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Bucking a national slowdown, Miami-Dade County posted a 9.8-percent gain in existing single-family home sales and a 12.9-percent increase in existing condo sales in January, compared with a year earlier. The median price of a single-family home in Miami-Dade county jumped 16 percent in January to $225,000 and the condo median rose 20 percent to $186,000, the Miami Association of Realtors said. Sales of Miami-Dade single-family homes rose to 904 closings in January from 823 a year earlier, while condo closings totaled 1,269 compared with 1,124 a year earlier, Miami Realtors said.
Home values in South Florida showed no weakness in November, soaring 17 percent compared to the prior year, according to the latest Case-Shiller numbers. The closely watched real estate index gave the greater Miami market the largest November increase of any of the 20 metropolitan markets it tracks. Between October and November, the Miami index increased .7 percent, the 23rd straight month of rising values. Taking a 12-month view, the Miami index grew the fastest since June 2006.
The median price of a single-family home in Miami-Dade soared 25.7 percent in July to $230,000 from $183,000 a year earlier, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. That was the same as June’s median price of $230,000. Sales of single-family homes in Miami-Dade jumped 27.3 percent to 1,227 closings in July from 964 a year earlier. Miami-Dade single-family home sales hit their highest level in July since the peak of the boom in 2005. And that robust level of sales came despite a continued tight supply of homes listed.
A few months after starting in earnest — and more than a year away from being completely finished — the $250 million renovation of the old Doral Golf Resort is furiously under way. Real estate magnate and reality TV star Donald Trump bought the 50-year-old property and four of its five golf courses out of bankruptcy for $150 million last year and promised a massive overhaul. “When completed, Doral will be the finest resort and golf club in the country,” he said at the time.”
A new study by a national housing group finds depressed real estate values have put homeownership within reach for many middle-class workers. But with a limited number of homes for sale and high demand for apartments, rents are surging and often matching or even exceeding the cost of a mortgage, according to the study by the National Housing Conference. “It’s much better off on the homeownership side,’’ said Maya Brennan, a researcher for the center. “In Miami, the negative part of the story is how expensive the rental market has become.”
South Florida existing homes sales continue to sizzle in the face of rising mortgage rates and a dearth of inventory. The median price of a single-family home in Miami-Dade jumped 21.1 percent to $230,000 in June from $190,000 a year earlier, as buyers duked it out over a tight inventory of homes for sale, the Miami Association of Realtors said. The number of single-family homes sold in Miami-Dade increased 25.1 percent to 1,170 in June from 935 a year earlier but slipped 3.8 percent below May’s volume amid the shortage of listings.
The Miami area ranked eighth among the top 10 luxury real estate markets in the world in a report from Christie’s International Real Estate, putting it in a league with London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong. Miami-Dade placed high in the percentage of second-home buyers, cash buyers, and foreign and other non-local buyers. The priciest home sold in Miami in 2012 was the spectacular bayfront estate at 3 Indian Creek Drive in Indian Creek Village, which fetched a record-setting $47-million. The trophy property — a 10-bedroom, 14-bathroom resort-like project constructed along a series of pavilions — went to a Russian buyer, whose identity hasn’t been disclosed. The Miami-Dade deal paled compared to the top residential sales last year in London ($121.2 million) and New York ($88 million).
South Florida’s housing market kept humming in January, with sales agents and a growing crowd of buyers complaining of a dearth of choices on the market. The median price of an existing single-family home in Miami-Dade County rose 14.8 percent to $194,000 in January from a year earlier, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. The median price of a Miami-Dade condo jumped 24.1 percent year over year.
Sales of previously owned homes and condos in Miami-Dade rose 7.5 percent in January to 1,947 units. That included a 19.1 percent spike in the sale of existing single-family homes while condo sales were essentially flat, with a 0.3 percent increase in volume year over year.
Now, at last, banks are starting to open their pocketbooks again, experts say, though lending is still not on par with pre-recession levels.
“There is no question that small business borrowing declined as a result of the recession and has yet to recover to pre-crisis levels,” said Richard Brown, chief economist for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., via email. “According to the Federal Reserve, total loans to noncorporate businesses and farms stood at just under $3.8 trillion in September, which remains below the peak of about $4.1 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2008.”
Ultra-luxury condominiums on South Beach are fetching nosebleed prices. On Tuesday, a penthouse at the Setai Resort at 2001 Collins Avenue closed for $27 million — the highest price ever for a South Florida condominium, according to real estate agents. Just a few weeks ago, Ohio coal mining businessman Wayne Boich Jr. completed the sale of his Icon South Beach penthouse at 450 Alton Road in the uber-trendy South of Fifth neighborhood for just under $21 million.
Rents are rising in Miami, especially in the sizzling Brickell/downtown areas where vacant units are snapped up quickly amid strong demand for the urban lifestyle and amenities. In greater downtown Miami and Brickell, residential rental rates per square foot jumped 10 percent in the first nine months of 2012 from a year earlier, according to a study conducted for Miami Downtown Development Authority by Coral Gables-based Focus Real Estate Advisors.
According to a new Global Cities Report by London-based real estate consulting firm Knight Frank, fifteen of the 26 cities tracked by the Prime Global Cities Index (58%) recorded flat or positive price growth in the year to September, but over the last quarter 20 of the 26 cities (77%) have seen flat or positive growth - indicating an improving scenario...Cities such as Dubai, Miami, Nairobi and London are increasingly considered investment hubs for HNWIs in their wider regions. In the wake of the Arab Spring, Dubai has been seen as a relative safe haven for MENA buyers while Venezuelan and Brazilian investors have looked to Miami to limit their exposure to domestic political and economic volatility.
The average price of a downtown Miami condo unit rose 9.1 percent to $404,927 in the second quarter from $371,205 a year earlier, according to a new report. The study by Focus Real Estate Advisors and Goodkin Consulting for the Miami Downtown Development Authority was brimming with bullish data on the rebounding downtown housing market, where the volume of sales jumped 24 percent in the first half of this year to 2,072 units from 1,671 during the first half of 2011.
Say good riddance to the bottom of the housing market. After giving up a decade of value, home prices are on the upswing in South Florida and ahead of much of the nation, according to two key national indices released Tuesday. "We're seeing extremely encouraging market signs in both Miami and Phoenix" said Stan Humphries, chief economist for Seattle-based Zillow. "We're seeing home value appreciation rates which are quite frankly surprising at this stage of the recovery"
Donald Trump is promising a major redo of South Florida's most famous golf course. A day after announcing his $150 million purchase of the Doral Golf Resort and Country Club, the world's most famous real estate developer portrayed his plans as something of a rescue for the home to the infamous Blue Monster course. "We're going to make Doral really great,' Trump said Tuesday . "We're going to spend a lot of money, and bring it back to the highest levels of golf..."
Pull over into the designated space. Turn off the engine. And enjoy the oceanfront view as you escalate in a glass elevator that takes you, while you are sitting in your car, to the front door of your apartment. No, this is not the latest Disney ride. The $560 million Jetsonesque tower will rise in Sunny Isles Beach as part of a collaboration between Germany-based Porsche Design Group and a local developer, Gil Dezer. It likely will be the world's first condominium complex with elevators that will take residents directly to their units while they are sitting in their cars...
Miami's first new condo high-rise since the housing bust is set to begin construction next spring, developer Newgard Development Group announced Monday. Called Brickell House, the $170 million project is part of a new wave of condo towers planned for downtown Miami, which saw development grind to a halt after the building frenzy that lasted from 2003 to 2008. "Almost all of the [outstanding] inventory that we had has been absorbed in the last 18 months," said Harvey Hernandez, managing partner and chairman of Newgard Group. "It could not be a better moment for us to launch a project."...
Developer and reality TV personality Donald Trump has agreed to buy the Doral Golf Resort & Spa for $170 million. But Trump, whose name adorns three Atlantic City casinos, said a push to legalize gambling at more South Florida locations will not play into his plans for the 693-room resort. "This really is unrelated to gaming," he said. A source with knowledge of the plans said the Trump Organization will invest at least $150 million in upgrades to the nearly 50-year-old hotel, which was put into bankruptcy earlier this year...
TALLAHASSEE -- A Tallahassee court cleared the way Thursday for legislators to expand gambling in South Florida without a referendum vote, while two key sponsors of a casino bill finished drafting their proposal to allow three resort casinos to operate in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The ruling by First District Court of Appeals Judge Marguerite H. Davis was a victory for Hialeah Racetrack and serves as a promising omen for the push by the world's largest gaming companies to bring resort casinos to Florida...
