Four Bank-Owned Condos in Miami & Miami Beach to be Auctioned September 19, 2007
Four condos will be auctioned off Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at approximately 3pm. Three of the four condos are located in Miami while the fourth is located in Miami Beach. All four condos have gone through the foreclosure process and are currently owned by the bank.
1. Meridian Place – 325 Meridian Avenue #6 | Miami Beach, FL 33139
This is actually a townhouse. Of the four units being auctioned, it will probably hold the most interest because of its fantastic location. Some of South Florida’s most expensive condominiums reside in the South of Fifth neighborhood of South Beach. Built in 1994, this 3 bedroom/2 bath townhouse has 1,300 square feet of interior space, as well as two parking spaces (one garage space and one driveway space). County records indicate that the bank is owed $549,000. The opening bid is $100,000.
Let’s just say that I’m not surprised. I’ll leave it at that. This 1 bedroom/1 bath condo has 818 square feet of interior space. The bank is owed $610,000. I guess they’re in for a rude awakening come September 19th. The opening bid is $100,000.
3. Venetia Condo – 555 NE 15th Street #16-H | Miami, FL 33132
Venetia Condo is located at the entrance of the Venetian Causeway in Miami. The building was built in 1980. The condo up for auction is a 1 bedroom/1 bath with 800 square feet of interior space. It faces south and has views of Biscayne Bay as well as the cities of Miami and Miami Beach. The bank is owed $410,000. The opening bid is $50,000.
4. Blue Lagoon Condominiums – 5091 NW 7 Street #705 | Miami, FL 33126
Of the four condos that will be auctioned on September 19, 2007, I think the 2 bedroom/1 bath at Blue Lagoon Condominium will hold the least amount of interest from the people attending the auction. However, this makes it a great candidate to be acquired at bargain prices. Blue Lagoon Condominium is located near the airport, about 12 minutes from Brickell. It’ll make for a great investment property if it can be obtained for $175,000 or less. The unit has 862 square feet of interior space. The bank is owed $305,000. The opening bid is $50,000.
Contact me for more information regarding this auction featuring the above four condos.
South Beach Condo Index – August 2007
I finished crunching the numbers for the second installment of the South Beach Condo Index. I discovered some very good news! List prices have come down and the average price per square foot of condo units sold in the last six months in the 19 condo buildings included in the index has gone up.
In July, we discovered that the average price per square foot for units listed in the 19 condo buildings was $913.19. This figure has dropped to $892.32 per square foot for the month of August. The weighted-adjusted average was $793.99 in July versus a weight-adjusted average of $777.86 this month.
The average price per square foot of condo units sold over the previous six months went from $772.36 in July to $776.55 in August. The weight-adjusted averages went from $686.73 in July to $689.30 in August. 8 of the 19 building had in an increase in their average price per square foot over the past month, 4 remained unchanged and 7 went down.
There were a total of 18 transactions that occurred in the following 19 buildings from July 12, 2007 to August 11, 2007. Even though the 18 transactions represent twice the number of transactions that occurred in a one-month period in Brickell, I think the overall number is pretty small. This was highly expected, however, given the current condition of the market and the fact that we’re in our off-season months. It’ll be nice to see the change in the number of transactions as we enter the winter months.
There were a total 5 closings at Waverly at South Beach; 2 closings at Icon and Mirador 1000 & 1200; and 1 closing at 1500 Ocean Drive, Continuum South Tower, The Cosmopolitan, The Decoplage, The Floridian, Il’ Villagio, Murano at Portofino, Murano Grande and Yacht Club at Portofino. The rest had zero transactions during the one-month period.
The average price per square foot of condos listed at the following 19 buildings in South Beach:
Murano at Portofino – 1000 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | $953.15
Murano Grande – 400 Alton Rd | 33139 | $777.42
Portofino Tower – 300 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | $919.28
Setai South Beach – 101 20 St | 33139 | $1,688.57
Waverly at South Beach – 1330 West Ave | 33139 | $470.84
Yacht Club at Portofino – 90 Alton Rd | 33139 | $663.66
The sold-to-listed ratio has become more favorable in South Beach as a result of list prices coming down and the average price per square foot of sales going up. The sold-to-listed ratio, expressed as a percentage, went from 18.20% in July to 15.29% in August. The weight-adjusted averages went from 14.47% to 12.12% respectively. It is good to see that list prices are falling more in line with where condos are actually selling.
The sold-to-listed ratio expressed as a percentage in the following 19 buildings in South Beach:
1500 Ocean Drive – 1500 Ocean Dr | 33139 | 22.20%
Bentley Bay – 520 & 540 West Ave | 33139 | 25.49%
Bentley Beach – 101 Ocean Dr | 33139 | (2.79%)
Continuum South Tower – 100 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | 11.46%
Cosmopolitan – 110 Washington Ave | 33139 | 10.88%
Courts at South Beach – 140 Jefferson Ave | 33139 | 17.96%
Decoplage – 100 Lincoln Rd | 33139 | 17.75%
Floridian – 650 West Ave | 33139 | 6.18%
Grand Venetian – 10 Venetian Wy | 33139 | 26.23%
Icon South Beach – 450 Alton Rd | 33139 | 20.74%
Il Villagio – 1455 Ocean Dr | 33139 | 28.91%
Meridian Lofts – 2001 Meridian Ave | 33139 | 32.07%
Murano at Portofino – 1000 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | 26.44%
Murano Grande – 400 Alton Rd | 33139 | 12.52%
Portofino Tower – 300 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | (3.22%)
Setai South Beach – 101 20 St | 33139 | 15.83%
Waverly at South Beach – 1330 West Ave | 33139 | 14.25%
Yacht Club at Portofino – 90 Alton Rd | 33139 | 8.11%
That wraps things up for the August 2007 South Beach Condo Index. Next week we’ll take our third look at condos in Brickell.
Foreclosure at Yacht Club at Portofino – 2 Bedroom/2 Bath – $669,900
There’s a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo foreclosure at Yacht Club at Portofino in South Beach. It has 1,090 square feet of interior space and faces west towards Biscayne Bay, Fisher Island and the Miami city skyline. The condo also has a view of the swimming pool deck at Yacht Club at Portofino. The unit is listed at $669,900, or $615 per square foot. The South Beach Condo Index for July revealed that Yacht Club at Portofino had an average price per square foot of $745.27 for units listed in the building. The average price per square foot of units sold over the preceding six months was $665.19. According to the Miami-Dade County website, the previous owner paid $780,000 for the unit in May of 2006. The list price is good but I think it has room to come down quite a bit.
The unit looks to be in great shape. Take a look at the picture slideshow below to view a variety of pictures that accompanied the MLS listing.
This is not a short sale. It is a bank owned property. From my experience, buying a bank owned property is much easier than buying a short sale. When you purchase a short sale the bank usually takes 4-6 weeks to respond to any offers received. Just because the seller signs the contract does not mean that the bank is going to accept the submitted offer. In the past two months I had two short sale deals fall apart because the bank was not willing to negotiate. They wanted market value for the unit and would take nothing less. I find it shocking, that with foreclosure rates soaring, that banks are so inflexible. It will end up costing them more in fees if they end up repossessing the property. Bank owned properties are much easier to deal with because you usually get an answer back from the bank regarding your offer within 2-3 business days.
Yacht Club at Portofino is a luxury high-rise condo building located in the South of Fifth neighborhood of South Beach. It is arguably the best and most luxurious neighborhood in South Beach.The address of Yacht Club at Portofino is 90 Alton Road. If you or anyone you know is interested in this 2 bedroom foreclosure then please feel free to contact me by phone or email.
Apogee South Beach: Ultra-Luxury Living at its Finest – Prices & Availability
The video above is of the construction progress at Apogee South Beach located in the neighborhood of South Beach known as South of Fifth. South of Fifth has become the most luxurious neighborhood in South Beach. Apogee is situated at the southern tip of South Beach, along South Pointe Drive at 800 South Pointe Drive. As you can see above, Apogee is almost complete. Closings for condo units at Apogee are scheduled to begin in September 2007. Apogee rises 22 stories high with only 67 private residences (4 units per floor).
Apogee South Beach will be THE ultra-luxury condo building of South Beach. Celebrities from all over have purchased residences at Apogee. When sales began at Apogee prices started at $3M. The list below will show you information pertaining to the resale units that are currently available at Apogee. Original buyers were given the option of modifying the floor plan of their residence which means that some of these units may be modified versions of the original floor plan. Apogee is known for having very large and spacious residences with top-of-the-line appliances and fixtures.
“A” Residence:
4,154 Sq Ft a/c
2,441 Sq Ft terrace
Line “04”, West corner with N, S, & W exposures
Unit 704 – $7.6M ($1,829/SF) 3BR
Unit 1104 – $7.75M ($1,866/SF) 4BR
Unit 1504 – $7.75M ($1,866/SF) 3BR
Unit 1704 – $8.2M ($1,974/SF) 4BR
Line “01”, East corner with N, S, & E exposures
Unit 901 – $5.2M ($1,252/SF) 4BR
Unit 1401 – $6.5M ($1,565/SF) 3BR
“B” Residence:
3,100 Sq Ft a/c
1,042 Sq Ft terrace
Unit 703 – $4M ($1,290/SF)
Unit 902 – $4.5M ($1,452/SF)
Unit 1203 – $4.349M ($1,403/SF)
Unit 1402 – $4.449M ($1,435/SF)
Unit 1603 – $4.9M ($1,580/SF)
Unit 1903 – $5.2M ($1,677/SF)
Take a look at level of quality that will go into the luxurious residences at Apogee South Beach:
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.
Il Villagio Penthouse – $17,750,000 – A Look at an Ultra-Luxury Condo
Many of you may have wondered, at some time or another, what a $15M+ condo looks like in South Beach. So, let’s take a look at the two-story penthouse condo at Il Villaggio that is listed for $17,750,000. It has an amazing 5,700 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 4 full baths, 2 half baths, a 12-camera security system, private rooftop terrace with pool and Jacuzzi, 4 parking spaces and much, much more. Il Villagio is located on one of the most well-known streets in South Beach, Ocean Drive, at 1455 Ocean Drive. Two words came to mind when I saw this condo: “bad ass”! Make sure to take a look at the MLS listing for more information.
I realize that South Beach is not located within the Miami city boundaries. South Beach resides in the city of Miami Beach, which in itself is a separate city from Miami. I felt compelled, however, to include a South Beach condo index due to much interest in condominiums located in South Beach, and because I conduct a significant portion of my business in South Beach. Besides…if I didn’t provide this information then who would?
It was much more difficult to create a South Beach condo index than it was for Brickell or Brickell Key. There are so many more buildings to consider in South Beach. I didn’t want to only include the luxury buildings residing in South Beach but also didn’t want to include each and every small development located in the 33139 zip code either. I wanted to create a South Beach condo index that encompassed all of South Beach. To a nonlocal person, I wanted to provide a transparent look into the South Beach real estate market. Like I said though, I didn’t want to include each and every small development throughout all of South Beach either. The overall average price per square foot in South Beach would be significantly less than the figures below if one were to include every condo building in South Beach.
I instead chose to include those developments that are the most well known to South Beach locals. I realize that I’ve omitted a few but after much consideration, I decided on the following 19 buildings found below. The condo units at Flamingo South Beach will be considered at a future date once the entire development has been converted into condominiums and more resales are available. Other new developments may also be considered once additional resale information can be obtained. That being said, the following have made the South Beach graduating class of July 2007. Alongside each development, you will find the average price per square foot of units currently available for sale on the MLS.
Overall, the numbers did not surprise me too much. The only one that shocked me was Meridian Lofts but there’s a unit listed there for $4,000,000, or $1,140.25 per square foot. That increased the overall average. To someone unfamiliar with the South Beach real estate market the numbers above might seem ridiculous, but to those familiar with the local market, these numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise. The average price per square foot for condos currently listed in South Beach using the 19 buildings above came out to $913.19. The weight-adjust average came out to $793.99. The weight-adjusted average is significantly less due to the fact that Mirador 1000 and Mirador 1200 represent almost 18 percent of the overall units used in the index. It also has the lowest average price per square foot of all the buildings included in the index which helped to provide a better representation of the overall South Beach condo market. Although the average price per square foot in South Beach was almost one and a half times that of Brickell, the numbers in the June 2007 Brickell index were much more shocking to me.
The numbers below will show the average price per square foot in these buildings based on closed sales of condos in each building over the last six months.
Murano at Portofino – 1000 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | $962.09
Murano Grande – 400 Alton Rd | 33139 | $771.10
Portofino Tower – 300 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | $919.28
Setai – 101 20 St | 33139 | $1,733.20
Waverly at South Beach – 1330 West Ave | 33139 | $474.57
Yacht Club at Portofino – 90 Alton Rd | 33139 | $665.19
Overall, the price per square foot of units sold in these buildings over the last six months was $772.36, or $686.73 when weight-adjusted. I was surprised to see that the average price per square foot for condos sold over the last six months at Grand Venetian was under $500. I would have expected this to be significantly higher. I also thought that 1500 Ocean Drive and Icon would have been higher as well. It is amazing to see The Setai at $1,733.20 per square foot but it wasn’t particularly surprising. The Setai is known to be the ultra-luxury building of South Beach. I think we’ll see the average price per square foot at The Floridian and The Cosmopolitan come down some as both buildings have a number of preforeclosures and foreclosures in them.
The figures below will show the sold-to-listed ratio as a percentage. For example, as you will see below, 1500 Ocean Drive had an average price per square foot of condo units sold that was 50.34% of the average price per square foot of condo units listed. You’ll notice that the figures for Bentley Beach and Portofino Tower are in parentheses. Both of these had a higher average price per square foot of units sold in the past six months than those that are currently listed.
1500 Ocean Drive – 1500 Ocean Dr | 33139 | 50.34%
Bentley Bay – 520 & 540 West Ave | 33139 | 25.57%
Bentley Beach – 101 Ocean Dr | 33139 | (9.56%)
Continuum South Tower – 100 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | 22.16%
Cosmopolitan – 110 Washington Ave | 33139 | 9.79%
Courts at South Beach – 140 Jefferson Ave | 33139 | 16.18%
Decoplage – 100 Lincoln Rd | 33139 | 20.82%
Floridian – 650 West Ave | 33139 | 9.13%
Grand Venetian – 10 Venetian Wy | 33139 | 26.36%
Icon – 450 Alton Rd | 33139 | 20.70%
Il Villagio – 1455 Ocean Dr | 33139 | 48.58%
Meridian Lofts – 2001 Meridian Ave | 33139 | 30.25%
Murano at Portofino – 1000 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | 26.92%
Murano Grande – 400 Alton Rd | 33139 | 12.55%
Portofino Tower – 300 S Pointe Dr | 33139 | (1.85%)
Setai – 101 20 St | 33139 | 13.08%
Waverly at South Beach – 1330 West Ave | 33139 | 12.23%
Yacht Club at Portofino – 90 Alton Rd | 33139 | 12.04%
A few of the figures are a bit misleading. 1500 Ocean Drive, Il Villagio and Continuum have active listings that are priced at over $15M. These listings skewed the overall average price per square foot for units listed in those buildings which in turn through off the sold-to-listed percentages.
That concludes the South Beach condo index for July 2007. Next week I’ll return with another look at the condos in Brickell. It’ll be interesting to see how things have changed in a month’s time.
An Analytical Analysis of Analyzing Condominiums
People often ask me why I chose to focus on condominiums rather than single family homes when I began my career in real estate. I guess the answer is mainly attributable to my formal education and the work experience I gained after graduating college.
As mentioned in the About Me section of this site, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance with a specialization in Investments. After graduation, I worked as an equity options trader on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange for four years.
It became second nature for me to begin to analogize most aspects of my life in investment terms. Condominiums to me had similar homogeneous characteristics as that of a financial security than single family homes.
In my opinion, it is much easier to analyze the true market value of a condominium than it is for a single family home. A price per square foot analysis of condo units in a building, and even a neighborhood, reveals more truth than the price per square foot analysis of single family homes on a particular street or in a particular neighborhood.
A 2 bedroom condo in a particular building, in many instances, will have the same characteristics of another 2 bedroom condo in that same building, such as shared common areas, amenities, year built, square footage, appliances, floor plan, maintenance fees, view, parking spaces and so on. Any differentiations in the aforementioned qualities can be easily adjusted in the value of the subject property versus comparable properties.
It is much more difficult to assess the value of a single family home. It is common to see a small, outdated home situated right down the street from a large, recently built home. Of course there are ways to appraise the values of each by making adjustments for any differentiations in each home but it just isn’t the same, in my mind. A home buyer may fall in love with one home while he or she finds the home right down the street an eyesore.
It becomes much more expensive to turn a home down the street into your dream home than it is to turn a condo down the hallway into your ideal abode. The expense of replacing or changing the floors, paint job, window treatments, light fixtures and other elements of a condo can more easily be ascertained.
These thoughts guided me into the decision of choosing to specialize in condominiums over single family homes when I began my career in real estate. As the housing bubble talk began to escalate a few years ago, I began to think of how nice it would be conceive a way to hedge real estate investments for the average home purchaser or investor in case of a bubble-popping scenario.
I guess fellow Chicagoans at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange had similar thoughts. They created a tradable home market index based upon the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which measures home prices based on recorded changes in home values and a repeat sales methodology.
The futures and options instruments that were enacted by the CME began trading in May of 2006. The purpose was to offer jittery homeowners a way to hedge the investment in their homes against future price declines. The CME also saw a large interest from investors to directly participate in the much-talked-about housing market.
While being a giant leap in the right direction, the CME’s housing index is far from perfect. They introduced tradable securities based upon large metropolitan areas which include the following: Miami, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Washington, as well as a weighted composite index.
However, it is difficult to adequately hedge the value of a condo in a building such as The Setai in South Beach from a condo in a boutique building in Hialeah using their index.
I have decided to create my own, localized, index. This index will be based upon market data derived from major condo buildings in Miami. I will create a graphical representation of a six-month price per square foot moving average using data of closed sales and a month-to-month price per square foot analysis of units currently on the market. I may include other relevant statistics in the future to provide more in-depth information relevant to the Miami condo market. I hope you guys trading the Miami housing index at the CME appreciate the information. I’d love to hear from you.
I plan to release an index update each week. At the outset, I will rotate Miami neighborhoods for a total of four neighborhoods (South Beach, Brickell, Arts & Design District and Miami Beach minus South Beach). In the future I plan to add Downtown Miami and Park West as its own index once the nearly constructed buildings in those areas are fully built.
I’ve decided to name my index the “Miami Condo Index”, or MCI for short. Obviously my index won’t be tradable as is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s housing index, but I hope that it will provide more insight to localized housing markets throughout Miami’s major neighborhoods.
The Miami Condo Index will launch next week with an in-depth look at Brickell.
I urge other Realtors throughout the country to create their own localized housing indices to fully encompass their own markets and provide market transparency to home buyers like no other.
Update #2: 2 Bedroom Foreclosure @ The Cosmopolitan in South Beach
The list price of the 2 bedroom/2 bathroom foreclosure condo at The Cosmopolitan in South Beach has been reduced from $520,000 to $495,000. This is the second 2 bedroom foreclosure at The Cosmopolitan in the past month. The first condo unit went under contract after it was reduced to $485,000. That unit was inferior for several reasons. The first 2 bedroom foreclosure had one parking space, tiled and wood floors and no balcony. The most recent 2 bedroom foreclosure has two assigned parking spaces, marble floors and a balcony that offers a partial ocean view. The pictures below will show you the most recent 2 bedroom foreclosure at The Cosmopolitan.
In 2007, there have been two 2/2 condo units at The Cosmopolitan that have closed. They sold for $581 and $558 per square foot. This unit is being offered at $490 per square foot.
The Cosmopolitan was built in 2004 and is located two blocks from the beach at 110 Washington Avenue in South Beach. The map at the top will show you a street-level view of the building. Please refer to my first and second foreclosure postings on The Cosmopolitan for more information about the building and the neighborhood.
UPDATE: I finally got to see this condo at The Cosmopolitan for myself. I’ve seen a lot of condo units at The Cosmopolitan and this one holds up to or even surpasses what I’ve seen. Marble floors, 2 parkings spaces, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, partial ocean view from the balcony and a spacious floor plan. What more does someone want in South of Fifth for under $500K? This one is a steal!
