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Top 5 Miami Distressed Condo Sales in December 2008

January 6, 2009 by Lucas Lechuga
Sorry for the long hiatus. I'm back from my long vacation and ready to get back to work.  Below, you will find what I believe to be the five best condo deals of the 36 distressed sales that closed in the month of December in the MLS located in Brickell, Brickell Key, Downtown Miami and the Arts District.

  1. Four Seasons Residences - unit 3305 - 1 bedroom/1 bath (611 square feet) - This unit sold for $285,000, or $466 per square foot, on December 3, 2008.  Foreclosure

  2. Carbonell - unit 701 - 1 bedroom/1.5 bath (1,031 square feet) - This unit sold for $215,000, or $209 per square foot, on December 19, 2008. Foreclosure

  3. Three Tequesta Point - unit 1605 - 2 bedroom/2 bath (1,694 square feet) - This unit sold for $465,000, or $275 per square foot, on December 3, 2008.  Foreclosure

  4. Blue Condominium - unit 2310 - 2 bedroom/2 bath (1,174 square feet) - This unit sold for $330,000, or $281 per square foot, on December 1, 2008.  Foreclosure

  5. Cite on the Bay - unit 3502 - 3 bedroom/2 bath (1,398 square feet) - This unit sold for $230,000, or $165 per square foot, on December 10, 2008.  Short-sale

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onemortime

HAPPY NEW YEAR Lucas and welcome back.Nice Deal’s there…..any more??

DJ

Lucas, welcome back and happy new year! Looking forward to reading your blog in ’09!! If possible, I’d love to see links to the remaining 31 distressed sales from Dec.

Lucas, How much are the condo conversions going for in the suburbs now like Kendall for example.

Are they crashing back to earth faster than the Brickell Condo’s?

onemortime

Renter Tom..as a Sunny Isles resident and noteworthy expert .What would your thoughts be on the La Perla..on Collins?Does it compare with most of the other luxury building’s on the strip? Your opinion would greatly appreciated. thank you

Renter Tom

onemortime – It is my understanding that the La Perla was one of the earlier new condos to be completed….sometime in 2006 but was first proposed several years earlier (2001-2002?). It is adjacent to the Newport Beach Hotel & Resort (a fairly dated yet popular hotel) on the north and the major beach access and pier access on the south. It is nothing special regarding finishes (standard was carpet and black appliances) and amenities (what real amenities exist?) but has the advantage of being further along with its HOA than some of the very very recent buildings. The same developer… Read more »

AJ

gables, I know that water views do not make or break your decision. So I think the Cite 3 BR short sale for 230K would have been perfect for you. I think $165/sf to be next to Pace Park, sandwiched between a Luxury (Quantum) and and Ultra Luxury (Paramount), you cannot get any better than that. That is exactly why I go ballistic when some guys (you know who) put out a fatwa not to buy anything. Don’t listen to such blanket bans by these naysayers as you might lose out on some incredible deals such as these. Any one… Read more »

Renter Tom

AJ said: “Any one wanting to buy a flat to live in it never had it so good.” – Ohhhhh, it will get better as 2009 will be terrible. Did you read the Fed minutes from the meeting when the lowered the target rate to nearly zero? They are scared sh*tless about deflation in a debt laden economy. My point exactly per previous posts on asset prices in real dollars purchased with nominal dollar debt in a deflationary environment. We need some inflation……..but the demand curve has shifted permanently downward (not a cycle along the demand curve) as a result… Read more »

Renter Tom

Maybe Euros AREN’T such a bad idea…. (oppppps).

isabel

2009 has begun and so, unfortunately, has the same stale, ongoing “dialogue” between AJ and Renter Tom…(yawn)

AJ

isabel,
If you do not crawl under a rock and surface once every six months and instead regularly contribute to this blog and steer us in a different direction that you think is worth discussing about, things would not be so stale. But as usual everyone is a talker and a complainer but no one acts. It is like not voting but hoping your guy wins!

So for a change, do not clam up and express your opinion – On anything. Doesn’t even have to be related to Miami RE. Say something and spice up this “stale” blog.

AJ

Did the stock market hit the bottom? looks like it is

AJ

continuing with #11,

Why do we have 10 regular contributors and 10,000 passive readers? This new year all you girls and guys should post at least once a week if not once a day. How about that for a resolution?
That would take a little pressure off of me and RT to “entertain” you all. I know many of you open this blog the first thing (or the second) in the morning even before you open Yahoo News or your e-mail inbox 🙂

Damian

Anyone think #2012 at Marina Blue going for $127/sf was a good deal? I know it was part of a bulk sale, but does it represent a reasonable support level, if not a ‘bottom’?

The Ace

$125.00 per square foot in nigh!

The Smart Money just purchased Unit#2o12 at Marinablue for $168,600, or $127.92 per square foot. The condo has 1,318 square feet of air conditioned space. In March, Unit 2112, an identical unit a floor above, sold for $557,740, or $423.17 per square foot.

The Smart Money in action.

gerardo

HOW IS THE PLAZA ON BRICKELL DOING?

SwissLuxury.Com

AJ is right, more people should contribute their thoughts instead of lurking and then RT vs AJ would only be 15% of the blog instead of 85%…….I do think their “battle” is reflective of what is happening right now. Marina Blue sure seemed to have a lot of advantages (earlier to market, good design, tons of water views, lower price point) than the next crop: 900, Marquis, Icon, Paramount, etc and still needed a bulk sale in order to pay off the loans. It is amazing to see some of the closed prices per square foot above compared to the… Read more »

Visionary

Lucas,

What about the promised update of the condo rankings ?

Kelly Thomas

I have to agree with both AJ and RT, ok, they argue but I for one find it interesting, I find other posters like Gables, JCcrimes, Muir, Lala, Ace also worth listening to and reading, I will contribute to the site more, because I do read it. For me, my plans are still the same find a nice holiday home in Miami for my family. I live in London and as you know the pound is shocking at the moment, so those are all factors I have to take into account. We are going out to take a look at… Read more »

Generalmagic

I work and live in the Waverly Building in South Beach. Many renters have left to find better deals elsewhere as rental prices are still very high for an aging building. 1 bedrooms go for $1,800 and 2 bedrooms start at $2,400 for junk. Prices do include internet, cable, gym and parking. Only other expense is electricity. Nothing is moving and 1 bedrooms seem out of favor. Prices need to substantially decrease. In addition, very few units are selling because they are just overpriced. Only the shorts sales and foreclosures that are deals are selling.

Visionary

To all amateur economists on this blog,

Don’t think only in unidimensional patterns !

Look back what happened in the recent past.

If you are only a little familiar with the chaos theory, then you should know that the future could bring also some very unorthodox developments (not only bad ones).

Linear reflections don’t help a lot nowadays.

gables

Swiss, You have my sympathy holding that unit in Latitude. Not a great fan of the building, but have no major issues against it other than perhaps location. Right now the building should serve as a good upper working class facility. But you are now facing the major problem associated with such a building-your price point is too high for those folks to afford. To be honest, I would pay a slight premium for a 3B because of the extra living space, etc. But there is addtional cost of higher taxes and HOA for space not effectively used. This will… Read more »

gables

AJ, The Cite sale would have been of interest to me, except that I am not sure of the Cite building. Need to look up a bit more info. My preference is Brickell south to Coral Gables for personal reasons. But you now see the price point ($165 sf) which will get people like myself off of the sidelines (I recently inquired about a unit at $150 away from downtown, but sellers are dragging feet). Forget the need for direct bayview as you noted, my primary requirement is a safe and clean building which I can own a unit and… Read more »

SwissLuxury.Com

Gables, you are correct $300-500K is still a ton of money for most working folks….How many people have 60-100K for a 20% down payment???…..the only consolation we have is that we could give this unit away and still have tons of profit on our prior bubblicious sales in SoCal & at JADE in 2005…We also put WAY too much into the LATITUDE interior (New Zealand wool carpets, Dark Bamboo, Italian Bathroon Fixtures, Crown, etc), but were sick of renting after a couple years at One Miami……….Whatever unit we ultimately move to (3-4 bedrooms ultra lux building minimum 2,000 square feet),… Read more »

gables

Swiss, Glad to hear you are not in a desperate situation and can consider any loss on the unit as just a reduction of profit from your other units. I’d be more than happy to help you write of the loss with an offer of $150 sf to take the property off your hands 🙂 Your logic of upgrades is of interest to me. It seems to me too many people did not properly account for the cost of upgrades and corresponding assessment value. In essence, it seems like many people thought a $30k flooring upgrade would be an instant… Read more »

gables

Swiss, Not really sure what to expect at the new ultra luxury buildings such as Epic, Icon, etc. The cost to even get a contract seems to be quite high-probably keeping many of the scam speculators out of the game. I am sure plenty of speculators exist, but they are probably high net worth investors who may not be forced into foreclosures and walkaways quite so easily. My guess is they will lock their cash into an overpriced unit and suffer a loss on ROI rather than take a straight loss on the capital. These are probably the folks who… Read more »

gables

Lucas,
If you can find me a similar priced unit in Carbonell as listed above, let me know. I would consider that the best deal in the list. It certainly got my attention.

podzila

Lucas, do you have information about the ArteCity project in Miami Beach?
is the developer in trouble?
will the project ever finish?
thx

Renter Tom

Well, with newbie already saying we’ll have Trillion Dollar deficits for YEARS and the 2009 deficit could be $1.2-$2 Trillion (yes, two trillion) we are now entering into insanity land. Who will finance such deficits? Certainly not the American people since their wealth and savings have recently waned. On the one hand the fed govt will complain about credit availability to consumers and businesses but then on the other hand they will absorb all the available credit that is out there….and cause interest rates to rise which is an indirect “tax” on the American people. How are mortgage rates going… Read more »

Hugo P

Gables (#27)

I agree with you. I have been looking at that building for a while but want a 2/2 at least. Lucas, let me know.

Thanks

Raffi

The Four seasons unit sounds good to me. You can’t go wrong buying in the best building. In the future once all this panes out the best buildings will be the ones where units will be able to sell fast in. This will happen because they distinguish themselves from all the other cookie-cutter holes called condos. And you can’t argue that the Four seasons is not the best building. Ace you made a great buy, I was one of your early doubters that you would be able to find 125 sq/ft in a building such as marina blue. Great buy,… Read more »

SwissLuxury.Com

Gables, One Miami has a great location but wasn’t built originally as a luxury building…….should have used glass on the balcony’s marble in the bathrooms instead of ceramic tile, etc……that said, if you can buy in there for $150-175 psf you would be getting a nice lifestyle without spending what many other did to get in there……Carbonell is in a whole other class and is a building we would consider for a permanent residence…..VERY hard to get a good price there as Swire sort of controls the island, but the Key is not immune to larger economic forces and you… Read more »

Miami2009

Carbonell at just over 200 sq/ft is good deal. I really like Brickell Key, safe and upscale. Would love to see more deals like this and of course the Marina Blue deal that Ace scooped up. Great buy Ace!

AZ88

The deals listed above look good; however, how realistic is it to get one?

I’ve spoken with a couple realtor friends, (and read somewhere in the blog a few posts back) and have heard its a nightmare trying to put in an offer for a foreclosure. The “deals” are almost impossible to get, due to multiple offeres, insider dealing, etc. Does anyone have any feedback or experiences in getting a “good deal” with a foreclosure?

Thx.

Renter Tom

Raffi – Ace didn’t buy, he was quoting a recent sale to someone that was smart with their money…..at least that is how I read his post.

Mark(not zilbert)

Az88, here’s how you get those deals….wait a few months and then the deals at 150 to 200/sf become common place. Insiders have by that time started getting deals at 80 to 125/sf and so on.

Carlton

Hey ace….i am really interested in getting a good deal. For example the marina blue unit that you bought…..please inform us

gables

the foreclosure deals are going to get easier to find in the future. most folks with cash and an itchy trigger finger have bought up the recent units thinking it was the bottom. these were mostly investor types. the rest of the cash on the sidelines are resident types, and will not buy so hastily. as time goes on, there will be less “insider” buying as they have already spent their cash. on the flip side, the difference between my buy and an insiders buy will be minimized as we push towards that ever elusive bottom. the great thing is… Read more »

lara

AZ88, One has to put multiple offers on different apartments in order to get 1 through. I would estimate about 15-20% success rate. Obviously you have put down an inspection period where you can cancel the deal for whatever reason. It is very competitive out there. A lot of deals go through for about 10-15% above the asking price. Is it realistic? Yes. Dous it require focus and persistence? yes. Also someone at the beginning asked about La Perla building. I was at the beginning of this project in 2001. Resold some of the apartments and still have 1 left.… Read more »

bubbleRefuge

RT, you don’t understand the way money works. The Fed government can run 100Trillion dollar deficits if it wants to. It doesn’t need anyone to finance it and it doesn’t influence interest rates. Government debt only exists to control interest rates by draining or adding reserves to the system not to finance government. In fact if the government didn’t issue any debt at all and just paid interest on reserve balances, their would be no need for treasury notes and bills at all. Also the deficit in the WWII reach 25% of GDP with is about 7 times what it… Read more »

Hugo P

An interesting real situation to analyze: I just heard from a buddy of mine that owns a 2/2 unit in the Brickell Bay Club condo (renting it out), that the association just passed a special assessment of $550/month for 36 months to replace the A/C and some other work. With this assessment, he says he will pay over $1,200/month in HOA fees! I believe he bought around 2003. He is renting it out at $2k/month and he says that with this special asessment, it is costing him $2k/month to carry the unit! Think about what that will do to pricing!… Read more »

Renter Tom

bubbleRefuge – Sorry I can’t entertain your tin foil hat theories….the fed govt does not create wealth by printing money or issuing debt instruments. I don’t think you have convinced anyone on this blog. With respect to La Perla….decent building, not luxury, 30% currently for sale or rent, very poor hallway finishes, underwhelming lobby… too small really. Four elevators plus service elevator for approx 330 units on around 43 floors. Worth $250/s.f. probably with best units worth $300/s.f. I heard a large special assessment ($3-5K/unit) is coming…not unexpected given the fact that the developer didn’t finish stuff. At one point… Read more »

MBer

what does this do to my investment? January 5, 2009, 1:56pm EST | Modified: Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 12:00am Bulk buyer snags 60 units at Marina Blue A Singer Island-based group has paid nearly $13 million for 60 units at the Marina Blue high-rise across from American Airlines Arena inMiami. The deal was recorded in separate deed transactions between developer MistTowers – a subsidiary of Miami-based Hyperion Development – and buyer Welcome Bay on Dec. 24. Joseph Kuharcik, an attorney in Palm Beach County who represented the buyer, declined to comment. Hyperion Development could not be reached immediately for comment.… Read more »

Stephan

The 1/1 price at Four Seasons is striking.

Wonder what the condo fees might be on that one?

Cheers,

Visionary,

Thanks for the reminder. I’ve been swamped since I got back. I’ll try to get to it within the next couple of days.

Muir

Hugo,
thx for post#41

[email protected]
Lucas, How much are the condo conversions going for in the suburbs now like Kendall for example.
Are they crashing back to earth faster than the Brickell Condo’s?
🙂 surely you jest.
OOoops, your name is not Sherly.
I apologize.

Renter Tom

Muir – Apartment to condo conversions are the worst performers I have ever seen. A 50% drop is lucky as 80% drops occur. Really really really poor investments. The only thing worse I suppose would be apartment to condo-hotels….if those happened. They make timeshares look like gold!

Poor & Unemployed

Lucas,

Wishing you Happy and prosperous New Year!

Are these 5 best condo deals – best in December 2008 or they are best for the time to come?

Do you believe that the prices will not fall any further in these buildings?

Stephan

«Wonder what the condo fees might be on that one»

Never mind it’s on the listing. $480. Seems low for 611 sq. feet.

The Ace

Raffi is correct Renter Tom.

Carlton, getting a great deal in this market and in particular Miami is rather easy but it does require patience and tenacity. I’ve been stating on here for two years that high end Luxury Condo prices will fall to $125.00 per square foot yet many fools doubted me and still doubt me so they continue to pay above $200.00 and even $300.00 and in moments of complete lunacy even above $400.00 per sq ft.

$125.00 per square foot or walk away, that simple!

The Smart Money

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