The real estate sales continued to mount the week leading up to Art Week. Even though Thanksgiving coincided with Chanukah this year, our sales for a normally quiet week were over $24,000,000, just for our Coral Gables office. The highest residential sale was for the Pinecrest home pictured above.
We had a total of 18 residential sales, which includes single family and condo/town homes, one commercial sale, and 12 new listings.
November was a busy month in Pinecrest. There are currently 127 listings on the market, 18 of which were added to the MLS in November. There are a total of 42 listings under contract, 12 that went pending in November. 14 properties closed in November out of a total 227 sales to date for 2013. The highest sale for November is pictured above. It closed for $3.175 million. Coldwell Banker was the listing broker and EWM was the selling broker.
The highest priced sale so far this year was 6500 SW 98 Street, which was listed by the Campins Group and sold by Shelton and Associates.
Unobstructed water views from this spectacular unit, which has been professionally designed by Adriana Hoyos. Enter your private foyer directly from the elevator, open your front door and water views greet you. The spacious unit includes two bedrooms, a den, 3 full baths, large kitchen with built-in Miele coffee maker, wine refrigerator, Subzero, and laundry room with a utility sink. At $1,150,000 it is the lowest priced unit in the popular “9” line of the modern state-of-the-art Jade building.
We are already half way through October and almost at the end of the year. 2013 will probably break another record in terms of the number of real estate sales we have had in Miami-Dade County. A quick snapshot of the Pinecrest real estate market shows the following:
Since October 1, there have been 11 new listings, 2 of which are short sales, and 2 homes have gone under contract. So far, there have been no closed sales in October. Going forward, I expect the inventory to increase slightly until Spring, at which point I think we will see more inventory come on the market. I still expect properties priced from $600,000 – $1 million to move fairly quickly.
If you are a buyer, especially in the luxury price range, you will have a lot to choose from and have more negotiating room.
If you are a seller, you will want to price your property so that it sells before the inventory increases in the Spring.
Even though this close to the start of the school year sales should be slowing down, nothing could be further from reality. Our EWM office had over $20 million worth of sales this week, which represents a total of 31 sales. 5 of the sales went for the asking price and 3 went above asking.
The graph below is for single family homes in Pinecrest, a neighborhood known for its luxury homes on large lots community parks and great schools. Second quarter inventory in Pinecrest is down 12% from the same time last year, and based on both closed and pended sales for the quarter, there is only a 4.7 month supply of inventory. Although it is only a snapshot of one Miami community, it is indicative of what many communities are going through: tight inventories, increasing sales, and frustrated buyers.
Several recent articles have highlighted the issue of preservation vs private property rights. I want to clarify that I am for historic preservation of relevant buildings but I think if it is done retroactively, it infringes on private property rights.
Both the Miami Herald building, sold to Genting Malaysia, and a Robert Browning Parker home in Gables Estates, currently listed for sale by Helen Nicastri of Coldwell Banker, have come before preservation boards with different outcomes.
A home in north Gables on Minorca and another in Miami Beach on Star Island are further examples of preservation boards trying to designate properties as historic when new owners purchased the property and applied for demolition permits.
If a property is designated as historic, it cannot be torn down and there are restrictions on the amount and type of renovations that can be done. You can check with local preservation boards to see if the property you are purchasing is on their list prior to purchasing, but if it is not on the list should a local board be able to designate it when you apply for permits to demolish or refurbish? To protect your investment, if you are planning to purchase a property built in the 1920’s-1960’s (Old Spanish, Art Deco and MiMo architectural styles) and want to renovate or demolish it, contact the local historic preservation board during your due diligence/inspection period.
EWM’s Coral Gables office broke a record sales number…over $50 million in one week! Imagine what a week we would have had if we had more inventory!
A quick snapshot of the overall market for 2012:
Single Family home sales increased 21% in 2012. Those listed between $300,000 to under $1 million increased 50%. Home sales for those over $1 million increased 64%.
Condo sales increased by 6%. Condos between $300,000 to under $1 million increased 45% and those listed over $1 million increased 62%
With that amount of activity, low inventory and cash still flooding our market, many buyers are frustrated. If you are one of them, there are several things you can do to have your offer considered on a new listing.
1) The most important item to have clear is the financial aspect of your purchase. If you are a cash buyer, make sure you have proof of funds ready to accompany an offer. If you are going for financing, have your pre-approval letter from your mortgage company with as few contingencies as possible.
2) Have your real estate agent put you on a system where you are being notified the instant a property that meets your criteria hits the market.
3) Make the time to go see the property the first day. There are a lot of buyers who are making offers the first day because they have been familiarizing themselves with the market and know that if the property is priced right, it will sell.
I just received yet another e-mail on a new construction project; this one is coming to Coral Gables. It seems hard to believe that we went through a MAJOR real estate crash, with many of our prominent developers themselves involved in foreclosures of their projects, just a few years ago. It also seems hard to believe that there are so many new developments selling their projects, when foreclosure activity in Florida is leading the nation. Is this a contradiction in the real estate market, setting us up for another dip? Not necessarily.
New projects extend from the Gables all the way north to the Broward county line. They cover Coconut Grove, Brickell/Downtown, Midtown, South Beach, Mid Beach, North Miami Beach, and Aventura. Pricing starts from the low $200,000’s in the Gables to the several million for those projects in the Grove, Miami Beach and Aventura. Based on what I am seeing, buyers are definitely leaning toward newer, more modern buildings and inventory in newer buildings is extremely tight. Builders are using a formula more commonly used in South America, where there is no financing, and the buyer pays a significant amount of money down at various stages of the construction process. The range in starting prices, demand for new buildings and the new purchasing requirements make for a bit more stability than the previous building boom.
What does all of this new construction mean if you are a buyer? It means that you will have more options in a given price range. You will be able to choose between existing units where you know exactly what you are getting and one that is under construction that you can finish to your specifications. Check to see how many new projects are going up in the area you are looking in and what the price ranges in the different development are. Too much supply of the same type of property could point to price decreases or stagnation.
If you are a seller of an older property in an area where new projects are going up, it means you will be competing with projects that are newer and offer more amenities than yours. Make sure you know your competition and highlight your property’s positive attributes. Many older units tend to be larger or offer more closet space than many of the newer construction projects.
Art Week, which kicks off on December 4 with Art Miami, is a great time to list your luxury home. EWM will prominently promote our luxury listings to the patrons of Art Miami, Art Basel, and Art Wynwood. Christie International Real Estate and it’s local affiliate, EWM, are sponsoring Art Miami and will be heavily promoting their sponsorship and luxury properties before 55,000 art enthusiasts.