New Miami Condos – Closing Rates for February 2008

This month, I decided to make two separate graphs to show the percentage of total units that each development has closed since closings began. The first graph, found immediately below, reveals the closing rates for Miami condos which had their first closing prior to November 1 2007. The condo developments are also now ordered according to when closings began, with the first to the left.

New Miami Condo Closing Rates - February 2008

Below you will find the date that each condo development in the graph above began closings:

Not much has changed with this group of condos since the last update was provided in January. Ten Museum Park and Latitude on the River inched up about 2-3 percentage points. Star Lofts on the Bay remained the exact same and Onyx on the Bay was able to close one additional condo. The Loft Downtown 2 moved up a little over 5 percentage points and 50 Biscayne moved up almost 7 percentage points. A few different sources have told me that there have been about 200 defaulted condos at 50 Biscayne. This is in line with the 239 condos that are currently unaccounted for according to public records. Several people have left comments here stating that the developer has chosen to lease many of the defaulted condos and ride out the storm rather than sell to a bulk buyer. I’m sure other developers will follow suit, which will decrease the expected inventory levels for a few years.

New Miami Condo Closing Rates - February 2008

Below you will find the date that each condo development in the graph above began closings:

The graph above includes a group of condos which began closings within the past three months. I was surprised to see that 1800 Club has fared the best, although it should be noted that it did begin closings first amongst this group. Brickell on the River 2 has made much progress since the end of January when closed condos represented about 4 1/2 percent. Quantum on the Bay has done well considering that it has only received a TCO on the first of its two towers. Driving by a few times within the last couple of weeks, I did notice more lights on at night than one would expect from a condo development that just started closings about a month and a half ago. Same goes with 1800 Club. With a closing rate of about 20 percent, Apogee South Beach is off to a good start. Prices there start at about $2.5M. Plaza on Brickell has also only received a TCO on the first of its two towers. We should see much improvement from most of the condo buildings in the above group within the next month or two.

You may have noticed that One Bal Harbour and Midtown 2 are not found in this month’s update. I chose not to include One Bal Harbour because the Regent condo-hotel units have now begun closings and I did not want to intermingle the two. I do know, however, that WCI Communities has been quite successful in closing units at One Bal Harbour. They’ve closed around 150-155 condos out of a total of 185. I also know that several have been reassigned and are currently under contract. I expect WCI to have only a couple developer units left at One Bal Harbour by the end of March.

I didn’t include 2 Midtown because I noticed that a bunch of deeds have been re-recorded there. It would have taken me forever to sort through that mess. The following was written along the left-hand side of the re-recorded deeds: “This deed is being re-recorded to correct vesting on title”.

Disclaimer: The above closing rate information was derived from public County records. There can be a 2-3 week delay from the time that a closing occurs and the time that the closing gets recorded.

New Miami Condos – Closings Rates for January 2008

The chart below will show you the percentage of total units that each development has closed since closings began. Click on the following links to view the updates in November and December:

New Miami Condos - Closings Rates January 2008

Below you will find the date that each development began closings:

Before anybody says it, I realize that One Bal Harbour is not a “Miami Condo”. I didn’t want to change the title of the post just to reflect the fact that One Bal Harbour is located in Bal Harbour. I also didn’t want to exclude it from the list because there is much interest in One Bal Harbour, and besides, One Bal Harbour owners would criticize me for not providing an update when the closing rate has jumped since the last update.

The closing rate at One Bal Harbour has hit the 70 percent mark. This is a significant increase since last month’s update. The stock price of WCI surged about 15 percent in the regular session on Wall Street and another 19 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after it reported that it has successfully been able to amend its credit and loan agreements. The news story was not publicly disclosed until after the bell. There are currently 55 condo units that have not closed, according to public records. The news reveals that WCI now has a considerable amount of time to sell these last remaining condos.

Ten Museum Park has had about a 7 percent increase in its closing rate while 50 Biscayne has had about an 18 percent increase, since the December update. With the exception of One Bal Harbour, Ten Museum Park and 50 Biscayne, none of the other developments have had an increase of over 5 percent. The two new entries to this month’s update are Loft Downtown 2 and Quantum on the Bay. Loft Downtown 2 should have been included in the November update since closings began in September but it simply slipped my mind. Sporting a 74 percent closing rate, however, makes Loft Downtown 2 appear quite successful in comparison to the other Miami condos. The Grand Opening Party for Loft Downtown 2 is scheduled for Thursday evening.

Closings at Quantum on the Bay began earlier this month and as I’ve stated many times before, closings can take up to 2-3 weeks before they are recorded with the county (however, I have heard that as of January 1, 2008, this is no longer the case. A reliable source told me that a step that sometimes delays the process is no longer required. Closings should now be recorded within 1-2 days after the condo has closed. Can a title agent elaborate on this for me?). Don’t take too much away from the low closing rate at Quantum on the Bay. I mainly included it to act as a stepping stone for next month’s update and let everyone know that it is now on my radar.