As we start to get into the busy winter buying season, EWM Realty International has gotten off to a strong start. The company had a $70 million week between our offices in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. The breakdown for our Miami-Dade offices are:
Brickell $1.3 million
Coconut Grove $1.5 million
Coral Gables/ South Miami $24 million
Key Biscayne $1.2 million
Miami Beach $30 million
Pinecrest $1.4 million
The highest sale in our Coral Gables office was for a unit at the Faena House, pictured above, for $5.5 million .
As if the real estate market in South Florida doesn’t have enough going on with all of the new construction and tight inventory in high demand locations, there is now a new scam to watch out for. Hackers are using the hot real estate markets throughout the country and are targeting Realtors® and their client’s. They hack into a Realtor’s e-mail account, learn about transactions they are working on and then e-mail the client requesting a deposit be wired to an account. It all looks legitimate to the client, who wires the money to a fraudulent account.
To protect yourself:
• Always verify any request to transfer funds with your REALTOR® and closing agent, either a title company or attorney.
• Call using a number you have used before, NOT the number on the e-mail directing you to wire the deposit.
• Be on the lookout for responses to e-mails that you have not sent. This may be a sign that your e-mail account has been hacked.
• Be especially careful of e-mails from gmail and Hotmail accounts.
• Please share this information with any one you know who is currently buying or selling real estate
Although today’s Miami Herald article “Housing market shows signs of cooling” may send some buyers back to the sidelines, it should be emphasized that they are referring to the condo market. Here is a snapshot of what EWM’s Coral Gables office saw in activity this week:
New Sales Listings: 15, 6 condos and 9 single family homes, 6 listings above $1 million.
New Rental Listings: 12, 7 condos and 5 single family homes
Residential Sales: 34, 7 condos and 27 single family homes, 3 were above $1 million.
To break what is going on with our sales into percentages, we saw 44% more sales than new listings. Of the 7 condos that sold, one was sold above asking price and another was sold at asking price. The numbers were even more impressive for the single family homes with over 38% of them selling at or above list price (26.47% selling at and almost 12% over).
So what does this mean if you are a seller? If your house or condo is priced right and is in a location with tight inventory, such as the house pictured above listed by EWM’s Carole Smith, it will sell. Now is a great time to list, before inventory in your neighborhood rises.
What does it mean if you are a buyer? If you are looking for a home in a neighborhood with a tight inventory, make sure you are aware of the most recent sales so you know what to offer. If you are interested in a home with a lot of inventory, or with a significant increase in inventory projected, do the numbers to get a good price.
This tastefully updated 4 bedroom/4 bath home is an entertainer’s dream. It has an extra office/den, a huge family room with a wetbar, a basketball court, an oversized swimming pool surrounded by a covered patio with remote-controlled screens, and sliding doors that open from all of the living areas directly onto the patio. The extra large kitchen features two seating areas, a large breakfast/snack bar and an island, double ovens, a warmer, and granite counter tops. This home is move-in ready.
I usually save my market updates until the end of the quarter, but with so much activity going on I figured I should write a quick snapshot in case you are thinking of buying or selling a home in the next couple of months.
Since January first of this year, there have been 58 new listings of single family homes for sale in Pinecrest. Out of those new listings, 13 are already under contract, two are short sales and one is a foreclosure. A total of 17 homes have gone under contract since January first and there has been one closing, which is pictured above. The majority of the pending sales were for homes under $1,000,000. Six of them are short sales and one is a foreclosure.
If you are thinking of selling, now is the time. There are buyers out there looking and if your property is priced right, it will go under contract quickly. If you are a buyer who has been looking for a while, don’t hesitate in making a solid offer when you see the house you like.
Based on EWM’s activity this week, it appears we may be starting to get into a more neutral market. EWM’s Coral Gables’/South Miami office did over $22.5 million worth of transactions this week, with an almost even split between sales (26), and leases (24). Seven of the sales were over $1,000,000.
Eight out of the 15 sales listed under $500,000 went for at (4) or above (4) asking price. Although that is pretty indicative of the seller’s market we have been in, we also added 27 new listings and had 17 price reductions. With the increase in inventory, if your home has been on the market for over 30 days it is time to decrease your list price. We are expecting inventory to increase every month as we move closer to the Spring listing season.
The U.S. Senate passed legislation that would delay flood insurance increases on properties whose rates were set to increase once they were sold, that had their flood zones changed when the maps were updated, or that were previously grandfathered in. Although the House is unlikely to approve the four year delay, they are working on a bill that would cap the increases to no more than 15% per year. That is still likely to put pressure on pricing of homes that are for sale in flood zones. The white zones on the map below are in flood zone X and currently do not require flood insurance.
I get asked this question all of the time and my current answer is hot, at least for now. People from all over the world have taken an interest in Miami. The addition of our cultural component, as illustrated by the success of Art Basel Miami and the accolades coming in for PAMM, has catapulted Miami to year-round interest status. Add in our affordability compared to other luxury metro cities such as New York and London, our beautiful beaches, various sports teams, community enriching universities, top hospitals and great weather and it is understandable why Miami has become so attractive for many people. These are the reasons Miami real estate is at the top of almost every list when real estate rebounds are mentioned and “hot” markets discussed.
The reason I add the “for now” caveat is that we are starting to see inventories increase and we are expecting them to continue doing so into the Spring. Increasing inventories will stabilize the market and put a soft brake on prices that have been going up by double digits, which will keep our real estate market from overheating.
Lofts at Mayfair Bulk Sale – Listed by Levine Realty
With South Florida rentals in high demand, increasing rents, and available rentals low, investors are searching for multifamily properties. According to LoopNet, 9 out of the Top 10 Most Popular South Florida Properties were multifamily.
On December 20 I wrote a post about some changes to federal laws that may affect Miami’s real estate market in 2014. I neglected to include two more (well one is a Florida State Law, but I will include it here anyway). The first one I thought would be extended by now, but since we are coming up on New Year’s eve I thought I should mention it in case Congress lets it lapse. It may not be that big of an issue since, due to the rising real estate prices, many real estate owners are no longer under water but the tax deduction on forgiven mortgage debt will end on January 1, 2014. Although there are many benefits to short sell, even without the tax benefit, instead of foreclose the sun-setting of this deduction could decrease the number of short sales sellers participate in. Should seller’s stop participating in short sales, this will put pressure on already short inventory since the foreclosure process usually takes longer. Which leads me to the second change.
HB 87, the Fair Foreclosure Act, went into effect on June 7, 2013, but we will really start to see its affects in 2014. Known as the “Speedy Foreclosure Law”, this law will help speed up the foreclosure process. Prior to passage of this bill, foreclosing on a mortgage took approximately 853 days, which was more than twice the average. This should help ease some of the shortages in inventory by getting at least a portion of the 350,000 plus foreclosure cases currently tied up in Florida courts through the process much faster.
As we start to get into the busy winter buying season, EWM Realty International has gotten off to a strong start. The company had a $70 million week between our offices in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. The breakdown for our Miami-Dade offices are:
