Ten Highest Closed Sales Within the Past Six Months in Miami-Dade County
The following are the 10 highest luxury condo sales that have closed in Miami-Dade County within the past six months:
The Setai South Beach – Penthouse B – 4 bedroom/4 bath (6,208 square feet) – This condo sold for $15M, or $2,416 per square foot, on June 4, 2010. It was listed for $19,999,999.
Santa Maria – Unit 4901 – 3 bedroom/5 bath (10,000 square feet) – This condo sold for $11M, or $1,100 per square foot, on May 21, 2010. It was listed for $12.9M.
Fontaintebleau II – Penthouse NO – 5 bedroom/5 bath (4,500 square feet) – This condo sold for $9M, or $2,000 per square foot, on May 14, 2010. It was listed for $9.8M.
One Bal Harbour – Penthouse 2108 – 4 bedroom/4.5 bath (5,262 square feet) – This condo sold for $8.7M, or 1,653 per square foot, on May 25, 2010. It was listed for $12M.
Villa del Mare – Unit 7223 – 4 bedroom/5 bath/2 half bath (6,820 square feet) – This condo sold for $6.75M, or $990 per square foot, on March 1, 2010. It was listed for $8M.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 904 – 4 bedroom/4.5 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $6.55M, or $1,577 per square foot, on May 21, 2010. It was listed for $6.85M.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 1801 – 4 bedroom/3 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $5.9M, or $1,420 per square foot, on April 16, 2010. It was listed for $6,795,000.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 604 – 4 bedroom/3.5 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $5.8M, or $1,396 per square foot, on June 18, 2010. It was listed for $6.25M.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 704 – 4 bedroom/3.5 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $5.3M, or $1,276 per square foot, on March 18, 2010. It was listed for $5.8M.
Ocean Tower One – Unit 501 – 4 bedroom/5.5 bath (5,403 square feet) – This condo sold for $5.2M, or $962 per square foot, on June 3, 2010. It was listed for $6.25M.
6 Bedroom Penthouse at Jade Beach Goes Under Contract – Asking Price $11M
Yesterday, the spectacular 6 bedroom/7.5 bath penthouse at Jade Beach went under contract providing additional evidence that the luxury market in South Florida is flourishing. The 3-story penthouse has 8,210 square feet of interior and 5,791 square feet of terrace. The asking price is $11M, or $1340 per square foot, and is being offered fully furnished. No word yet on who the buyer might be or how much was offered.
Recent Luxury Sales within the Past 30 Days
88 La Gorce sold for $16M on June 11, 2010
The Setai Penthouse B sold for $15m on June 4, 2010
Santa Maria Penthouse 4901 sold for $11M on May 21, 2010
One Bal Harbour Penthouse 2108 sold for $8.7M on May 25, 2010
Ocean Tower One #501 sold for $5.2M on June 3, 2010
Ten Recent Multi-Million Dollar Condo Closings in Miami-Dade County (Past 6 Months)
The following are the 10 highest luxury condo sales that have closed in Miami-Dade County within the past six months:
Continuum South Tower – Penthouse 1 – 5 bedroom/7.5 bath (7,374 square feet) – This penthouse sold for $9,900,000, or $1,343 per square foot, on May 15, 2009. It was listed for $14,950,000.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 1104 – 4 bedroom/5 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $6,000,000, or $1,444 per square foot, on May 4, 2009. It was listed for $6,800,000.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 1404 – 4 bedroom/3.5 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $6,000,000, or $1,444 per square foot, on June 17, 2009. It was listed for $6,800,000.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 1201 – 4 bedroom/3.5 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $5,450,000, or $1,312 per square foot, on July 23, 2009. It was listed for $5,750,000.
One Bal Harbour – Unit 2008 – 4 bedroom/4.5 bath (5,266 square feet) – This condo sold for $5,200,000, or $987 per square foot, on September 29, 2009. It was listed for $6,299,000.
Acqualina – Penthouse 4506 – 5 bedroom/6 bath (6,419 square feet) – This penthouse sold for $4,999,000, or $779 per square foot, on August 2, 2009. It was listed for $7,900,000.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 1101 – 4 bedroom/3.5 bath (4,154 square feet) – This condo sold for $4,800,000, or $1,156 per square foot, on July 30, 2009. It was listed for $4,999,990.
Ocean Tower I – Unit 401 – 4 bedroom/5.5 bath (5,403 square feet) – This condo sold for $4,600,000, or $851 per square foot, on June 9, 2009. It was listed for $5,490,000.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 1902 – 3 bedroom/3.5 bath (3,103 square feet) – This condo sold for $4,300,000, or $1,387 per square foot, on September 30, 2009. It was listed for $4,975,000.
Oceanside at Fisher Island – Unit 7161 – 3 bedroom/4.5 bath (3,959 square feet) – This condo sold for $3,950,000, or $998 per square foot, on June 1, 2009. It was listed for $4,500,000.
Ten Recent Multi-Million Dollar Condo Closings in Miami – January 2009
The following are 10 luxury condos that have closed in Miami-Dade County since December 1, 2008:
Bayview at Fisher Island – Unit 5031/5032 – 3 bedroom/4.5 bath (6,830 square feet) – This condo sold for $5,600,000, or $820 per square foot, on December 11, 2008.
Apogee South Beach – Unit 1703 – 3 bedroom/3.5 bath (3,100 square feeet) – This condo sold for $4,125,000, or $1,331 per square foot, on December 4, 2008.
Grand Bay Residences – Unit PH2B – 3 bedroom/4 bath (3,625 square feet) – This condo sold for $3,619,000, or $998 per square foot, on December 29, 2008.
Villa Del Mare – Unit 7255 – 3 bedroom/3.5 bath (3,140 square feet) – This condo sold for $3,400,000, or $1,083 per square foot, on January 5, 2009.
Fisher Island – Unit 7652 – 3 bedroom/3.5 bath (2,950 square feet) – This condo sold for $2,950,000, or $1,000 per square foot, on December 19, 2008.
Bellamare – Unit PH1 – 5 bedroom/5 bath (6,663 square feet) – This condo sold for $2,600,000, or $390 per square foot, on December 15, 2008.
Grovenor House – Unit 2301 – 4 bedroom/5.5 bath (4,026 square feet) – This condo sold for $2,250,000, or $559 per square foot, on December 12, 2008.
One Bal Harbour – Unit 208 – 3 bedroom/3.5 bath (2,681 square feet) – This condo sold for $2,202,500, or $822 per square foot, on December 22, 2008.
Akoya – Unit TS03 – 3 bedroom/4.5 bath (3,377 square feet) – This condo sold for $2,070,000, or $613 per square foot, on December 30, 2009.
Murano at Portofino – Unit 3202 – 3 bedroom/3 bath (2,618 square feet) – This condo sold for $2,050,000, or $783 per square foot, on December 5, 2008.
Breathtaking Views From a Condo at One Bal Harbour
It was a perfectly gorgeous afternoon in South Florida today. I thought I’d share with everyone a few pictures that I shot from a condo on the 12th floor at One Bal Harbour this afternoon.
If you’re a boat lover then you’ll have plenty of opportunities to gaze at beautiful boats zipping by through the Bal Harbour inlet.
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.
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.
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.
Rumor Mill on the Streets of Manhattan
I arrived at La Guardia Airport in New York City on Tuesday afternoon. The good news was that the weather was fantastic. It was in the high 60s, which was unprecedented in New York City for the month of January. The weather was just what I needed after arriving in Chicago last week on the coldest day of the Winter season (I think it was something like 15 degrees below zero with wind chill). Brrrrr!!! In fact, the first thing I did when arriving in Chicago was to go to Target and buy some long underwear. It was that freakin’ cold! I used to live in downtown Chicago for 4 years so I should know cold, but that day was damn cold! Maybe living in Miami for so long has made my blood thin out a bit or something.
My arrival in New York City, however, soon turned sour after learning that my luggage was lost by American Airlines. Regardless, I checked into my hotel and tried to make the best of my trip. My luggage did finally arrive at 3am that night (the next morning).
Last week, I wrote a post mentioning that I would be in New York City from January 8-11 for the Real Estate Connect NYC 2008 Conference. I was contacted by one hedge fund analyst and two investment groups that wanted to meet me while I stayed in New York City. They each had an interest in the Miami condo market.
Today, I attended the first day of the Real Estate Connect Conference and listened to a few industry leaders speak about the market. I also picked up some great information in conversations with people in the hallways as well as the hedge fund analyst that I met with later in the evening.
Okay…enough with the boring stuff. Let’s get to the goods! The following is the rumor mill that was revealed to me throughout the day. This is just what I’ve heard. I am in no way saying that the rumors are true (although these rumors came from accredited sources).
WCI will declare bankruptcy within the next two weeks. Shares of WCI, the developer of One Bal Harbour, dropped 52.98% today on worries that WCI will declare bankruptcy. Standard & Poor affirmed WCI’s junk rating status and provided a negative outlook for the company. (Can you say “Pink Sheet”?) WCI was provided an extension until January 16, 2008. That’s a very short extension. My source disclosed to me tonight that the bank is probably finally realizing that it is in their best interest to pursue bankruptcy proceedings rather than delay the inevitable. The mathematics makes sense for the bank to do so. Most banks loaned about 65 percent of the total construction costs. As of right now, according to public records, WCI has closed 50.3 percent of the condo units at One Bal Harbour. If I were the bank holding onto the construction loan for One Bal Harbour, I would foreclose on this development immediately. The lender could at least offset their other losses with the gains they may realize with the sale of the defaulted units at One Bal Harbour. They know that it’s a strong development…I know that it’s a strong development. Until the investment funds step in, however, there’s still a lot of risk.
Marina Blue closings have been pushed back 2 months and possibly even longer. I heard this rumor when I was in Miami on Monday but I didn’t accept it until tonight. I’ve heard that Marina Blue has no clue when closings will begin. Somebody please tell me that I’m wrong! I’ve heard this one from multiple sources though.
Opera Tower is delaying closings another month. I’ve heard this one from multiple sources as well. What the hell is going on with this development? It keeps delaying its closings. Weren’t closings supposed to realistically begin around September? I was recently misquoted about Opera Tower in the papers. I was quoted as saying something along the lines that Opera Tower will have a 50 percent default rate. I actually said that Opera Tower will have at least a 50 percent default rate. Just my opinion though. Also, just my opinion is that this development is doomed. There’s a large lawsuit against the developer of Opera Tower. You may think I’m crazy but I think in six months my 50 percent default rate for Opera Tower will be considered an overzealous prediction.
Here’s the big one. Countrywide Financial Corporation is going to declare bankruptcy within the next three weeks. Countrywide has lost about 44 percent of its value within the past 5 days. Rumors around Wall Street are that this turkey is just about roasted and ready to be eaten. We should see this one fall soon…and it’ll make a huge thud on the Street when it does.
This one isn’t so much a rumor. Quantum on the Bay began closings and the development isn’t even close to being completed. (From what I’ve heard) TCO was granted in order to avoid a lawsuit pertaining to how long the development took to be completed. My guess (and only my guess) is that some money (maybe a lot) was transferred between the developer and city to get the TCO done to avoid lawsuits against the developer.
One Bal Harbour Condo Closings Appear to be Troubled
Last week, a client called me to let me know that he would be flying into Miami and would specifically like to take a look at One Bal Harbour. He wanted to schedule a showing for Monday afternoon. I contacted a WCI agent today to find out if we could get in to see some units on Monday. I was told that WCI has decided to take a holiday leave until Wednesday. Unfortunately, my client will be flying back to Canada on Monday evening.
After hearing this, I was thinking to myself “Wow! WCI must have closed a lot of condos these past couple of weeks in order to take a vacation”. I was curious to find out what their latest closing rate was since closings began on condos for this Bal Harbour development. I got back to my office and checked it out. The following graph reveals that 33.51% of units have closed at One Bal Harbour. December 8, 2007 I revealed that only 23.24% of units had closed since November 16, 2007, the first day that closings began.
Does this look problematic to anyone else? If I were a developer in this position I would be holding 24/7 open houses and not taking a holiday leave. Oh well…my client will return in a few months when those who do close are really struggling and condos will be much more aggressively priced. We’ll see if WCI can remain afloat until then. It looks like prices at One Bal Harbour will only go down over the next six months.
The most humorous quote to me was a Realtor saying in an article published on August 17, 2007 that she was “very confident that every single unit will close”. I hope she meant eventually every condo will close. If she meant that every contract holder will close then I think she was being way overly optimistic.
The closing rate cited above was obtained from public records. There can be a 2-3 week lag in getting a closing recorded although most closings are records within the first 7 days.
Update: New Condo Construction Closing Rates
The chart above will show you the percentage of total units that each development has closed since closings began.
One Bal Harbour is the newest edition to this monthly update. Closings began November 16, 2007. The percentage of closings may seem very low but keep in mind that it can take up to three weeks for closings to be recorded. However, it normally takes about five days for closings to be recorded. I know for a fact that several extensions have been granted at One Bal Harbour. I have a client who is planning to close on his unit this upcoming week. He will then sell it for a sizable loss to a replacement buyer who contacted me a few weeks ago in a simultaneous closing. I can tell you that WCI has delivered a fantastic product. An investment group that I met with today told me, after seeing a large variety of condo developments throughout South Florida, that One Bal Harbour was by far their favorite. I viewed a $5.7M condo there this past week that was simply amazing!
If you compare last month’s graph to this month’s you will see that there hasn’t been much of a change. Latitude on the River went up about 2%, Star Lofts on the Bay has remained unchanged (they’re in trouble), Onyx on the Bay has gone up about 3.5%, Ten Museum Park has gone up 7.5%, 2 Midtown has gone up about 4.5% and 50 Biscayne has gone up about 6.5%.
I’m actually quite shocked that more closing haven’t occurred since last month’s numbers were released. I realize that the market is slow but I would have thought that 1 or 2 other condo developments would have hit the 70% mark. I especially thought that 50 Biscayne would have had an increase of at least 10%. These figures, when compared to last month’s, are quite an eye opener.
Welcome to One Bal Harbour
Ever wonder what it would feel like to play James Bond for a day? Sneak into a highly secured building suspended by a cable moving along a pulley? How else could I get into One Bal Harbour on a Sunday afternoon? Well actually, I just walked in through the front door.
The lobby was simply amazing! The ceilings looked to be 25-30 feet high. WCI definitely delivered a remarkable product. There has been much speculation by the media, as of late, that One Bal Harbour will be riddled by a large percentage of defaults. That may or may not ultimately be true, but those who can hold for three-plus years will likely be pleased with their decision.
I took a ton of pictures while touring the common areas of One Bal Harbour. Unfortunately, my camcorder was having issues so I wasn’t able to shoot any video.
The picture slideshow below will reveal what I saw yesterday. The final 11 pictures were taken within the hotel aspect of the development. The restaurant looks like it will be amazing.
