looks at leasing a brand new $1.8M condo on the beach (listing price). I looked up the owner (who apparently live in South America). He was not the original owner of this brand new condo. X bought the condo and has a $1M mortgage. X quit-claimed his interest to Y but the mortgage remains (and the mortgagee (lender) may be unaware of the transaction) and Y would like to lease to me. I don’t think I am going to lease. I can lease it for $4K/month yet I am told it costs Y $14K per month. There could be private financing going on here, I don’t know. But it is a concern. I couldn’t find any other shady transactions with X and Y so it may just be a private arrangement?

• 19 perez /Mar 15, 2008 at 10:49 am  Vote:    

  Here’s what’s happened with the lender.

  http://ml-implode.com/imploded/lender_HomefieldFinancial_2007-04-12.html

  But I haven’t found the actual forclosure action, is it not in foreclosure?

• 20 Generalmagic /Mar 15, 2008 at 11:22 am  Vote:    

  Buyer Tom,

  Check public records to see if they are paying their mortgage and are current with their HOA dues. If not, the unit could go to foreclosure, and people will be knocking on your door.

• 21 Sideliner /Mar 15, 2008 at 11:44 am  Vote:    

  BUYER TOM…..I can smell drug money in that condo from here.

• 22 Buyer Tom /Mar 15, 2008 at 11:45 am  Vote:    

  Hey - Where can I look that information up on? Link? Thanks.

  I was looking at this one (unfurnished) where I’d have to buy furniture for the 2,500 s.f.+ unit but can lease at 1/3 the cash cost. Or a professionally decorated and furnished brand new 1,600 s.f.+ unit turnkey at 1/2 the cash cost. I’m supposed to sign a lease on the smaller one soon….but would really like the larger one, but I guess I don’t really need that much space and the later is turnkey with brand new dishes, linens, etc.

• 23 Buyer Tom /Mar 15, 2008 at 11:50 am  Vote:    

  Sideliner - I didn’t get that impression from the realtor. There is a $1M mortgage note still and they had moved in their own furniture with wedding photos (the large unit) and were a bit distressed about not being able to get more than say $4K a month for it. But who knows?

• 24 Buyer Tom /Mar 15, 2008 at 11:50 am  Vote:    

  My concern really is default. But who knows I could be naive.

• 25 Mike K /Mar 15, 2008 at 1:32 pm  Vote:    

  Off Topic:

  Allow me to share an email I just recieved from Mercedes Benz of Coral Gables…

  Dear Valued Customer,

  Due to a recent opportunity to purchase a select number of lease returns, Mercedes-Benz of Coral Gables is currently offering unprecedented specials on these Certified Preowned Mercedes-Benz automobiles (most of which have low mileage and are in perfect condition).

  Additionally, in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz Financial, we are able to offer qualifying clients an interest rate as low as 1.9% on selected models (an all time low rate) as well as a Certified Preowned Warranty up to 100,000 miles.

  This is a truly unique promotion that won’t last long. If you are interested in taking advantage of this special opportunity, please let me know as soon as you can because the situation will change as the inventory becomes depleted. Of course, this offer is based on approved credit and is offered to us for a limited time.

  Wow…Looks like all this free money wasn’t free after all. So many “wannabees” in this town are finally getting back to reality.

• 26 Mr. Waverly /Mar 15, 2008 at 1:51 pm  Vote:    

  Range Rover sent me an offer like this.

• 27 carbonblackcab /Mar 15, 2008 at 2:52 pm  Vote:    

  Mike K: Premium car sales are hurting and they are offering super deals right now. The 100K warrentny they are offering … well on my M3 convertible, it cost me $6K (warrenty + maintenance) to get that. The fact that they are offering super deals WITH warrenty and 1.9% financing is awesome. Too bad I am not in the market for a new car.

  On a related note, I have friends in SOCAL who are waiting for hot deals on high end Mercs, bimmers and porsche. There are a lot of people who bought these cars using home equity and will have to sell or have them repossessed. I have been checking prices on eBay and I dont see any noticable reduction in prices.

• 28 Grandpa Stu /Mar 15, 2008 at 7:34 pm  Vote:    

  A thought for all you of (fellow) conspiracy theorists. If I were a broker who wanted some time to have a no co-broker sale (and have no MLS commission share to pay) I’d misspell the condo name and scew up the zip code, too. This is all supposition, of course, and I’m making no allegations. But such a broker could tell the seller, truthfully, that the condo was listed on MLS for a month, and there was little or no interest. His/her Uncle Louie could then make a truly lowball offer. Again, I know nothing more than what I just read on the blog, but two mistakes put Lucas off the scent, and I can’t believe that a broker would miss both “typos”. Anyone could blow a zip code, but emerald is a common noun that any spellchecker should flag.

• 29 The Ace /Mar 15, 2008 at 9:59 pm  Vote:    

  With 25,000 Miami Condos coming on line over the next two years, I don’t know about you lot but the smart money is holding out for $125.00 per foot.

• 30 Buyer Tom /Mar 15, 2008 at 11:33 pm  Vote:    

  According to a cnn.money.com article, “Wholesale Access has estimated that all these changes (in the mortgage market) mean 30% to 40% of borrowers who could have qualified for a CONVENTIONAL mortgage a year ago can no longer do so.” (emphasis added)

  I don’t know about you, but that makes it very clear that many more people will go into foreclosure…..many many many more…. since people won’t be able to sell or refinance.

• 31 Mortgage Fraud /Mar 16, 2008 at 12:06 am  Vote:    

  For all you guys with some free time, you can run circles around the Mortage Fraud Task Force.

  perez is already doing some good work…

  The following site will give you the current unit owner if you have an address you suspect:

  http://gisims2.miamidade.gov/myhome/proptext.asp?folio=&vbMakeLink=

  Once you know the current owner you can look up how it was financed, previous owners, etc. here [I don't know why it is currently down]:

  http://www.miami-dadeclerk.com/public-records/default.asp

  Then you just play connect the dots. It’s amazing how quickly the patterns reveal themselves. In general, the most expensive flips in any given building are going to involve the same names.

  No idea what the cops are up to…

  And with respect to MCZ/Centrum on a recent post here. Googgle “builder bailout” then go snoop around the sales on their porperties in Aventura.

  Since the Dade clerk’s site is down, feel free to play in Broward…it’s just as dirty…

  http://www.bcpa.net/RecMenu.asp

  Their website’s a little better; there are actually links from the results of a specific property search to historical deeds.

  By the way, folks who are defrauding banks tend to make it a “best practice” to spell their names as many different ways as possible when recording documents. perez– not a shocker that the mortgage was not recorded with the exact same name.

  Also, if properties are being flipped through LLCs, etc. you can usually get some info on the corps at sunbiz.org

• 32 Mortgage Fraud /Mar 16, 2008 at 12:27 am  Vote:    

  …but you can’t put anyone in jail. D’oh!

  BTW… all of you eggheads on here should be reading this blog:

  http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/

• 33 Cyrus /Mar 16, 2008 at 12:10 pm  Vote:    

  again, unless you are a family that wants to LIVE in these properties or can afford to keep it as a 2nd home w/o having to rent them out - the best time to start buying any of these units is when you see 3 consecutive months of declining inventory due to sales, not properties being taken off the market. this is a very simple concept … but gets muddled up when you mix in human emotions and sales tactics on the masses.

  there is such a lockdown right now in the credit markets that the only way you can buy properties is to be a ‘cash buyer’. even high credit quality right now is questioned.

  back in the “VUE ON BRICKELL” topic that lucan posted, i mentioned (comment #48) to keep an eye on BEAR STEARNS. this was approx. 2 weeks ago and they would’ve gone bust on friday if not for the fed’s bailout. there is no reason to buy anything right now until things clear up. real estate is not bouncing anytime soon. having said this…there WILL be a great time to buy up everything…we’re just not there.

• 34 Cyrus /Mar 16, 2008 at 12:17 pm  Vote:    

  ….one more thing to think about: if the markets are placing a tremendous risk premium on AAA rated municipal bonds, what shot does illiquid real estate have (again, from an ‘investors’ pt of view).

  if a muni market can get locked up, you’d be nuts to buy any real estate…once liquidity returns to the liquid mkts…then maybe it’ll trickle into illiquid mkts…

• 35 perez /Mar 16, 2008 at 12:51 pm  Vote:    

  What was the asking price in early ‘07 of this unit which was purchased from developer for $536,600 in ‘06, then resold in ‘07 for $950,000?

  Since lender who loaned 100% has gone out of business, who has authority to approve a short sale?

  If this is a fraud, why hasn’t a foreclosure action been initiated, I find it hard to believe that the buyer has been dutifully paying this big mortgage payment on this way overpriced unit.

• 36 jcrimes /Mar 16, 2008 at 1:42 pm  Vote:    

  lucas
  i don’t think you can establish that this is a “deal” in any sense of the word. if anything, this past friday’s events are just more steps toward a major shakeout which will not trickle down to the south florida real estate market, but instead, will drown it.

• 37 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 16, 2008 at 7:53 pm  Vote:    

  BREAKING NEWS:

  Bears Stearns gets acquired by JPMorgan Chase for $2 per share. Bear Stearns closed at $30 per share on Friday and was trading in the fifties Friday morning. This is a huge story.

  http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/16/news/companies/jpmorgan_bear_stearns/index.htm?postversion=2008031619

• 38 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:16 pm  Vote:    

  Yep - Saw that, not a surprise except for the share price. It could have been worse, BS could have been a condo flipper that bought in 2006!

• 39 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:18 pm  Vote:    

  The bigger news is the Feds emergency rate cut. My concern has been that the Fed is a tad behind the curve. I would prefer that they be just ahead of it instead…

  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fed-cuts-discount-rate/story.aspx?guid=%7B3D168510%2D4A22%2D4F0B%2D9E52%2DECE3672E3E9F%7D

• 40 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:23 pm  Vote:    

  Buyer Tom,

  The share price was a HUGE surprise to me. It traded as high as $159 per share last year. To me, this means that Bear Stearns went bust. Their name and their client-base is worth at least $2 per share, in my mind.

• 41 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:30 pm  Vote:    

  Another story below. Unsurprisingly after the latest cut in the discount rate and the fire sale of BSC, the US Dollar tumbles:

  http://dailybriefing.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/03/16/bear-sale-fed-moves-send-dollar-tumbling/

• 42 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:35 pm  Vote:    

  $2 is pretty surprising, but when you can’t meet your obligations….$2 is better than nothing. I’m glad I didn’t own any of it directly…. A lot of smart people can’t fix a bad balance sheet when there’s a run on the brokerage. This will cause real fear. We’re in for pretty nasty little recession that will clear out a lot of leveraged people and firms. No wonder gold has been going up and up….the real estate safe haven is gone and so is the strong dollar. I blame it all on the Realtors® (just kidding ).

• 43 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:38 pm  Vote:    

  Well, our exports will go be going up………but do we make anything anymore? LOL

• 44 jcrimes /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:48 pm  Vote:    

  this isn’t really big news…bear was going down, it was just a matter of when. the price isn’t so much of a surprise when you consider bear is sitting on $30 billion of level 3 assets.

• 45 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 8:53 pm  Vote:    

  With more rate cuts to come and more Florida condo price reductions coming too, it will be a great time to buy in 2010! (yes, I know the Fed rates aren’t directly tied to long term mortgage rates….but the rate cuts are indicative of the global recession to come which will reduce commodity prices, etc. and with inflation down the rates will be lower for long term borrowing). Don’t try an catch that falling knife…….

• 46 jcrimes /Mar 16, 2008 at 9:17 pm  Vote:    

  BT
  2010? try 2015. as for the fed doing more, i’m not sure what else they can do. lowering the discount rate and fed funds rate doesn’t do much when it’s no longer a liquidity issue but instead, a collateral issue. if people don’t have faith in the underlying collateral, then they won’t extend credit. i don’t really know how the fed can stabilize asset values when the market is insisting that they trend back to their fundamental values.

• 47 Mortgage Fraud /Mar 16, 2008 at 9:29 pm  Vote:    

  Crazy. 52 week high in excess of $150/share is one thing. But BSC had market cap of $6 BILLION on THURSDAY. This just turned into $236 million. Poof!

• 48 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 9:29 pm  Vote:    

  I’m glad I decided to rent…….

  jcrimes - I agree, it could be 2015 by the time the real estate prices hit bottom…but I sure hope it doesn’t drag out that long….

• 49 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 16, 2008 at 9:32 pm  Vote:    

  A radio show this afternoon was talking about the price of gas. They were talking about why the price of gas has been going up. There hasn’t been a decrease in supply or an increase in demand so what’s going on? The answer is that the value of the US Dollar has been going down. It now costs US oil refineries more US Dollars to purchase the same amount of oil. Their increased cost gets passed onto consumers, hence the increase in prices at the pump.

  Everything will eventually balance out in the long run, however. There will be more foreigners visiting the US because goods and services will be relatively cheap. People residing in the US will be less likely to travel abroad because goods and services abroad will seem very expensive. Foreign countries will increase imports from the US because our goods and services will be a bargain, in relative terms. The US will be less likely to import foreign goods because the prices will seem expensive.

  The big negative, however, is that foreign countries, if they feel that the US Dollar will continue to drop, will be less likely to invest and open new businesses in the US. We do not want investment dollars in the US to dry up.

• 50 jcrimes /Mar 16, 2008 at 9:36 pm  Vote:    

  it’s actually frustrating. i want to buy but (1) i want a good deal and (2) i don’t want to get burned. problem is that the timing of these criteria look to be several years off. amazingly, i own an investment property but still can’t buy a primary residence.

• 51 Jeremy /Mar 16, 2008 at 10:19 pm  Vote:    

  Buyer Tom, I am usually in agreement with your posts but you are missing the point about long term interest rates. A falling dollar means only one thing for long term interest rates, that they will go higher. The “nightmare scenario” that many economists have predicted for quite some time is that if foreign governments lose interest in US dollar denominated assets and stop purchasing US treasuries, long term US interest rates will have to go up substantially to fund our deficits. What we are seeing now could be the beginning of that. So I don’t think anyone should expect lower long term interest rates anytime soon as long as the dollar is falling. We could see mortgage rates above 10% if this continues. Let’s see how that affects our little slice of heaven here in the miami condo markets.

• 52 Jeremy /Mar 16, 2008 at 10:28 pm  Vote:    

  All kidding aside, a crisis has developed in the value of the US $ tonight.

  The US $ Index (DX) has slumped again to a new all-time low of 70.81 (!) as at 11:01 PM EST and plunging hard.

  This is looking like capital flight, with the size of those red candle-sticks, someone’s are dumping huge amounts of $.

  Which makes some kind of intervention (again) by CB’s to try to stem the plunge. They better hurry if that is the intention.

• 53 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 10:44 pm  Vote:    

  Jeremy - I don’t disagree with your assessment. My opinion is that while U.S. dollar has gone down, the other currencies will follow resulting in the dollar going back up in relation to what are now strong currencies such as the Euro….in other words we’re leading this downturn and they rest will follow. At least that is what I hope!

• 54 Buyer Tom /Mar 16, 2008 at 11:04 pm  Vote:    

  I sure hope this results in federal government spending reductions….

• 55 Cyrus /Mar 16, 2008 at 11:08 pm  Vote:    

  it’s not just oil that’s exploded because of the devalued dollar (thanks to the fed cuts) but it’s every dollar denominated commodity. nothing to do w/supply and demand so all the “china and indian consumers” people…please…

  again, back to lucas’ “VUE ON BRICKELL” post…(comment 48), i mentioned that BEAR STEARNS and possibly a bank (washington mutual, wachovia, citi or bank america) are going to go bust. $2 was the price because no other bank other JPM (mkt cap of 120 bil) is in a strong position to buy anyone…they’re worried about cost cuts instead of going on a buying spree.

  this will turn out big for JPM as they only bought them for $270 mil - their prime brokerage biz netted $566 mil last yr on 1.2 bil rev. so even if they jettison the rest of the garbage, it’s a huge win…JPM will net $1 bil their 1st yr from this purchase.

  back to condos….sellers better start opening their eyes! problem is that most of them probably have no clue what’s going on in the mkts…which is exactly the problem - so now that liquidity is gone…good luck. shave 30% off these prices and there still won’t be much of a bid there … greed can kill pigs.

• 56 Julian /Mar 17, 2008 at 1:18 am  Vote:    

  Ah. So all those super smart people winking and nodding that EUR investors are coming in their droves. Well from just two weeks you’d be massively underwater in your currency bet, underwater in your illiquid real estate asset. Oh what fools. As I said at the time, don’t take us Europeans as idiots.

  When the Fed buys masses of outstanding mortgage securities (i.e. the taxpayer bails out this mess) and the $ crashes - now THAT will be the time to buy. Not before.

• 57 psn /Mar 17, 2008 at 11:40 am  Vote:    

  in response to comment 15:

  A quitclaim deed is a deed that simply disclaims *any* interest that 1 party (the Grantor or Seller) has in a piece of property and passes that claim of interest to another party (the Grantee or Buyer). There is no claim of warranty or any assurance that the Grantor’s interest in the property is unencumbered, or that any interest passes at all - it conveys whatever (if any) interest in the property.

  “Legit” quitclaim deeds are used often enough for inter-family sales/gifts and by individuals looking to transfer property into real estate trusts, or small corporate entities - but I think it’s safe to presume these transactions are far from “legit!”

  Most property transfers are done by warranty deed, a deed in which the Grantor/Seller warrants that he has clear title to the property and has the right to convey that property (the guarantee of clear title extends all the way back to the origin of the property).

• 58 BFG /Mar 17, 2008 at 12:46 pm  Vote:    

  psn - I know exactly what a quitclaim deed is. The question was how people use them to perpetuate a mortgage fraud. Haven’t had any detailed, satisfactory answers to that, yet.

  Regarding Bear Stearns - this is indeed a big deal. One of the (formerly) most respected names on Wall Street went from almost $100/share earlier this year to basically zero overnight. Global stock markets tanked overnight in response to this.

  If Bear Stearns can fail this spectacularly, who is next? Fear in the markets has to be higher than even in response to this. Any stock market rallies you see over the next week or so will simply be shorts covering - not investors being “encouraged” by Fed moves. Every move the Fed has made so far has failed. The Fed can’t fix this mess, but I’m sure they will try. So far, they’re striking out big time. It’s getting comical how panicked the Fed has become. They are scared, big-time.

  By the way, Bear Stearns was not a bank - and yet the Fed just bailed them out of total bankrupcy to the tune of $30B. The Fed has not made a move like this since the Great Depression. Seems the sh@t is really starting to hit the fan. It will be an interesting year, that’s for sure.

• 59 lara /Mar 17, 2008 at 1:31 pm  Vote:    

  there is nothing comical about how feds react. It is very worrysome. Yes they are trying to prevent domino effect. Noone knows exactly what to do.

  Let’s elaborate a little bit about the upcoming auction. I would like to get some thoughts from you local guys. any predictions on competition and if prices are going to double -triple from the initial bids?

  Does it worth even a try?

  Thank you

• 60 Jeremy /Mar 17, 2008 at 2:51 pm  Vote:    

  Very interesting article today by Princeton economist Paul Krugman in Fortune.

  http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/14/news/economy/krugman_subprime.fortune/index.htm

  Here is what he says about home prices in miami and La……based on the difference between incomes, rental rates, and sales prices, which ultimately will come into balance. In places like Houston or Atlanta, where home prices have not risen much compared with underlying rents, the decline will be relatively small. In places like Miami or Los Angeles, you could be looking at 40% or 50% declines. What this means to the Miami condo market if he is correct…………as they say……”look out below”.

• 61 SNOWMAN /Mar 17, 2008 at 4:50 pm  Vote:    

  I’d like to know what KEVIN TOMLINSON has to say about that one Jeremy.He was telling someone I know that price’s are amazing now and NOW is the time to BUY.I guess that is just part of the pitch.In the meantime ..I think we should wait to see what happen’s next month.LOOK OUT BELOW.

• 62 Cyrus /Mar 17, 2008 at 6:16 pm  Vote:    

  as far as KEVIN - you can’t blame him for any of this because it’s the nature of sales itself. you can’t predict where markets go…this is why any sales related job has to be basically bullish…either short term or long term…whether it’s stocks/real estate, etc…

  it’s always the right time to buy…whether it’s 1999, 2005 or now…the pitch is usually the same.

  sometimes it works…sometimes it doesn’t…ultimately, the consumer has to smarten up and decide whether it’s the right time for him/her to buy … the salesperson will never talk you out of a sale. it’s dumb to think this …

• 63 brian /Mar 17, 2008 at 6:51 pm  Vote:    

  Never in the history of the Realtor has it ever been a time “not to buy.” They just spin the reasons why. I think they have a chart based on how bad the market it, and a list of reasons why to buy. Its like a “roledex” of excuses that salespeople have to counter any answer.

• 64 Buyer Tom /Mar 17, 2008 at 7:12 pm  Vote:    

  brian - I thought that was a sworn secret among the Realtors®.

• 65 Samir Patel /Mar 17, 2008 at 10:02 pm  Vote:    

  25% property tax cut will be on the November ballot:
  http://www.nbc6.net/politics/15620228/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

• 66 Lucas Lechuga /Mar 17, 2008 at 10:46 pm  Vote:    

  That would be excellent if that goes through.

• 67 Mike K /Mar 18, 2008 at 8:28 am  Vote:    

  I don’t think a tax cut is very good idea right now. The consumer is already on the ropes and adding an additional 1% inflation to the total price of goods is not a good thing. It’s also harder to forecast a budget because a drop in consumer spending will directly lower revenues. The last thing this State needs is a large budget deficit…

• 68 Mr Flamingo South Beach /Mar 18, 2008 at 8:54 am  Vote: