Miami-Dade Foreclosure Filings Since 2002

A friend of mine passed along the following statistics that were disclosed by Miami-Dade County. I found the statistics to be quite compelling and felt that my readers might find these numbers to be of interest as well. It is worthy to note that these numbers indicate that we are on pace to surpass the highs in foreclosure filings in 2002. That isn’t a bit surprising given the state of the real estate market.

These numbers only represent a mid-half report for 2007. As a sizable amount of adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset in the following three months, I’m sure that we’ll surpass previous year foreclosure filings. Foreclosures usually take about 6 months, so I’m expecting that foreclosure filings will peak in 2008.

Two Brickell Condos up for Auction This Month

Two Brickell condos will hit the auction block later this month. The first is a 2 bedroom + den/2 bath loft residing on the 29th and 30th floors at Neo Vertika. The loft has 1,255 square feet of interior space on tw0-levels with 20-foot ceilings. Neo Vertika is located along the Miami River, west of Brickell Avenue at 690 SW 1 Ct. Neo Vertika is a recent addition to Miami. Closings began in August of 2006.

The loft will go up for auction at 11:30am on August 20, 2007 with an opening bid of $125,000. The July Brickell Condo Index revealed that the average price per square foot of units sold at Neo Vertika over the past six months was $375.53.

The second condo up for auction is a 2 bedroom/2 bath at Villa Regina. The condo has 1,895 square feet of interior space, three separate balconies and offers partial bay views from a low floor. Villa Regina had a recent special assessment to update the lobby, hallways, marina and landscaping. Villa Regina is located at the southern end of Brickell Avenue at 1581 Brickell Avenue.

The condo at Villa Regina will go up for auction at 4:45pm on August 21, 2007 with an opening bid of $100,000. According to the July Brickell Condo Index, condos sold over the previous six months at Villa Regina had an average price per square foot of $316.62.

Don’t miss out on either of these exciting auctions. Contact me today for more information!

Courvoisier Courts – 2 Bedroom/2 Bath Foreclosure – $449,900

There’s a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo foreclosure at Courvoisier Courts in Brickell Key that is listed for $449,900. The condo has 1,288 square feet of living space. It also comes with two assigned parking spaces.

I took a look at the unit tonight for an interested client. It is in tip-top condition. The living room has large tiled floors and the bedrooms have brand new carpeting.

The bank’s judgment against the previous owner was for $444,748.00. The condo was foreclosed on June 28, 2007.

The lowest that a 2/2 has sold for at Courvoisier Courts in the past six months is $475,000. That was for an 05 line on the 17th floor. There were also two other 2/2 units that closed within that time frame. Those closed for $540,000 and $555,000. An 06 line unit on the 24th floor sold for $555,000 on June 28, 2007.

The unit doesn’t have a water view though since it is only on the fifth floor. It is an 06 line. The other 06 lines have a partial water view at best though since they face northeast and have obstructed views by other developments. The balcony was pretty large and deeper than most units I’ve seen at Courvoisier Courts.

Brickell Key is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Miami. I think getting this condo for $419,000, or $325 per square foot is a solid buy. The July Brickell Key Condo Index revealed that the average price per square foot of condos listed at Courvoisier Courts was $482.45. The average price per square foot of condos sold in the past six months at Courvoisier Courts was $415.01. Most units at Courvoisier Courts come with carpeting throughout, as they were delivered when the building was converted into condos. As mentioned before, this unit has tiled floors in the living room and carpeting in the bedrooms.

Courvoisier Courts was built in 1997. Courvoisier Courts offers fantastic amenities which include: full-service concierge, 24-hour security, fully equipped business center, bi-level fitness center, racquetball/squash courts, bayside swimming pool and sundeck, club room with billiards table, theater room, and valet parking. Courvoisier Courts has a total of 272 condo units in the building.

This is a great opportunity to own a 2 bedroom at Courvoisier Courts for over 20% less than what 2 bedrooms have sold for at Courvoisier Courts in the past six months.

Short-Sale at One Miami – 1 Bedroom/1Bath for $275K !!!

There’s a 1 bedroom/1 bath short-sale at One Miami that was reduced $44,900 today. It is now listed at $275,000 and has 846 square feet of living space. That’s a great deal! The unit is now listed at $325 per square foot. The Brickell condo index for July revealed that the average price per square foot of units sold at One Miami over the last six months is $453.66. There have been 8 one bedroom/one bath units that have closed at One Miami in the past six months. They have sold in the range of $349,000 to $430,000. Like I said, this is a great deal! Prices for one bedroom units at One Miami have come in significantly in recent months but this short-sale unit is the best priced of them all.

The unit comes with one assigned parking space and one complimentary valet space. Amenities at One Miami include: two swimming pools and hot tub, two clubs rooms, two fitness centers, business center, 24-hour security/concierge and valet parking. The maintenance fee is $389 per month. High-speed Internet, basic cable TV, water, sewer and garbage are included in the maintenance fee as well.

Take a look at the MLS listing for more information.

Miami Condo Foreclosures – Search Engine Results

I’m an avid reader of anything to do with search engine optimization (SEO). The algorithms involved in producing search engine result pages (SERPs) fascinates me. I haven’t hired any outside companies to do any of the SEO work for my site. My blog has done the work for me. I began my blog a little over three months ago and the results that it has produced with the search engines in that short time span is amazing.

If you type in “Miami Condo Foreclosures” into Yahoo my sites appear as the first, second, fourth and eighth results on the first page.

The results on Google aren’t as great but they still drive a lot of traffic to my blog. You will find my site by clicking on the fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth links on the first page of Google when typing in “Miami Condo Foreclosures“.

Surprisingly, the search results for “South Beach Condo Foreclosures” on Google is much better. I know that there is a lot of weight placed on key words used in the URL and “South Beach” doesn’t appear in my URL. So, I was shocked that “South Beach Condo Foreclosures” would have my site ranked higher than “Miami Condo Foreclosures” since keywords such as “Miami” and “Condo” appear in my URL. This is probably due to the fact that the keyword “Miami” has more competition than the search term “South Beach”. You will be led to my site by clicking on the first, second, fourth and fifth links that appear on the first Google result page after typing in “South Beach Condo Foreclosures”.

After this post, I’m sure that my site will hold even more relevance to the search terms cited above so you’ll probably find that my site appears even higher in the rankings than what I’ve noted.

2 Bedroom Foreclosure at Carbonell in Brickell Key

There’s a 2 bedroom/2.5 bath foreclosure that just became available over the weekend at Carbonell in Brickell Key. Built in 2005, Carbonell is Brickell Key’s most recent addition. The foreclosure unit is the best priced 2 bedroom unit in the entire building by quite a lot. It is listed at $649,900. The next best priced 2 bedroom at Carbonell is listed at $799,000. It is a bank owned property. Tax records show that there was an original mortgage on the property in the amount of $700,000. At the time of repossession, the mortgage amount owed was $699,627.

The foreclosure unit has 1,558 square feet of interior space, which equates to about $417 per square foot. The next best priced 2 bedroom condo at Carbonell is listed at $544 per square foot, located on the sixth floor, or one floor above the foreclosure unit. Taking a look at the Miami Condo Index for Brickell Key in June 2007 will reveal that Carbonell had an average list price of $592.56 per square foot, while having an average sales price $473.04 per square foot over the preceding six months.

In my experience, I’ve seen banks willing to accept what might seem like a crazy offer just to get the property off of their books. This could be a great opportunity to own a 2 bedroom at Carbonell for under $600,000. This past March, a 2 bedroom/2.5 bath sold for $700,000. It was located in the same line as the foreclosure unit, exactly one floor above it.

Update: Price was reduced to $634,900 on July 26, 2007.

Flashback to 1983

Yesterday I was given the link to an interesting news article that was published in The New York Times on March 21, 1983 entitled, “Auctioneer’s Gavel Finally Moves Luxury Condominiums in Miami”. You can find that story below or by clicking the link above:

Three hundred people spent a sunny afternoon today in the shade of a big white tent listening to the patter of an auctioneer hawking luxury condominiums, many of which were sold at discounts of 30 to 45 cents on the dollar.

As the market for luxury condominiums remains soft, more developers are taking this route to dispose of their inventory to cut their losses.

About 60 units were sold for $125,000 to $190,000 in the first day of a four-day auction at Biscayne Cove, a luxury high-rise complex overlooking blue waters, nestled among other luxury dwellings in North Miami Beach.

“We decided to auction off and give the people a bargain,” said Morton Littlemen, a representative of the developers. “We want to give the people a condominium they can afford to own.”

One two-bedroom penthouse that was originally offered for $248,000 was sold for a high bid of $150,000. Condominium prices in the two-building complex range from $100,000 to $334,000.

Biscayne Cove is the fifth such auction that Martin Higgenbotham, an auctioneer, has handled in the last year for the developers, subsidiaries of Cadillac Fairview Corporation and Southeast Florida Properties. It is, Mr. Higgenbotham said, the largest single condominium auction in Florida: 225 units on the block at a value of $46 million. It is more than the total of 152 units sold at the other four complexes in Miami Beach and Hallandale.

The condominium auction business has been “heavy,” Mr. Higgenbotham said. In the last 12 months his company has sold about 1,000 condominiums at auction. Previously it handled 250 units in an average year.

The decision to auction the properties was not taken lightly, according to Lewis Goodkin, a real estate consultant whose firm conducted a marketing study for Biscayne Cove and recommended the auction for fast results. “The purpose is, let’s get out of this stuff and let’s get out of it fast,” he said. Normal advertising and deep discounting is “like a prolonged agony.”

Mr. Goodkin’s study concluded that, even under good conditions, it would take three years for the market to absorb existing inventory and that it did not pay for developers to hold onto the property. “We have in Miami today the most overbuilt luxury condominium market in the country,” Mr. Goodkin said.

He foresaw more auctions of this magnitude. “When the last recession hit us, we had a lot more inventory, but the inventory was more affordable,” he said. “A tremendous number of the public could respond. It could be absorbed. Today, our big invetory is in the luxury ranges where the market is not deep and you don’t have the response from the South American markets because their economy is weak or low.”

While the glut is most severe in Miami, it is not exclusive to this area, Mr. Goodkin said.

Is this the fate of the luxury condo units that will come to market in the next 12-24 months in Miami? 20,000! That is the number that has been thrown around for the number of new condo units that will close in 2007 and 2008. It is difficult to imagine that a supply of that magnitude can be absorbed in such a short period of time. It will be interesting to see what percentage of people walk away from deposits rather than close. If a significant portion walk then developers will likely be forced to take immediate action which could recall memories of 1983.

Foreclosure Listings at Vue at Brickell Doubles in Three Weeks

On May 24, 2007 I posted an entry entitled, “Vue at Brickell – Overpriced or Insanely Overpriced?“, in which I questioned the average price per square foot of the condo units at a building called Vue at Brickell. I surmised that mortgage fraud may have been partly at fault for prices at Vue at Brickell reaching such irrational levels.

At that time there were three listed foreclosure units in the building. Now, there are a total of six. In three weeks the number of the listed units that are currently in the foreclosure process have doubled. Those are just the ones that are listed. I’m sure there are others. Below you will see those six listings, as well as relevant property information.

(FL#=floor number, #BEDS=number of bedrooms, #FB=number of full baths, #HB=number of half baths, LA=living area square footage, LP$=list price, LP$/SqFt=average price per square foot, #GAR=number of parking spaces, WTRFR=waterfront?)

I find it humorous that two of the listings categorize Vue at Brickell as being a waterfront building. It is far from being a waterfront building.

As you can see, the average price per square foot of the listed foreclosure units at Vue at Brickell is currently $475.81. The non-foreclosure units in the building have a much higher price per square foot. Only one of the six listings penetrated the $400 per square foot mark on the downside. Mark my words, within 18 months the majority of condo listings in Vue at Brickell, both foreclosure and non-foreclosure, will be under $400 per square foot. The availability of such a large number of newly constructed condo units within the next 18 months, in much higher-end buildings, will be the driving force. These buildings already offer price points below $400 per square foot and the growing supply will push those prices even lower.

It now more important than ever that you research various buildings in the neighborhood and receive a comparative market analysis when making a home purchase to ensure that you are making a wise investment. You know what they say…”Buying a home is the most important investment that you’ll make in your life”.

Short-Sale @ Courvoisier Courts in Brickell Key

There’s a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom short-sale opportunity at Courvoiser Courts located in the exclusive neighborhood of Brickell Key. The condo has 1,236 square feet of living space and a 95 square foot balcony. The condo, located on the 24th floor, faces northeast and has partial bay views from the balcony. It is the best priced 2 bedroom in the building at a list price of $450,000, or $364 per square foot. There’s a 2/2 currently available at Courvoisier Courts in the same line as the short-sale unit that is listed at $499,000. It is located 7 floors lower. There’s another available condo located 14 floors lower that is listed at $529,000.

Courvoisier Courts was converted from apartments to condominiums at the beginning of 2006. The building was originally built in 1997. Courvoisier Courts offers fantastic amenities which includes: full-service concierge, 24-hour security, fully equipped business center, bi-level fitness center, racquetball/squash courts, bayside swimming pool and sundeck, club room with billiards table, theater room, and valet parking. Courvoisier Courts has a total of 272 condo units in the building. The picture slideshow below will show you some pictures of the building and amenities at Courvoisier Courts.

Because Courvoisier Courts is such a recent conversion, there aren’t many 2 bedroom resales to use as comparables. There is one closed sale and two pending sales. The closed sale is not an adequate comparable, however, because it is a penthouse unit with 13 foot ceilings and has great water views. That unit sold for $568 per square foot. The two pending sales are better comparables but still need to be adjusted because of the bay view offered by those two condo units and the extra half bath. Those condo units were listed for $555,000 and $575,000 before an offer was accepted, or $441 and $446 per square foot, respectively.For those of you who don’t know, Brickell Key is a 44-acre triangle-shaped island situated just east of the heart of Brickell. It is well known for being a highly exclusive neighborhood with brick-paved roads and is home to the world famous Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Contact me for more information regarding this short-sale.