Closings at Icon Brickell began in December 2008. Since that time, Icon Brickell has been covered by local and national media alike. Some news articles marveled at the sheer size of the development while others predicted its impending doom. Closings at Icon Brickell started tremendously slow with many buyers choosing to wait for the development to revert back to the conglomerate of banks providing the financing for construction in hopes that price reductions would soon follow. This past May, Towers 1 and 2 of Icon Brickell were handed back to its lenders and prices were once again reduced. It appears that the latest price reduction has peaked the interest of buyers who had been sitting on the sidelines. Seems unbelievable but Tower 1 has now sold around 85 percent of its condos while about 90 percent of the units in Tower 3 have sold. Tower 2 was the most recent to become available and has already sold around 25 percent of its condos. Those are very impressive numbers. In my opinion, Tower 2 offers the best views of the three towers and should have no problem selling its remaining units.
Inside sources recently revealed to me that 23-year old hip-hop/rap artist Drake has placed two side-by-side condos at Marquis under contract. My guess is that he will combine the two units to create a mega-condo. Marquis is a luxury condo building located at 1100 Biscayne Boulevard in Downtown Miami. Ever since prices were slashed this past summer, sales have picked considerably at Marquis. Prices start at $263 per square foot. A few months ago, an 8,042 square foot penthouse at Marquis sold for $4.2M.
A few months ago, as some of you may recall, we mentioned that clients of ours from Nigeria had recently closed on unit 5404 at Marina Blue. Our clients purchased the condo with an intent to rent it and hold the condo long-term. The condo came decorator-ready, however, which meant that they first needed to finish it off before renting it. A day after the closing, the buyers flew back to Nigeria and left Michael in charge with making design decisions and working with contractors to ensure that the build-out would be completed within a few months. The video below shows you what unit 5404 at Marina Blue looked like as a decorator-ready condo.
Below is a list of changes/additions that were made to unit 5404 as part of the build-out process:
36 x 36 Crema Marfil marble flooring installed throughout
Custom kitchen island with new countertops, wine rack, beverage center and dual-bowl under-mount sink with garbage disposal and custom fixture
Custom kitchen pantry with frosted glass door
Granite backsplash in the kitchen
Custom lighting throughout kitchen
California-style built-in closets in both bedrooms
Remote-controlled electronic window shades
Baseboards and paint
A few days ago, the build-out process for unit 5404 at Marina Blue was completed. Below, you’ll find pictures of the condo as it looks today. Unit 5404 is a 2 bedroom/2.5 bath condo with 1,663 square feet of interior square feet and 222 square feet of balcony (view unit 5404 floor plan). The condo has direct views of Biscayne Bay, the Atlantic Ocean and Downtown Miami from the 54th floor. The asking price for unit 5404 at Marina Blue is $3,500 per month and is available immediately. Contact us at 305-428-3860 if you would like to view the condo in person.
For those of you who don’t know, Marina Blue is a Downtown Miami condo developments located at 888 Biscayne Blvd across the street from the American Airlines Arena and within walking distance to Bayside Marketplace and the Adrienne Arsht Center. Marina Blue is one of the few Downtown Miami condo buildings where every unit has a direct water view.
Below is the Before & After video of unit 5404 that our videographer created:
The New Look of Miami Condo Investments
A few months ago, we decided to overhaul the Miami Condo Investments website. Our aim was to create a Miami real estate website with more content and functionality than its predecessor. Today, we’re pleased to present the new look of Miami Condo Investments. The website is still a work in progress but we hope to have all bugs fixed and new content published within the next 30 days. Below, you’ll find a list of a few of the features added to the new website:
Message Board – Many of you have asked for a forum to discuss various topics related and unrelated to real estate. Hopefully many of you will make good use of it.
Photo Blog – I introduced this feature last month. Here you’ll find real estate related pictures that we have taken in and around Miami and Miami Beach.
Client Resources – Clients often have the same questions regarding the rental or sales process or questions regarding financing or closing costs. We felt that this would be a good section of the website to provide the answers to these frequently asked questions.
Earlier this afternoon, we also submitted our updated iPhone app to iTunes for approval. We hope that it will be approved and available for everyone to download by the middle of next week.
It’s amazing when I look back at the original Miami Condo Investments blog and realize just how far the website has come in terms of size and quality since that time.
Information for International Buyers
We often work with buyers from all over the world who have questions regarding the buying process in the United States because it often varies from country to country. In today’s video, Michael discusses a few misconceptions or questions that foreign buyers sometimes have when shopping for real estate here.
14 Unit Bulk Sale at Epic
In the above video, Michael discusses the recent 14 unit bulk sale at Epic as well as the microbrewery that will occupy the southeast corner of the first floor commercial space at Marina Blue.
Marina Blue Unit 5104 – $470,000
Last Thursday, we acquired a new listing at Marina Blue. It’s a beautiful 2 bedroom/2 bath condo on the 51st floor with breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, the Miami Beach skyline and Downtown Miami. The condo has 1,208 square feet of interior, 138 square feet of balcony, porcelain tiled floors throughout, Wenge California-style closets, window shades and 10-foot ceilings. The purchase price also includes two assigned parking spaces. As many of you know, it is rare for a 2 bedroom or even a 3 bedroom condo in Miami to include a second parking space. Additionally, the condo includes a 55 square foot storage room which is pictured below.
Marina Blue is located in Downtown Miami across the street from the American Airlines Arena at 888 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33132. Please give us a call if you or someone you know has an interest in viewing this Marina Blue condo in person. 305-428-3860
Introducing the Miami Photos & Images Blog
Late Wednesday afternoon, we launched the Miami Photos and Images Blog. The new site gives us the opportunity to share great shots of Miami with locals and people from across the world as we capture the pictures throughout the week. As real estate agents constantly on the move, we consider ourselves ideal candidates to establish a grand collection of Miami photos. I can’t tell you how many times I am taken aback by a view or scenery and wish I could encapsulate the moment to share it with others. The Miami Photos and Images Blog will allow us to do just that. Our goal is to post at least one photo per day to the blog. That shouldn’t be a difficult endeavor to tackle given the advancement in mobile/cellular technology and the ease of sharing those pictures.
Every Friday, to keep the mood light and fun, we will post a “Funny MLS Picture of the Week” like the one below. You would be surprised by what some agents upload onto the MLS to “showcase” their listing. Then again, maybe we should be grateful that they were able to find the time in their busy schedule to actually upload a picture. It drives me crazy when I see a listing without any pictures. Anyway, my intention is to give you a laugh or two every Friday.
As mentioned in our last post, we’re planning to unveil the new Miami Condo Investments website some time next week. The Miami Photos & Images Blog will be one of the new features but we will also be introducing a way for visitors of the site to share their own photos with others.
Brickell Condo Index – August 2010
The Brickell Condo Index is back! It has been a year and a half since I last published the Brickell Condo Index. Fortunately, eighteen months is a good reference point and definitely enough time where one would expect a lot to have changed with the condo market. For those of you who haven’t followed this blog that long, the Brickell Condo Index is an in-depth look at the various condo buildings in Brickell with various statistics included to illustrate the health or weakness of each building.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this will be the last Brickell Condo Index to appear on this blog. From here on out, the Brickell Condo Index, as well as other neighborhood indexes, will only be made available via email. Early next week, I will unveil a new version of the Miami Condo Investments website. The new website will be much easier to navigate, have a lot more content, load considerably faster and, most importantly, allow you to register to our Miami Condo Investments weekly newsletter. The weekly newsletter will contain the best condo deals of the week, relevant news stories and exclusive market data such as the neighborhood condo indexes. The neighborhood condo indexes will be emailed the Sunday following the 15th of each month, the day that I have chosen to collect and compile the data. Each neighborhood will be represented every six months as follows: Brickell this month, Brickell Key next month, Downtown Miami in October, the Edgewater in November, South Beach in December and the Miami River area in January. The cycle will then start all over so a neighborhood update is provided twice per year. In the meantime, if you’d like to be included on the newsletter list then simply send us an email at [email protected] and convey your interest to be placed on the list. The blog will not change and will continue to be updated but the market data reports will only be made available via our newsletter.
Before we get into this month’s numbers, let me discuss a few changes that I made to the Brickell Condo Index since the last update in February 2009. First, I excluded One Miami from the index. One Miami will be included in the Downtown Miami Condo Index in October. Second, Latitude on the River and Neo Vertika were also excluded. Both will appear in the Miami River Condo Index in January 2010. Third, I decided to include 1060 Brickell, 500 Brickell, Brickell on the River South and The Plaza on Brickell. Each has had enough closed resales to warrant their inclusion in the Brickell Condo Index. Fourth, I decided to bring back The Sail on Brickell. As of late, I’ve seen much more interest in the building due to its price point and it is much healthier than it was in October 2007 when I dropped it from the index. I guess you can say that it’s officially off the pink sheets. There are now a total of twenty buildings in the Brickell Condo Index whereas before there were eighteen. Last, but not least, I decided to round the price per square foot calculations. I think it makes everything easier to read and I honestly don’t think excluding the two decimal points makes the figures any less insightful.
As per the MLS, the average of the asking prices of the twenty condo buildings that now represent the Brickell Condo Index is $376 per square foot. The average asking price per square foot for each Brickell condo building individually can be found below:
1060 Brickell – 1050 & 1060 Brickell Ave – $375
500 Brickell – 500 Brickell Ave & 55 SE 6 St – $362
Atlantis on Brickell – 2025 Brickell Ave – $255
Brickell on the River North – 31 SE 5 St – $268
Brickell on the River South – 41 SE 5 St – $276
Bristol Tower – 2127 Brickell Ave – $471
Emerald at Brickell – 218 SE 14 St – $348
Four Seasons Residences – 1425 Brickell Ave – $954
Imperial at Brickell – 1627 Brickell Ave – $285
Jade Brickell – 1331 Brickell Bay Dr – $532
Santa Maria – 1643 Brickell Ave – $691
Skyline on Brickell – 2101 Brickell Ave – $352
Solaris at Brickell – 186 SE 12 Ter – $189
The Club at Brickell Bay – 1200 Brickell Bay Dr – $285
The Mark on Brickell – 1155 Brickell Bay Dr – $313
The Palace – 1541 Brickell Ave – $298
The Plaza on Brickell – 951 Brickell Ave & 950 Brickell Bay Dr – $394
The Sail on Brickell – 170 SE 14 St – $299
Villa Regina – 1581 Brickell Ave – $350
Vue at Brickell – 1250 S Miami Ave – $214
At the bottom of this post, I included a chart that shows how each of the above figures compares with those published in February 2009. Solaris at Brickell experienced the largest drop with average asking prices there falling slightly over 40 percent. Three of the buildings saw a slight increase in their average asking price per square foot within the past eighteen months. These were Bristol Tower, Four Seasons Residences and Villa Regina.
Below, you’ll find the average price per square foot for Brickell condos sold in the MLS within the six month period from February 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010. I decided to do it this way because I’ve noted that oftentimes it takes agents a few weeks to change the status of a listing in the MLS from pending to closed. The neighborhood as a whole sold at an average price per square foot of $285 during that time period.
The biggest surprise in the figures above when compared to those in February 2009 is Jade Brickell. The average price per square foot for closed sales during the previous six months increased a little over 14 percent when compared to the figures published eighteen months ago. Other buildings that experienced an increase are Skyline on Brickell, The Mark on Brickell, Villa Regina and Vue at Brickell. With the exception of Villa Regina, these buildings were some of the hardest hit in Brickell when the market collapsed mainly due to the large amount of mortgage fraud that took place in these buildings. The Club at Brickell Bay and Solaris at Brickell are two other buildings in Brickell that were heavily victimized by mortgage fraud. The Club at Brickell Bay saw about a 1 percent decrease in average closed sales prices while prices at Solaris at Brickell fell slightly over 9 percent. This actually makes sense since the fallout at Solaris at Brickell didn’t take place until about a year after the others. Also worth mentioning, prices at Santa Maria fell a little over 4 percent within the past eighteen months but the numbers were a bit skewed due to Penthouse 4901 recently selling for $1,100 per square foot. The average for the past six months would have been much lower had it not been for that sale.
Below you will find some additional statistics. Click on the image to enlarge it.
The first column to the right of each condo development name is the difference in the average sales price and list price for this month, expressed as a percentage. A high percentage indicates that there is a large discrepancy between the average asking price for condos currently on the market and what has actually sold within the past six months. In other words, many of the sellers in these buildings are delusional and are in need of a reality check. For example, 1060 Brickell has a very large discrepancy because there are quite a few units asking over $400 per square foot and even some asking over $560 per square foot while closed sales have averaged around $208 per square foot within the past six months.
The second column shows the number of active listings currently in the MLS for each condo development. The third column shows the percentage that these listings represent over the total number of condo units in each development. The cells highlighted in green reveal those condo developments that have active listings that that represent less than 10 percent of the overall units in the building. This is typically one indication of a sound condo building. When I first started doing the Brickell Condo Index in 2007 many of the cells in this column were highlighted in red, indicating that active listings represented over 20 percent of the building. This was always a good indication that prices would fall further in these buildings. For example, in February 2009, active listings at Solaris at Brickell represented slightly over 20 percent of the building. That was the largest percentage of listings at that time and it is not a coincidence that eighteen months later prices fell the most at Solaris at Brickell of all the buildings represented in the Brickell Condo Index.
The fourth column reveals the number of condos currently pending sale in each building. The Club at Brickell Bay has a whopping 42 pending sales at this time and there are a total of 155 pending sales in all of the buildings combined. In February 2009, there were only 81 pending sales although a total of twenty buildings are now present in the Brickell Condo Index rather than eighteen. The fifth column displays the number of closed sales from February 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010. Once again, The Club at Brickell Bay leads the way with a total of 38 closed sales in that time period. It’s interesting to note that there were 20 more closed sales in the six months prior to February 2009 when compared to the current closing numbers even though the index now has two additional buildings.
The sixth column shows the difference in the average list prices from this month’s and February 2009’s, expressed as a percentage. Those highlighted in red reveal those condo developments which had a drop in their average list price while those highlighted in green show those that experienced an increase.
The seventh column reveals the difference in average sales prices from this month’s and February 2009’s, expressed a percentage. Once again, those highlighted in green represent an increase while those highlighted in red represent a decrease.
Well, that’s all for today. Have fun with the numbers. Time for me to get back to work on the new website.
