The #1 Miami Real Estate Website

CBS4 Reports on the Downtown Miami Condo Market Turnaround

May 10, 2011 by Lucas Lechuga

Downtown Miami Condos


For those who missed it earlier this evening, CBS4 aired a segment entitled "Is Downtown Miami's Condo Market on the Rebound?".  CBS4 reporter, David Sutta, highlighted the recent sellout of the Viceroy Tower at Icon Brickell and interviewed our very own, of the Miami Condo Investments team, to get his perspective regarding the dwindling condo inventory in Downtown Miami. He compares the condo inventory at the peak of the market to the inventory that now exists. Over the past year, prices have begun to rebound in Downtown Miami as inventory has been swallowed up predominantly by foreign buyers. There is no reason to believe that the market turnaround will reverse course anytime soon as new condo inventory in Downtown Miami is years away from hitting the market.

 

90
Leave a Reply

78 Comment threads
12 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
15 Comment authors
newest oldest most voted

Great Clip & Publicity LL & ML.. Michael’s cracking crane jokes and selling out Downtown! {3k condos same as Miami Beach w/3,210 remaining}

Makes Me Think

could this mean the next bubble is around the corner?

@SoBeAgent

That’s not possible. The reason the bubble burst in the first place was due to the over abundance of new condo towers built in such a short period of time. There was just too much supply and nowhere near enough demand. Now with a majority of the existing inventory having sold-out and no new projects in the works, the market has stabilized and prices are up 14% in the 1st Qtr. 2011 vs. 1st Qtr. 2010.

Makes Me Think

“That’s not possible….. Now with a majority of the existing inventory having sold-out and no new projects in the works, the market has stabilized and prices are up 14% in the 1st Qtr.”

seems to make my point that the next one is right around the corner.

Gixxer1000

The next bubble will probably be in rental housing. Developers will rush to get a piece of the action an undoubtedly to many of them will take the plunge.

F-35

There will be another bubble – and bust – in Miami for sure. It’s just the way this town rolls, the order of things. The harder they fall, the harder they go up, and vice versa. Couple more years scraping the bottom, then another decade of 15% annual appreciation.

Poor and unemployed

Has anyone ever acknowledged that there was a bubble during the bubble era? So why would anyone acknowledge it now until it bits them in the butt.

Rob

So how dumb is this….so the condos are selling our …great…being bough by cash and foreign buyers….so ok what do they ever expect prices may start to climb up but then who is gonna be able to buy those units? Obviosuly Miami buyers dont have to means to affoard them now so who will buy them after if prices go up. There’s little financing so looks like all those towers will be another Miami fantasy as Miami people live in posh condos that they wil never own. Bottom line the majority of Miami’s workfoce simply cannot afford them condos now… Read more »

How could there be a bubble when 67% of all transactions this past year have been cash? It would require a vast majority of condo owners to sell at once in order for a bubble to pop. Keep in mind though that most of these owners are located in other countries. I can only think of two scenarios that would entice owners from all over the world to want to sell their Miami real estate holdings all at the same time. The first being World War III. The second being Obama turning the USA into a socialistic country. If either… Read more »

George

Preconstruction Sales Begin For New 22-Story Oceanfront Condo

An entity controlled by Miami developer Jorge Perez of the Related Group has launched preconstruction sales this week for the proposed 22-story Apogee Beach condo tower fronting the Atlantic Ocean in the city of Hollywood in Southeast Broward County,according to a new report from CondoVultures.

gables

Lucas, i agree with you that there is no bubble. although not sure how 67% of all transactions being cash really has anything to do with it. leverage helps but is not required for a bubble-just see the bubble in stocks a decade ago. cash buyers there as well. but questions will arise on future expected prices of these condos. who will buy them in the future at elevated prices? will new foreign buyers come in to replace the old foreign buyers? domestically, we are headed towards a couple of bad longer term scenarios for homebuying. fannie and freddie will… Read more »

Poor and unemployed

Bubble is good for us the brokers for a short while. But then – Feast or famine! Miami RE along with NY has been kept up artificially by not allowing foreclosures. Latest report from Realty Trac shows NY foreclosures take average 900 days and the backlogged for 7 years. Imagine all these home / condos will continue to get in to market for next 10 years. Miami market has another 30% to go down. Look at these sales below – there is lot of double count. And getting 125% mortgage in these days? Lot of cash buyers purchased properties in… Read more »

gables

P&U, a cash buyer from 2008-09 cannot default, so being underwater does not create a distressed situation like with a mortgage. while prices can still fall due to defaults from the binge buyers of the mid decade, i agree with gixxer and others the cash buyers will limit how much more downside can occur. but they have little control on the upside.

F-35

gables, did you ever ask yourself how the rest of the world is having housing bubbles that would put Miami to shame… without funnie and freddie in the picture? Because you should. Just phasing these two monstrosities out won’t knock home prices down. What it will do is make 30yr fixed rate mortgage a thing of the past, and new mortgages will be provided at floating rates tied to LIBOR. Thats how most of the civilized world buys its digs, and thats where the land of milk and honey is headed too.

Joe

F-35 — The rest of the world? More like a few really overpopulated and/or rapidly growing locales. If you think the absence of Fannie and Freddie won’t have a huge and adverse effect on U.S. r.e. prices, you should do all of us a favor and step away from the keyboard for a while. — Lucas — The idea that absentee foreign owners “create jobs” is utter nonsense. Miami has been a money-laundering destination and a tourist town for 30 years now, and where are all these great jobs? Adjusted for inflation, the average Miami resident is something like 2%… Read more »

F-35

Joe, the only reason I wont tell who you are is because I cant do it without resorting to name calling, a practice that though in our case may actually be quite useful, is nevertheless generally being frowned upon. Well, anyways, you are probably unaware – which appears to be your normal state of consciousness – that only TWO countries in the world have 30-yr mortgages, USA and Denmark. And the rest of the world somehow survives, and it has bubbles, and…hold your breath…many countries often have lower interest rates, since short end of the curve starts at zero these… Read more »

gables

F35, in case you didn’t realize, we did not have the bubble and burst due to conventional 30 yr fixed rate mortgages. we got here due to variable interest rate loans-the types you propose is the future. the future is here, and it is not pretty. the reason govt stepped in with the 30 year product after the depression was to provide a stable cost for home ownership. before that you had 5 year rolling mortgages-and people routinely lost their homes during the reset. consumers have relearned the risk of these variable interest type products.

F-35

gables, no you don’t tell…the only reason all those fancy products came out at the tail end of a RE boom is because “30-yr fixed-rate mortgage” scam run out of qualified suckers, and the only way to keep that pyramid going for few years longer was to introduce exotic mortgages with teaser rates, no interest, ninja, liar, whatever…Thats not what I “advocate”, but nice try. You are slightly smarter than Joe, but dont kid yourself. “Slightly” is a key word here.

F-35

gables, one more very crucial point. Fixed-rate 30-yr mortgage ensures “stable cost of home ownership” only in a rising interest rate environment. You may have missed it, but interest rates are in a secular decline for already…oh, 30 years almost…must be some kind of a coincidence here. And in that case borrowing for 30 years at fixed rate means slow-and-steady financial asphyxiation. Thats why Americans were forced into multiple refis during their mortgages’ lifetimes, every time shedding their equity, accruing bloodsucking points, and delivering steady profits to Wall Street, Fannie, Freddie and overseas buyers, while people in the rest of… Read more »

Joey

I’m sorry, but I stopped the video after hearing the words “Latin American buyers”. Isn’t that how we got into this mess in the first place?

gables

F35, you seem to have an odd view of the world. a 30 year fixed mortgage means i know what my costs are over 30 years-they do not vary. if i have a variable rate mortgage, in five years my salary may not pay the mortgage if rates rise. for most people, your salary rises with time so the mortgage becomes even more affordable under a fixed rate. if you obtained a mortgage beyond what you could pay, that has nothing to do with fannie or freddie-that is just poor financial planning. if you had a 30 year mortgage and… Read more »

Poor and unemployed

P&U, a cash buyer from 2008-09 cannot default, so being underwater does not create a distressed situation like with a mortgage.
—————

Gables – I am sure you can do your own homework and see that many of these cash sales have mortgages. Shockingly 125% mortgages. I can show you number of properties purchased with 20% down in 2008 and 2009, which have defaulted. FYI I do not even look at any transaction under $100K.

George

P&U
I thought the definition of a cash buyer is one who paid in full with cash.

Poor and unemployed

George,

On this board, all the buyers in Miami are presumed to be foreign cash buyers – which included the two examples mentioned previously.

Makes Me Think

don’t know how paying cash for a condo means prices can’t drop by 40%. I also don’t see how obama turning USA into a socialist county will cause people not to want to live here when most of the world is considered socialist or communist by US standards, besides I thought Obama has already turned us into a socialist country?

Makes Me Think

Joe, much of Europe and other countries are having massive housing crisis right now and there is no fannie or freddie to blame. I know this doesn’t fit with your ideology that fannie and freddie is responsible for the housing bubble but how do you explain the massive housing crashes that is going on around the globe without freddie and fannie?

Joe

Makes Me Think — Again, more dishonesty, and more straw-man arguments. When did I say Fannie and Freddie were responsible for the housing bubble? Fannie and Freddie contributed to the bubble, as did a lot of other actors and factors. That doesn’t change the fact that if Fannie and Freddie disappear, there will be an adverse effect on U.S. housing rates moving forward.

Makes Me Think

“Do you really believe the banks would have been extending these putrid loans if Fannie and Freddie weren’t buying all the garbage paper the banks were writing? Again, I’m not some big pro-Bush, pro-Republican apologist, but the facts are the facts. Just like Bush tried to reform Social Security and got obliterated in the media, he tried to reform Fannie and Freddie and got rebuffed by Congress. You can search high and low, and you won’t find right-wingers who supported giving LIAR loans to anyone with a pulse, FICO be damned.” Joe says: October 20, 2010 at 11:12 pm “As… Read more »

Joe

Oops, type … I meant to say “housing prices” in my last sentence above.

Joe

And now I misspelled “typo.” Ha ha. I need more coffee.

Makes Me Think

Oh please, give it a rest joe. We(myself and gables) had and indeph discussion with you a few months ago where you insisted that the housing bubble was a result of fannie and freddie. We told you that Wall st. securitization was the main culprit and that fannie and freddie didn’t get involve until the end of the bubble when they saw how much money wall street was making. You always claim straw man but do a search on the archives and you will see. You are the one being dishonest.

Makes Me Think

and by the way, yes, you are a pro-Bush, pro-Republican apologist and Obama hater

Joe

Makes Me Think — I don’t have time to go thru the archives, but I never said Fannie and Freddie were 100% responsible for the housing bubble. For one thing, I’ve always assessed about 50% of the blame to Congress, particularly the nonsensical “Community Reinvestment Act” that spawned all the loose underwriting over the past two decades. Please stop with the dishonesty and the straw-man garbage. Anyway, no matter what I said or didn’t say in the past, that doesn’t change the fact that if Fannie and Freddie disappear, housing prices will suffer. I don’t know why you insist on… Read more »

Makes Me Think

yeah, you are right “Community Reinvestment Act” which has been in place for decades is why there is in a global housing bust. You are priceless. By the way it doesn’t take much time to search the archives. I pulled up your quote from oct. 21 2010 in about a minute.

Have a good day

Joe

Makes Me Think — Claiming the Community Reinvestment Act didn’t substantially loosen underwriting standards is even dumber than arguing that the disappearance of Fannie and Freddie would have no impact on U.S. housing prices.

Get some rest, man. You’re really struggling lately.

gables

Joe, you do fail to state the CRA was focused on housing in poor and minority communities. All of the middle and upperclass housing that went bust-the majority of busted RE- was not subject to the CRA. And aside from the political pundits who have their own agenda, most credible economics folks have already said the CRA was not an impact player in the financial crisis which unfolded. you may want to use it as a scapegoat, but it is still not guilty as charged.

Joe

gables — The CRA led to the relaxed lending standards that crept into almost all other areas of home lending and eventually spawned a lot of the subprime lenders that drove America’s credit bus over the cliff. I don’t know of any credible economist who DOESN’T hold this position. Obviously, the CRA was passed many years before the housing bust, but the housing bubble wasn’t built overnight, either. The bubble was inflated by a lot of bad policy, bad laws, lax oversight, and unscrupulous actors over a number of years, if not a number of decades. I neither blamed Fannie… Read more »

gables

joe, if i wanted to hear a repeat of the fox news ideologues, i would tune into their channel. the fed has already said the CRA had little, if any, bearing on the housing crisis. this is based on the feds own research. you have this ideology of always blaming the government for bad actions of the banks-the government made me do it! it is a fallacy to say the CRA led to relaxed lending standards-that is just a scapegoat argument. the CRA had nothing to do with the middle and upper class housing bust. that bust had to do… Read more »

Makes Me Think

Joe is in denial about histor. He has completely ignored the fact that Wall st. packaged a bunch of shitty loans sliced them up and marketed them as AAA rated investment and sold that shit all over the world. I don’t know how someone could be so obvlious to the facts in this day of 24/7 media. I guess if I spent the past 3 years in a Bolivian jungle maybe I would be just as ignorant of the facts. I would however, hope that I would be wise enough to keep my ignorance to myself instead of posting it… Read more »

Poor and unemployed

As far as I can remember, I used to own few CMO’s way back in 80’s. They used to cost $25K and multiples. Wall Street has been packaging CMO’s and CDO’s for a very long time. If Fannie and Freddie had not committed incest and purchased all those mortgages, we wouldn’t be in this trouble. Wall Street works on demand and supply. F & F created the demand and the street met the demand. If the government had not interfered the market would have bottomed out by now. All these deadbeats would be living in the rented properties and paying… Read more »

Joe

You two can bury your heads in the Miami sand if you want, but the “greedy banks” and “sleazy bankers” couldn’t have done even 1/10th as much damage if the politicians in D.C. hadn’t been greasing the wheels via legislation, lax oversight, cheap money, unlimited money for Fannie and Freddie, etc., etc. This is just a simple reality.

gables

joe, the government did not create the “greedy banks” and “sleazy bankers”. they already existed. and they took action. they knew what they were doing was wrong-just look at the comments that were released during the fabulous fab investigation. no different than the enron energy traders in california. you have an antigovernment ideology-i get it. but someday use your brain instead of fox news to understand what happened during the financial meltdown.

Makes Me Think

Joe & PU, you watch fox news and read blogs. That is how you get your information. I spent a career working for the largest investment banks and I also have a Real Estate Investment business from 2000 – Present. I was up close and personal with many of what went wrong during the housing bubble especially from 2004 – 2007. Not to name drop but I can tell you that several of my close business associates (did RE deals with and met with frequently) has been featured on different episodes of American Greed. I can tell you for a… Read more »

Poor and unemployed

MMT: May be you are not aware of many things that went on during those days – such as new condo construction contract flipping. Those $itty houses you are talking about – they were foreclosed, poor owners kicked out. They are living on street It is the scamsters and deadbeats on the Brickell, Beach, Midtown, Downtown, NMB, Fort Lauderdale, West palm, Aventura who gambled with F & F given money and are still living in those houses and condos without paying mortgages or HOA. There were programs on the TV “How to Flip that House”. Front page stories in Miami… Read more »

Makes Me Think

Pay attention son! I’m trying to learn you something. All those loans were not F&F loans. Many of them were HELOC from primary residences which had greatly appreciated I used an Interests only HELOC to purchase several investment homes in 2004 and 2005, when I sold my then primary home in 2005 the HELOC was paid off and the rest of my equity was given to me in cash. I still own those investment properties and they cash flowing today. Many people who bought Properties did the same as well, Many of them never sold their primary residences and now… Read more »

Poor and unemployed

So all these private lenders wanted to lose money? So they gave it away? That is a news worth reading.

FYI – I have 4 beautiful grandchildren.

Joe

gables — You used to argue in an honest way, but things have gone south. I never said the government “created” the greedy banks and sleazy bankers. I simply said that the greedy banks and sleazy bankers couldn’t have done even 10% as much damage if the government hadn’t greased the wheels via legislation, lax oversight, cheap money, unlimited money for Fannie and Freddie, etc., etc. I don’t care how much you dislike the banks, it’s simply illogical to assess 100% of the blame to the banks and bankers and 0% of the blame to the government, greedy borrowers, greedy… Read more »

gables

joe, i’m telling you those greedy and sleazy entitites already existed. this event would have happened with or without the governments actions. hey, i blame the banks, borrowers, RE establishment, appraisers, etc. i just call a spade a spade when you try to throw government into the arena-that is an argument based on ideology-it is way overplayed.

Joe

gables — I *KNOW* the greedy banks and sleazy bankers “already existed.” I never said otherwise. My point, for the umpteenth time, is that the greedy banks and sleazy bankers couldn’t have done even 10% as much damage if the government hadn’t greased the wheels via legislation, lax oversight, cheap money, unlimited money for Fannie and Freddie, etc., etc. How could the greedy banks and sleazy bankers have sold billions if not trillions in garbage paper if the government didn’t keep money so cheap and allow anyone with a pulse to qualify for the $600,000 liar loans, etc., that the… Read more »

gables

joe, just to be clear so i know you don’t want political ideology to influence the discussion, the rise in RE during the 2000-2005 years was a result of the lax oversight, lobbying and deregulation occurring during the ownership society of the controlling Bush and conservative Republican governments. i guess if we are to blame the government, let’s make clear who the actors in power were when the shenanigans were occurring during this bubble of real estate. the government did not infuse billions of dollars to keep the sleazebag bankers in their jobs. they infused billions so that the bond… Read more »

Joe

gables — I never mentioned GOP or Dem or Bush or Obama. I blame the Bush admin for not being forceful enough in making changes and shutting down the sleaze. It must be noted, however, that when Bush proposed actual changes, additional oversight, etc., it was treated as dead-on-arrival by the Dems in Congress, such as Teddy “Give Loans to Anyone with a Pulse” Kennedy. (The Social Security situation makes the housing implosion seem like child’s play, and Bush tried to deal with that, too. But dishonest Dems killed that, too.)

gables

joe, when you control the WH and Congress, you have no excuse for not executing what should be done-unless the ruling party has no problem with what is happening. i laugh at how, even when Bush and Reps controlled the government, somehow it is still the Dems fault for all the bad things which happened. i can play the revisionist blame game as well. the current deficit and debt is Bush’s fault. the tax cuts he enacted during the surplus years would have been a nice balance to the stimulus needed during the recession. instead, it became part of the… Read more »

Joe

gables — More dishonesty, plus some lousy political analysis. In case you didn’t learn from Obamacare, etc., unless a party has 60 votes in the Senate, it’s borderline impossible to effect any big changes. And, as I mentioned above, Dems like Teddy Kennedy considered things like Fannie and Freddie reform to be “dead on arrival” in the years leading up to the housing implosion. “this is why, while convenient to blame the govt, it is not really a valid argument. government will ALWAYS exist, and thus always serve as a scapegoat for one side or the other. but people know… Read more »

gables

joe, the only dishonesty provided is from you. you don’t like the truth so you take the typical approach and disparage. government does not exist purely to enforce right and wrong-it fails at the morality play. governments provide the infrastructure and framework through which a society survives. you really think this country would be as great as it is if government did not provide highways, airports, sewers, defense, education, etc? it has sponsored research which led to medical advances, computers, internet, etc. show me a successful country where the government’s only role is to enforce “right and wrong”. now “Seriously,… Read more »

Joe

gables — The people in Idaho don’t need bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., to tell them how and when to build roads, schools, etc.

The primary and overriding purpose of government is to define and then enforce the concept of justice — right and wrong. For you to sit here and absolve the government of any responsibility for the housing implosion because “people should know right and wrong” is just idiotic. It makes you sound like a clown. I try not to get into name-calling here, but I really can’t think of a more polite way to say it.

gables

joe, they do if they want to use the interstate highway system and airports. you want interstate commerce and the benefits which come from that, you need to learn to share and participate as a group. you can try and secede from the union if you want-but that didn’t turn out so well for the last group that tried either.

i do giggle, however, when i imply that people should take on responsibility for their actions and you disagree, claiming it is the governments job to do that. you sound like some liberal socialist!

Joe

gables — You’re being really silly here, almost Gixxer-esque, in your refusal to admit a simple truth and move on.

The idea that the U.S. government was conceived and currently exists primarily to design highways and regulate interstate commerce rather than to uphold laws and pursue justice is utterly absurd.

gables

no joe, its your absurdity of blaming the CRA and F&F on the housing bubble and bust. you let your ideology get in the way of the facts.

i never said the government primarily exists to design highways and regulate interstate commerce-those are your words in an attempt to try and discredit those with whom you disagree. my words are these are just some of the responsibilities of a government. you lose credibility when you argue with falsehoods.

Joe

gables — blah blah blah

For the 100th time, I’ve never assessed full blame for the housing implosion to the CRA. Meanwhile, you insist on fully exempting the government from ANY blame. And you say *I’m* the unreasonable one? Please.

gables

joe, blah blah blah

as you say “My point, for the umpteenth time, is that the greedy banks and sleazy bankers couldn’t have done even 10% as much damage if the government hadn’t greased the wheels via legislation, lax oversight, cheap money, unlimited money for Fannie and Freddie, etc., etc.”

you are an ideologue who wants nothing more than to blame the government for the crap of the private sector. 10% as much damage?! you live in the fox news and conservative radio fantasy land!

Joe

gables – I can’t believe how dishonest you’ve become. I’ve assessed blame for the housing implosion to about 10 different actors, from the government to bankers to greedy buyers, but you keep falsely insisting that I only blame the government. Meanwhile, you insist on EXEMPTING the government from ANY BLAME WHATSOEVER. I’m done going in circles with you. You used to be a voice of reason around here. Your demise is sad.

For Real Estate
Related Needs And Inquiries

please complete the form below

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.