Tag: Luxury Real Estate

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Buying Commercial Real Estate Luxury Real Estate Selling

Private Islands: What The Rich and Famous Are Buying

The Exhumas, Bahamas is where the rich and famous are buying islands, according to an article in the July 28 edition of the Wall Street Journal. 

Some of the issues that arise with developing these islands, such as importing electricity, cell phone towers, water purifiers,  the building materials and even, in some cases, the palm trees, can make development extremely costly. 

San Jose Island, in the Pearl Islands off the coast of Panama, does not have a lot of these issues.  Granted, at 11,000 acres, approximately twice the size of Key West,  it is a much larger island than the ones in Exuma.  It has its own rivers and streams, providing fresh water, as well as a water treatment facility capable of producing 3,000 gallons of water an hour, and a 10,000 gallon storage tank.  It has a 5000 linear foot landing strip, lots of trees, including palm trees, mooring facilities, and a boutique resort, Hacienda del Mar.

A short 20 minute flight to Panama City, Panama, means you are  in close proximity to world class entertainment and medical facilities, including John Hopkins at Punta Pacifica Hospital.

Compared to the most expensive island for sale in the Bahamas, Cave Cay, at $440,000 per acre, San Jose Island , at $22,545 per acre, seems like a downright bargain.  Oh, I almost forgot…Panama doesn’t have hurricanes!

One of 57 Beaches on San Jose Island

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Buying Coconut Grove Coral Gables Market Summary Miami Beach Pinecrest

Miami Real Estate: New Single Family Home Listings

New single family homes listed since July 1.

  • 8 in Coral Gables.  Priced from $349,900 to $13,475,000
  • 7 in Pinecrest.  Priced from $585,000 to $2,099,999
  • 5 in Coconut Grove.  Priced from $450,000 to $1,300,000
  • 3 in Miami Beach.  Priced from $399,900 – $8,650,000

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Buying Foreclosures Market Summary Neighborhood News Pinecrest Selling

Pinecrest Real Estate – Market Summary for Single Family Homes

How does the housing market look in Pinecrest half way through 2011?  Below are the numbers for single family homes.  Note that all of these are going to change a little due to status changes that happen at the end of the month, but are not updated in the MLS until the following month.  As of 6/30/2011:

  • Closed sales: 90.  Low of $270,000, high of $4,000,000. 7 were bankowned (REO), 10 are short sales or approximately 19% distressed sales.  57 closed in the second quarter.
  • Pending sales: 48.  Low of  $265,000, high of $2,150,000. 3 are REO, 17 are short sales.  Almost 42% are distressed sales.
  • Active sales:  160.  Low of $269,900, high of $5,000,000 ($4,999,999 to be exact!).  3 are REOs. 14 are short sales.  Only 11% distressed listings.  64 were listed in the second quarter.

What does this mean if you are a seller?  If you want to sell your home during the end of the summer buying season, drop your price now.  Homes are selling and people are still looking to buy in Pinecrest because of the quality of the public and private schools, parks, and good size lots.  If your home needs a lot of work, you are going to have to drop the price even further.  Buyers are looking for homes that need minimal updates.  If you don’t drop your price now, you are going to have to drop it even further come the beginning of the school year.

If you are a buyer, the numbers mean there aren’t as many “deals” in terms of short sales and foreclosures.  Those that are on the market, are priced well, and in reasonably good shape are going to have multiple offers, because there are fewer of them.  If you are financing your purchase, you are better off using the numbers to make an offer on a well priced, non-distressed listing.

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Buying Foreclosures Luxury Real Estate Market Summary Miami Beach Neighborhood News Selling

Miami Beach Real Estate: Market Summary for Single Family Homes

We are half way through the year and the market has been moving.  Sales are up, mostly due to lower prices.    As of June 30, the single family home market in Miami Beach for the year so far is as follows:

Closed sales:  94. Low of $190,000 to a high of $25,500,000.  9 of the closed sales were foreclosures, 6 were short sales.   Only 16% were distressed sales. 49 closed in the second quarter.

  • Pending sales: 57.  Low $200,000 to a high of $14,900,00. 2 of the pending sales are foreclosures, 23 are short sales.  Almost 44% distressed.  21 went pending in the second quarter.
  • Active sales: 282.  Low of $205,900,high of $49,995,000.  16 are short sales, 1 is a foreclosure. Only 6% distressed.  76 of the active sales were listed in the second quarter.

What does this mean if you are a seller?  The good news is that the majority of the closed sales are not distressed sales.  If you are priced right for a buyer’s market, you have a closing window of opportunity to sell at a higher price than you will get later this year.  I think prices of active listings are going to come down as we come closer to the end of the summer buying season.

What does this mean if you are a buyer?  Many buyers are still looking for a “deal” without realizing that they are already looking at one.  Just because a property is not a foreclosure or a short sale, does not mean it is not a good deal.  A lot of sellers have come down significantly in their pricing, in large part due to the pressure of distressed properties on the market.  As the distressed properties listed for sale decrease, they become less of a factor on the overall market.  If you are financing your property and only looking at distressed sales, you are going to have even more frustration as you are competing with cash buyers.

Note:  These numbers are going to change a bit due to fluctuations at the end of the month when a lot of properties status changes, but those changes don’t get recorded in the MLS until the following month.

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Commercial Real Estate Investment Real Estate

San Jose Island, Pearl Islands, Panama

I first visited breathtakingly beautiful San Jose Island was two years ago. After arriving at the Tocumen airport in Panama City, less than a three hour flight from Miami, I jumped on an Air Panama flight for the short 20 minute flight to the island. As we were flying over the Gulf of Panama, I was amazed that I could see schools of fish from the air.

As we circled over the island and came down the 5,000 linear feet landing strip, I had the insane notion that Tatoo was standing on the island somewhere saying “De plane, de plane!”. We were picked up and driven through beautiful jungle canopy to the boutique resort, Hacienda del Mar

I spent four days there and can’t wait to go back! It is currently for sale and would make a spectacular world-class resort destination.

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Selling

Do The Pictures of Your Home Do It Justice?

The two pictures below are for a house listed for $400,000.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, what do these say about the house?

These two are for a house listed at $2,300,000.

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Buying Luxury Real Estate

Increase in Stock Market Results in Increase in Luxury Properties

According to a CNNMoney.com article all 20 major metro areas saw an increase in sales of million dollar plus condos and single family homes, rising an average of 18.6%.

The increase is largely attributed to the increase in the stock market since 2009 and cheaper financing for jumbo loans.

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Luxury Real Estate Market Summary

Miami Real Estate – Good News, The Wealthy Are Spending Again!

Two articles in today’s Business Monday add more evidence that South Florida is starting to pull out of the recession and, though we fell farther and therefore have further to go to actually feel that the recession is over, there are positive signs in South Florida’s economy.

The first article, Brazilian buyers put the luxe in real estate, describes the influence that wealthy Brazilians are having on high end real estate as well as on design and furniture stores.

Dophin Mall has gone from bust to boom, the second article, describes how this mall has turned its sales performance around 180 degrees by catering to the luxury consumer and recognizing the importance of the tourist.

These articles emphasize the importance of the wealthy tourist to South Florida’s economy.  These tourists are going to help excel our recovery by spending large amounts of  money, which will eventually trickle down throughout the economy.  The only problem I see with this is that it is the start of another boom cycle that, unless we find industries in addition to real estate and tourism, will eventually bust in Florida’s typical fashion.

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Luxury Real Estate Market Summary

Miami Real Estate – Pending Home Sales Jump In January

According to the Miami Realtors Association, January total pending home sales jumped 28% over January 2010 and increased 2.5% from December.  Pending sales were as follows:

  • condominium: increased  37.2 percent compared year over year.  Increased 3.3 percent from December.
  • single-family homes:  increased 15.531 percent from January 2010.  Increased 1.4 percent from December.

Although this jump in pending sales has put a dent in the overall inventory, I expect inventory to inch up a bit now that SuperBowl Sunday is over and people start to focus on the Spring selling season.  However, properties that are priced right are definitely selling as first-time homebuyers and investors jump back into the market.

The luxury market still has a way to go in chipping away at the inventory levels.  As of today, there are 1143 single family homes listed over $1,000,000.  37 are currently pending (25 went pending in January) and 11 closed in January.  Depending on whether you look at pending sales or closed sales per month, based on current numbers we have between 46 (pending sales) and 104 (closed sales) months worth of luxury inventory.  Considering 6-9 months represents a stable market, we have a ways to go.

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Buying Luxury Real Estate Mortgage information Selling

Miami Real Estate On Sale

With prices still on a downward slide in South Florida, the number of sales are up as buyers realize the buying opportunity these price decreases represent.  And although 30-year mortgage rates inched up slightly this week, they are still under 5% and near historic lows.

These interest rates will help first time buyers, but may not play much of a difference in Miami’s high end market:  2 out of 3 sales in the $1,000,000 and over market are cash sales.