In order to give short sale properties an opportunity to receive “highest and best” offers, new Fannie Mae guidelines state that each new short sale listing must remain active in our MLS system for a minimum of 5 days and must include at least one weekend. If you are a buyer making an offer on a short sale, realize it may be a while before you receive an answer from the seller.
In today’s Miami Herald, there was an article about the new Centro Lofts that are going up in downtown Miami. This building will not have a parking garage and will instead opt for a Car2Go, bike racks, and public transportation to get it’s residents around. I moved from San Francisco and love the idea of not needing a car, but I am not sure Miami is quite ready for buildings without parking. First of all, it is hard enough to park downtown without all of the residents that are moving down there and this will only work if residents don’t have cars, not if they have cars and just park them elsewhere. The second thing is that it will work for people who work downtown or in an area with Metrorail service, but south Florida’s discombobulated public transportation system is not conducive for no car. How would someone who works in Doral get there? Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea, I am just asking do you think Miami is ready to go carless?
As of the time of this post, the Miami real estate market has yet to hit the summer doldrums even though many buyers are taking time off to travel with their out-of-school-children. This week EWM’s Coral Gables office did over $16 million in sales and last week we did almost $30 million. Given the lack of inventory, in spite of all of the fact that Florida leads the nation in foreclosures, it is amazing that we are selling that much real estate.
It must be our beautiful views, waterfront properties, international clientele, and numerous outdoor and cultural activities that keeps drawing people here.
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!
All I can say is “wow”. Our Coral Gables EWM office had an AMAZING week, with a grand total of $39,733,888 in sales and leases. There were 25 sales, 8 of which sold at asking price and 3 of which sold over asking, and 21 leases. Still doubt that Miami is a place where people want to move and invest? Doubt no more. With all of the cultural activities, port expansion, addition of more cruise ships, technology start ups, and the relatively low prices, Miami real estate is in high demand.
All I can say is “wow”. Our Coral Gables EWM office had an AMAZING week, with a grand total of $39,733,888 in sales and leases. There were 25 sales, 8 of which sold at asking price and 3 of which sold over asking, and 21 leases. Still doubt that Miami is a place where people want to move and invest? Doubt no more. With all of the cultural activities, port expansion, addition of more cruise ships, technology start ups, and the relatively low prices, Miami real estate is in high demand.
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.
I have had several long-time customers ask me what I think is going to happen to the Miami real estate market come January. Although I don’t have a crystal ball, and the real estate market in Miami in general has been doing well with inventories down and prices up, with bidding wars happening as multiple offers come in, I decided to use a building that I am currently working on to throw a bit of a reality check into the current market euphoria.
In October of 2011, one bedroom units in this building were selling for between $45,000-$50,000. The last sale this year was for $90,000 and there are multiple offers on a foreclosure listed for $99,900. According to property tax rolls, nine out of the 39 total units in the building are in some stage of foreclosure. Whether or not any or all of them will go into foreclosure, short sale, or have a loan modification worked out, is yet to be seen, but if you look at the iMapp, Inc. snapshot of what is going on around this building, I have to believe that there are still going to be buying opportunities out there next year and that prices could go down. All of those little hammers are properties that are in the foreclosure process. Since the process takes over a year, where these all are in that process and how fast they come on the market will all come into play in the supply and demand cycle of 2013.
Not all markets look like this. Brickell has a lot less hammers. If you are a buyer, find out what the foreclosure map in the area you are considering purchasing looks like. Don’t be discouraged, just be realistic in your offer and your expectations as to where the market really is. If you are a seller, you also need to look at the map in your area. The map, along with relevant sales in your area, will help you set your list price in a range where your property will sell. Whether you are looking short term or long term, your perspective on where the real estate market is headed in 2013 depends on whether you are a glass half full or half empty person. Oh, and then there is the fiscal cliff…. Where do you think Miami’s real estate market is headed?
Contrary to popular belief that listing a property over the holidays is a bad idea because people don’t buy during the holiday season, now is a great time to list if you want to sell. There are several reasons this is true: