Foreigners flock to Florida for real estate bargains

MIAMI -- Foreign tourists who for years have crowded Florida’s shopping malls to buy clothes and electronics, are now flocking to real estate offices to snatch up apartments and homes at bargain-basement prices.

The investors, mainly from Europe and Latin America, are jostling over apartments in Miami’s trendy South Beach neighborhood selling for $70,000-$100,000, and in less exclusive areas to the north where they start at around $50,000.

“The buying opportunities are maybe the best ever. Who knows if we’ll see prices again like today’s in Miami Beach,” Keys Real Estate agent Michelle Iglesias told AFP.

Property prices in Miami have fallen by almost half (47%) since the real estate bubble peaked in 2006, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price index.

Analysts predict that real estate market prices will not increase until the banks get rid of all their foreclosed properties and there are more jobs in the region.

“Unemployment is still high. People are afraid of losing their homes and credit is hard to get,” said Standard & Poor’s vice-president Maureen Maitland.

In and around Miami, banks each month repossess about 5,000 properties, including apartments and commercial real estate, for delinquent mortgage payments, according to real estate brokerage Codovultures Realty, which has 250,000 such properties on its books across southern Florida.

But foreign investors have kept prices from plunging even further, the Miami Association of Realtors said in its November report. “The international buyers continue to fuel market strengthening, we continue to observe positive signs,” said association president Oliver Ruiz.

Beatriz Lamanda from Venezuela bought two apartments north of Miami Beach for a reduced price of $80,000.

“I’d rather put my money in real estate than leave it in the bank. In a few years I’ll make a nice bundle because the prices are going to go up, no question,” she told AFP.

In the “Icon,” a three-building apartment complex by French designer Philippe Stark in Brickell, Miami’s newest financial district, apartments are selling for $250,000, down from $370,000 two years ago.

“We’ve sold 350 units in the last few months. Most of the buyers are international,” Fortune International’s Alejandra Castillo told AFP. -- AFP

Source: http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=22914

3 hotels sold in South Beach

A trio of historic buildings in Miami Beach has been purchased by South American real estate and hotel group Lennox Miami Corp.

The $14.7 million sale included the 62-room Peter Miller Hotel at 1900 Collins Ave.; the 12-unit Miller Apartments at 229 19th St. and the 12-unit Peter Miller Apartments at 1915 Liberty Ave.

All of the buildings were designed in the 1930s by architect Russell Pancoast.

The seller was Kabo Realty Corp., based in Miami. M1 Hospitality Group, a division of real estate brokerage and investment firm Metro 1 Properties in Miami, represented both parties.

Plans for the properties have not been announced, but the broker said the new owners could potentially add more rooms as well as a pool and spa to the hotel.

-- HANNAH SAMPSON

• Ex-UBS banker enters plea: A former banker at Switzerland's UBS pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Miami to a tax fraud conspiracy charge that accuses him of helping a wealthy U.S. client hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service.

Renzo Gadola, 44, entered his plea at a brief hearing after court documents were unsealed charging him with the crime.

The documents claim Gadola and an unnamed second Swiss banker helped an unidentified Mississippi man hide an account at UBS and open another secret account at a second Swiss bank.

Prosecutors say he and the other banker tried to prevent the client from disclosing his secret accounts to the IRS. During a November meeting at a Miami hotel, according to court documents, Gadola told the client the likelihood that his new accounts would be discovered was ``practically zero percent.''

• Sheraton hangs shingle: A former Wyndham hotel will open under a new brand Wednesday: Sheraton Miami Airport Hotel & Executive Meeting Center.

The first Sheraton in Miami-Dade, the hotel at 3900 NW 21st St. has undergone $2 million in upgrades over the last four months in preparation for the change. The hotel, with 405 guest rooms and a 20,000-square-foot meeting center, is owned by Maryland-based Thayer Lodging Group.

Sheraton adds the Miami hotel as part of an expansion that will bring 50 new hotels to the brand's portfolio over the next three years.

• Mandarin Oriental shines in guide: Just one spa in Florida received the top rating from Forbes Travel Guide -- and it's in Miami.

The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, Miami was one of only 20 spas worldwide to receive five stars from the guide, formerly Mobil Travel Guide. This was the third year in a row that The Spa received the award.

Forbes Travel Guide rates hotels, restaurants and spas throughout the U.S., Canada, Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau. This year, 54 hotels, 23 restaurants and 20 spas received five stars.

Only three Florida hotels received the five-star award: Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach and The Ritz-Carlton, Naples

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/15/1973903/3-hotels-sold-in-south-beach.html

Documentations For Purchasing Miami Real Estate Buildings

After the long period of waiting, when you finally get to accumulate the funds to afford a Property, you start looking for prospective homes. After some days of consideration, you produce up your mind to purchase a specific Home. Regardless of the fact that that you are experienced or not, the mile long list of essentials for Buying a Property will surely bewilder you. Property sellers, bucks lenders and Miami Real Estate agents have every Correct to stipulate for relevant documents so that they might rightly evaluate your ability to pay them back. When you fail to submit even one of these documents, your preferrred Dwelling will stay a ideal forever. to prevent such a situation, you should be mindful beforehand, of the essentials, so which you may instantly produce them when needed.

Listed here are some of the documents You’ll need before closing the Miami Real Estate deal. The first records you need to show are of income tax, IRS W-2 form, asset statement and other fiscal documents. The lending institute or entity will desire a promissory note to be able to pull out your credit record. If they feel that you might be financially instable, then you might face potential difficulty in sanctioning the loan. Next, you have to show your bank statement, which will establish your ability to pay off the mortgage.

An insurance policy is also very necessary. Your lender will request for this as an assurance, in case of events of damage or deficit of Asset. This guarantees escape from the risk of losing the dollars they lent you. Preparing your payment stubs is an additional compulsory point. this could reflect the payment you receive per payday and your status as a full time employee. If, you have a spouse’s stub to add to, You’ll stand a much better chance to connect up the requirements of the lending company. Apart from a cashier’s check, you should prepare one of your own. Ensure that your Miami Real Estate lawyer or agent updates you about it.

The last, but not the least is your identification card. Carry two such cars along with your a career forms. The HR team of the company you work for will fill it up and authenticate it for you. Before you buy the Property, you can also ask your Miami Real Estate agent to assist you Through.

To purchase Miami Real Estate homes at Excellent price, contact us. Our agents will instruct you Through all the formalities. In case you are searching for Miami Realtors in your location please take a look at our web site today by simply clicking the link.

Source: http://www.favstocks.com/documentations-for-purchasing-miami-real-estate-buildings/0329173/

By Chandler Man

Selling A Miami Real Estate Asset: Behind The Scenes

Selling a Miami Real Estate Asset is no mean feat as there is loads of work which needs to be performed in order to produce it a good results. What goes on behind the scenes before the actual selling process is what matters most. Unlike Buying a Property, selling is a very much more difficult job as their needs to be a lot of deliberation and Organizing before one could actually be confident about selling a Property. usually estate sellers employ experienced agents to represent their Property and its advertising campaigns along with all the Dwelling showings. These agents specialize themselves as Asset sellers and are pretty adept at their job.

With the Miami Real Estate market being so saturated, were you can effortlessly locate several Units at the exact rate, one needs to keep his/her Asset in pristine situation to stand a chance of selling it. For which, you need to have to renovate your estate in way which it looks and feels Brand new. This includes all key and insignificant repairs along with the expected cosmetic changes. Most consumers just really don’t look at Property prices; in fact the condition of the estate is what matters most to them. Although preparing the estate to an immaculate condition does involve a lot of Expenditures, but its well worth the gamble.

When selling a Property be it Brand new or old, what purchasers observe at first is the predicament of the landscape just outside your estate. In case the surroundings are messed up then this might easily act against you and sway off Asset buyers. Small little things like maintanence the gutters, preserving the garden, care the pool etc will present a cleaner look besides attracting consumers towards your Miami Real Estate.

Most Miami Real Estate buyers tend to be emotional whilst making their decision. Knowing the preferences and tastes of the buyer can support you sell the Property quite simply. This is where a quality agent may help you out. Deliberating the likes and dislikes of the buyer demands the agent to perform a little bit of study before he/she could prepare the estate accordingly. Although selling an estate is never straightforward, with the Appropriate agent on hand you could readily sell your Asset and times even double up on your earnings margins.

searching for a Miami Real Estate Asset in a posh location, to open a store or organization outlet, then, communication us. The premises we sell are in appropriate locations to fit the purpose.

Source: http://www.favstocks.com/selling-a-miami-real-estate-asset-behind-the-scenes/0529238/

By Chandler Man

Miami Pending Home Sales Up 26% in November

Miami, FL - Total cumulative pending home sales - including single-family homes and condominiums - in Miami-Dade County increased 26 percent in November compared to a year earlier, from 8,288 to 10,495, and increased 2.3 percent, up from 10,264, compared to the previous month according to the MIAMI Association of REALTORS and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service (SEFMLS).

November marks the fourth consecutive month of increased pending home sales in Miami-Dade County. A sale is listed as pending when a contract is signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing. "As an indication of future sales, consistently increasing pending sales is a very positive sign for the South Florida real estate market," said Jack H. Levine, 2010 chairman of the board of the MIAMI Association of REALTORS.

Pending sales of condominiums in Miami-Dade County continue to perform stronger than that of single-family homes. In November, condominium pending sales increased 38 percent compared to the previous year, from 4,414 to 6,094 and increased 3.68 percent, up from 5,878 the previous month.
Pending sales of single-family homes in November increased 14 percent from the previous year, from 3,874 to 4,401, and increased .34 percent from the previous month, when pending single-family home sales totaled 4,386. "The current strengthening Miami real estate market is motivating all types of buyers to act now," said Oliver Ruiz, 2010 residential president of the MIAMI Association of REALTORS.

Source: http://www.thestreet.com/story/10937134/1/miami-pending-home-sales-up-26-in-november.html

By DQNews.com 12/02/10 - 12:12 PM EST

Art of the deal

New Yorkers who regularly visit Miami often talk about how hard it is to get any work done there — how the city's lazy, beautiful people just bounce around to beaches, restaurants, hotel lounges, nightclubs, house parties and boat parties.

But the reality is more complicated. There’s no other American city that works this hard at partying and is full of so many people hustling for business while they’re partying. And this is especially true when it comes to selling real estate during the Miami social season, which kicks off with a big splash this week as Art Basel and dozens of satellite events take over South Beach and beyond.

Miami is always a place where out-of-towners can show up to a random apartment party, mention that they might want to buy a vacation home and find themselves talking to a broker and a salesperson of furniture packages while they’re still drinking their first glass of champagne. And with thousands of New Yorkers and rich foreigners in Miami for Art Basel, developers and brokers all over the city know that this week is an especially good time for marketing their real estate.

“Out of all the different festivals in Miami, Art Basel is the one that brings in the kind of demographic that is really prime for our properties,” says local broker Mark Zilbert, who specializes in luxury condos. “We’re working seven days a week. And people come into town with no intentions of buying, but they get caught up in the moment.”

In October, we visited the site of 3 Indian Creek, a new, listed-for-$60-million house that’s part of a private, extremely exclusive 300-acre community whose homeowners include Carl Icahn, Julio Iglesias and Art Basel chairperson Norman Braman. Designer and co-owner Felix Cohen greeted us wearing frayed jeans and a white shirt with paint stains. He offered a quick tour of the 30,000-square-foot mansion while contractors were hard at work all around us.

There was no time to waste, Cohen said, because he had a serious deadline. The house, which had already been visited by potential buyers, among them Alex Rodriguez, had to be ready for Art Basel week. Cohen admitted that he was “nervous” about the timing, but 3 Indian Creek (which is being marketed in New York by Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Oren Alexander) was indeed unveiled with a party on Tuesday.

That was the same evening the W South Beach Hotel & Residences held the official Art Basel opening party. The W, like many Miami spots, is hosting events all week and hoping that some art collectors also turn into homebuyers.

Other highlights of the week include:

The Icon Brickell condo building downtown has a Scope Art Show film premiere on Friday and just unveiled its new iPhone/iPad app, which offers neighborhood information, floor plans and event locations. In addition, the Fortune International brokerage is having open houses at Icon Brickell and Jade Ocean in Sunny Isles Beach, where brokers and potential buyers can pick up “VIP Basel” bags with passes to various art events.

The $2.3 billion Midtown Miami mixed-use project is hosting several fairs, including Art Miami, Red Dot Fair, Scope and Art Asia, and offering an exhibit from London artist Willard Wigan, who creates ultra-tiny sculptures that can only be seen through a microscope.

The new JW Marriott Marquis, part of the billion-dollar Metropolitan Miami mixed-use project downtown, has partnered with Christie’s on an exhibit with pieces by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring, Eduardo Chillida and others.

The tony Golden Beach community (where Ricky Martin has put his mansion on the market and where Basel-participating artist Bruce Weber lives) is offering tours with Mayor Glenn Singer to show off the town’s $30 million renovation.

In Wynwood, an emerging area near the Design District, the Bakehouse Art Complex is offering a tour of local studios while also showcasing its two galleries (the Audrey Love Gallery has an exhibit inspired by the seven deadly sins, while the Swenson Gallery is selling budget-friendly $100 5-by-7-inch pieces) and 33,000 square feet of exhibition space

Visa deal funding realty, investors get homeland

At a time international investors are drawn to Miami's real estate bargains, the government's EB-5 visa program is an attractive vehicle for them to invest here in exchange for US residency.
Exclusive Visas, an EB-5 consulting firm based in Weston, is advising developers of several projects that would boost the local economy and create jobs while offering participating investors permanent residency for them and their families.
These projects include the University of Miami's Life Science and Technology Park, rising in Miami's health district, and the planned construction of 50 Sonic fast-food restaurants throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Fred Burgess, president of Exclusive Visas, has been a practicing attorney for 20 years and got involved in the EB-5 program in 2007.
His firm advises clients on how to apply for a regional center and demonstrate the creation of a certain number of jobs to get the federal government to approve the projects.
The EB-5 visa program was created by the government to provide employment-based visas. The government basically requires a foreign national to invest $500,000 to $1 million into a venture that would create 10 sustainable jobs and in exchange, receive a green card.
If the project is in a geographic area of high unemployment, the investor is only required to put in $500,000.
Basically, Mr. Burgess said, "we need to make sure their funds come from credible sources and that they don't have a criminal background."
One project Mr. Burgess has been working on is UM's Life Science and Technology Park.
Under the EB-5 program, developer Wexford Miami is raising $20 million capital from 40 participating investors.
"They are close to selling off," he said. "That EB-5 project will be filled by the end of this year."
He is also advising Miami-based QueensFort Capital Corp., which bought exclusive development rights to build 50 Sonic restaurants in Miami-Dade and Broward in the next four years.
The development firm is acquiring the land where it plans to build the restaurants at discounted prices, which benefits the investors involved. It is seeking six to eight investors per package of two to four restaurants.
Carolina Oliva, QueensFort Capital's senior vice president, said right now most interest in the Sonic project is coming from China, Latin America — particularly Venezuela and Mexico — and the Middle East.
Mr. Burgess and his team travel globally with clients to market their projects, making frequent trips to countries such as China, Korea and Venezuela.
"We travel throughout the world regularly, so we know what the market is looking for and we can advise companies raising capital how to structure their project so it's attractive to the investor," he explained.
Some internationals are drawn to invest in these ventures because they want to come to the US for social, political and even climate reasons.
"We have a big push from Mexico and Venezuela for safety and political reasons," respectively, he said.
More than half of EB-5 visas come from China and Korea, Mr. Burgess noted, adding that when the program first took off it became popular in the United Kingdom.
Although this government-backed visa program has been in place since the 1990s, he said, it got little use until the regional center model was added in 2003.
But the model kept sunsetting every six months, until in October 2009 President Obama extended it three years with a push to make it permanent.
Today, he said, more than 120 projects nationwide are participating under the regional center model.

Source: http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/101202/story4.shtml

By Yudislaidy Fernandez

NAR predicts commercial vacancies to fall in 2011 as market stabilizes

Commercial real estate markets are stabilizing nationwide and will modestly improve in 2011, according to the latest National Association of Realtors economic outlook released Monday.

The outlook cited a recent commercial real estate index by The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, which reported a 1.6% increase in the third quarter, to 42.6 on the index. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of improvement in the index, however, it still remains well below normal.

The index is measured on a scale to 100. An index of 100 represents equilibrium in the commercial marketplace.

NAR's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said that signs of stabilization in the market are due primarily to an increase in demand for commercial space, which "means overall vacancy rates have already peaked or will soon top out."

The current vacancy rate for office space nationally stands at 16.7%, but NAR predicts that rate to drop to 16.4% by the fourth quarter of 2011. New York City and Honolulu are the cities with the lowest vacancy rates, both near 9%, according to NAR. All other office markets monitored by NAR — which monitors a range of 50 to 60 markets for each commercial category — reported an office vacancy rate more than 10%.

NAR expects vacancy rates in the industrial and multifamily sectors to decline as well. Industrial vacancies are projected to fall to 13.2% by the fourth quarter of 2011, down from the current 13.9%.

Multifamily properties are also predicted to improve, according to NAR's outlook. Vacancy rates will drop to 5.8% by the end of 2011, down from the current 6.4%.

As of the report's release, San Jose, Calif, Miami, Boston and Portland, Ore., had the lowest multifamily vacancies rates, around 4%.

Lower vacancy rates suggest and increase in property rent, according to Yun; however, only rent in the multifamily sector is expected to rise, up 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010 and up 1.6% in 2011.

Rent in the retail sector is expected to drop 3.4% from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the same period 2011, while rent for industrial property is predicted to fall 7.4%. NAR said rent for office space will drop 3.4% by the end of 2011.

Source: http://www.housingwire.com/2010/11/29/nar-predicts-commercial-vacancies-to-fall-in-2011-as-market-stabilizes

http://www.housingwire.com/2010/11/29/nar-predicts-commercial-vacancies-to-fall-in-2011-as-market-stabilizes

by CHRISTINE RICCIARDI

Homebuyers get creative to close the deal

MIAMI — — When Efrain Hernandez couldn't seal a deal before the first-time home buyer tax credit expired this year, he lost faith that he would ever own a house in this real estate climate.

But the enforced wait got him more than the $8,000 federal tax credit.

Hernandez negotiated a contract on a five-bedroom, three-bath home in a development near Homestead, Fla., talking homebuilder Lennar into $40,000 off the list price, getting it to pay $18,000 in closing costs and scoring a $7,500 no-interest loan from Miami-Dade County to lighten his down payment.

"I was finally able to buy the house of my dreams," Hernandez said.

Though cash is now king, new homeowners such as Hernandez are finding ways to buy homes — well-kept ones with current mortgages.
After a long drought, money is becoming available to buy homes. Take Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Andre Brooks, vice president and regional sales manager for the bank's Florida operation, said his company has made more than $3 billion in mortgages this year in Florida, nearly 20 percent more than last year.

But lending guidelines remain restrictive, said Terry H. Francisco, spokesman with Bank of America, so making purchases often requires creativity and calculation.

Among the options:

FHA

Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration can require a down payment of just 3.5 percent compared with 20 percent many banks typically require.

But there are limits. For one, like other loans with a down payment less than 20 percent, the buyer must get mortgage insurance.

FHA loans also have a maximum and are available only to people who don't have an FHA loan and plan to make the property their primary residence.

Private loan

Made by a noninstitutional investor who does not advertise as a mortgage lender, this requires networking and personal relationships.

Grant S. Stern, president of Morningside Mortgage Corp., brokered a loan this summer for a condo buyer.

The borrower had made a preconstruction down payment of $90,000 on a two-bedroom, two-bath $300,000 condo. He had another $65,000 cash to close, but Fannie Mae's approval for the project expired with the the developer on the verge of default. With no time to get a conventional bank loan, so Stern arranged for a real estate investor to fund a five-year, fixed-rate loan.

"They said, 'Close in one week.' We closed in one week," he said.

Non Distressed Properties

Part of real estate agent Gene Mastro's strategy for buyers is avoiding foreclosures and short sales — especially by buyers who intend to live in the home they buy.

Owners of nondistressed properties are "more ready to correct problems, any minor deficiencies," said Mastro, who works for Coldwell Banker.

And they may be willing to pay all or part of closing costs, which can range from 2 to 7 percent of the purchase price.

Short-term loan

Another way to cover closing costs is a fast, short-term loan that doesn't show up on credit reports.

Todd Hills noticed that some users of his company, Boomerang Lending, wanted fast cash to pay closing costs. His Colorado-based business works like a pawn shop for those with pricier assets, including paintings and fine jewelry. A recent borrower offered a 1955 Picasso sketch.

"It's not something we've experienced before the last six months," said Hills, company CEO, but "it makes absolutely perfect sense. This is a way this consumer can get the cash that they need."

Lease to own

"It's a purchase agreement with a very delayed closing — three months or three years," Manausa said.

Tom Nisbet and fiancee, Greta Leber, have just such a contract on their condo. They are living in the 1,600-square-foot unit they hope to buy. It comes with two parking spaces, a pool and a gym, and it's close to the University of Miami, where Leber is working on her Ph.D.

After watching others' experiences with short sales and foreclosures, they steered clear. "This is by far the best place we saw on the market," Nisbet said.

State and local aid

While the federal first-time home buyer's tax credit ended months ago, it's not too late for house hunters to get government home-buying help.

Many city or county governments offer their own home buyer subsidies.

Government agencies with home-buying assistance programs say they are fielding lots of calls.

Source: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-23/classified/sc-bizspecial-1123-credative-homebuyi20101123_1_home-buyer-tax-credit-mortgages-condo-buyer

Miami Home Sales Jumped

Miami, FL -- The median sales price of single-family homes in October in the Miami Metropolitan Statistical Area increased 12 percent to $199,100 from a year earlier, according to the MIAMI Association of REALTORS and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service (SEFMLS).

Miami was one of only three home markets and the only major metropolitan area in Florida posting an increase for median sales price of single-family homes. Compared to the previous month, the median sales price rose six percent. "Rising median sales prices reflect strengthening and stability of the Miami real estate market," said Jack H. Levine, 2010 Chairman of the Board of the MIAMI Association of REALTORS.
On the other hand, the median sales price of condominiums in the Miami MSA dropped 22 percent in October, to $107,700, compared to the same month last year but increased more than eight percent compared to the previous month.

The sales of existing single-family homes in the Miami MSA decreased only four percent to 546 compared to October 2009 but were 21 percent higher than they were in October 2008. The Miami real estate market experienced rising residential sales since August 2008, posting increases for 23 consecutive months.

In the Miami MSA, condominium sales increased 17 percent to 757 compared to October 2009 and a 72 percent increase compared to two years ago, when sales were already rising. This was the highest increase in condominium sales of any major metropolitan area in Florida.

Short sales and foreclosures are continuing to have an impact on median and average sales prices for both single-family homes and condominiums especially in some areas of the county. "We continue to observe positive signs in the Miami market, and international buyers continue to fuel market strengthening," said 2010 MIAMI Association of REALTORS Residential President Oliver Ruiz. "While distressed properties continue to affect home values, especially for condominiums, we expect home values to improve as excess inventory is absorbed.

Add 2.1 million houses to the glut

There's a large number of homes, either already repossessed by lenders or very seriously delinquent, that are poised to be added to the already glutted regular supply of homes on the market.

This "shadow inventory" jumped 10% during the past year, to an eight-month supply at the current rate of home sales, according to a report issued Monday.

According to CoreLogic, a financial information provider, there were 2.1 million homes in this uncounted inventory as of the end of August, up from 1.9 million units 12 months earlier.

Adding the shadow inventory to the visible supply of homes on the market boosted the total housing-market supply to 6.3 million units from 6.1 million in August 2009. At the current sales rate, it would take 23 months to go through the entire visible and shadow inventory of homes -- more than three times the normal rate of six to seven months.

The potential extra supply raises the risk of further home price declines, according to Mark Fleming, CoreLogic's chief economist.

"[Weak demand] is being exacerbated by a significant and growing shadow inventory that is likely to persist for some time," he said.

The shadow inventory has been growing as banks take a long time to process defaults.

Home prices expected to slide another 8%
Many banks have been slowing the foreclosure process because they already own a glut of homes, according to Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties.

He said the banks are "managing" their inventory and not pushing delinquent borrowers quickly through the foreclosure pipeline so they don't have to repossess homes that will take a long time to sell.

It's better for the banks to allow borrowers to stay in these homes, doing the maintenance and protecting them from vandalism, than leaving them vacant for months in moribund markets.

Foreclosures: Where does your state rank?
The recent "robo-signing" scandal has further lengthened the foreclosure process. Several servicers temporarily froze foreclosure actions amid questions about whether many of the foreclosure documents were signed without proper review, raising questions about the procedure's validity.

Florida, Michigan, and California have the highest ratios of properties 90 days or more late compared with home sales. Texas has the lowest ratio of distressed properties to sales.

Tough times for REO buyers

Q: My family wants to buy a house in Miami. They are looking for a foreclosed property around $60,000, and will pay all cash. Do you think the time is right to buy now? If not, when would be the best time to buy? --Mehmet, Florida

A: First, I'd like to ask you and your family to rethink a core element of your approach to this process. I'm often approached with questions by buyers-to-be who say they "are looking for a foreclosure."

I submit that what you're actually looking for is a good deal -- even a really good deal -- on a property that is well-suited for your purposes. I also submit that the property that best fits that description may or may not be a home that was foreclosed on.

Sellers of individually owned homes that are currently on the market are largely aware that they are in competition with many distressed (bank-owned and short-sale) properties.

As a result, there are many bargains available on non-foreclosures, which are often in superior condition to foreclosed homes. As well, individual sellers tend to be vastly more negotiable on terms like repairs, included personal property, etc., when compared to banks.

Now, let's turn to your question of when the best time to buy is or will be. Overall, the best time to buy is the time that makes the most sense for your family's life, plans and vision for the future. This is also a very frequently asked question, though, especially from those savviest of buyers and investors who are fixated on market timing, so let's talk about whether the market has hit bottom.

The most recent Case-Shiller housing index reported that Miami home prices were on their third month of increases, after nine straight months of decline. As a result, some learned observers of the real estate market would say that Miami prices are actually slightly past their bottom.

However, just as many learned observers might opine that the Miami market -- and the American real estate market in general -- are actually simply going to bounce around the bottom of the appreciation trajectory for awhile. Long story short: It's impossible to know with certainty whether the market is at bottom.

And frankly, trying to time the bottom is a fool's errand on at least two levels. The first? It's impossible. The second: The desire to time the bottom arises out of fallacious reasoning.

A logic flaw called myopic loss aversion causes consumers to be more afraid of losing money than they are excited about gaining a similar amount of money, or equity.

The fact is this: We all know that prices in Miami are very, very low, and likely near bottom. But some will hold off from buying because they think losing even a dollar's worth of equity would be excruciating; in that desperate attempt to avoid a post-purchase loss in value, they will wait so long that prices will go up and they will experience the opportunity cost of lost appreciation they might have realized had they bought a bit sooner.

Human tendency when trying to time the bottom of the market is to wait too long. When prices hit bottom, everyone comes out and wants to buy, sending prices right back up. The only thing stopping that from happening on today's market are the twin buyer paralytics of unemployment and tight mortgage lending guidelines.

That creates a great atmosphere for you and your family to take advantage of low prices soon, without feeling a desperate, breakneck urgency to buy anything before prices skyrocket -- although I don't expect we'll be seeing any true "skyrocketing" anytime soon.

So this might be a great time for your family to buy, if it's a good time in the context of your lives, and if you are comfortable making the commitment to owning a home for a good seven years, plus or minus a bit.

With a longer-term view, you can feel much more comfortable that you'll come out ahead on the purchase and don't have to be fixated on whether the value of the home rises or falls by a percent here or there in the very short term. But to do that, you have to let go of the all too currently common fixation on getting the absolute most for the absolute least, and decide to be OK with buying very, very low.

"So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over," Warren Buffett once famously said about the stock market, and the same applies to real estate. He elaborated that no one -- not even he -- can predict the short-term market movement and that, in fact, those who buy near the bottom might very well lose money -- in the short term.

But if you wait until the signs of appreciation and recovery are clear enough to make a strong short-term prediction, you will have waited so long that everyone else will be buying, too, and prices will be on the rise. Your bargain-basement pricing opportunity will have passed.

With all that said, if you are committed to buying a foreclosed home, or happen to simply select a foreclosed home as the one that works the best for your family, I'd say that now is a very difficult time for REO buyers. There is a great deal of uncertainty about whether flaws in the foreclosure documentation practices of a number of banks may have created "clouded" or unclear title for the buyers of those homes.

If you do elect to buy a foreclosed home, make 150 percent certain to obtain title insurance, which is commonly forgone by cash buyers. I'd also recommend working with a local title or real estate attorney during your purchase, or consulting with them in advance on how to obtain clear title, if you plan to buy a property at an actual foreclosure auction. Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of "The Savvy Woman's Homebuying Handbook" and "Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions." Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

Source: http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2010/11/18/tough_times_for_reo_buyers/?page=1

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson
November 18, 2010

Know condo rules before decking the halls

Before you tack, nail or tape holiday decorations outside your condominium or home, consider your governing documents, your right to religious freedom and the story of Laurie Richter Spector.

Richter Spector, of Fort Lauderdale, fought back in court several years ago when her condo association demanded she remove a Jewish mezuzah from her door shortly after the holidays. While the case was eventually dismissed, now all Floridians share a state-supported right to post religiously mandated symbols — albeit small in size — anytime of year, regardless of association rules.

"I had a bad experience," said Richter Spector, about her association's order to remove her mezuzah — a small display case no longer than 6 inches long that encases a scroll with religious messages — from the exterior of her front door.

"But I am glad we went through it," added Spector, who left the condo community after the 2007 incident. "Nobody should be deprived of freedom of religion, especially in their own home."

Spector's experience is especially relevant this time of year, when residents' religious beliefs — and desire to express them publicly through holiday decorations — sometimes run afoul of HOA and condo rules.

Richter Spector argued that her right to religious freedom trumped the authority of the association. She said she was following Jewish religious law by keeping a mezuzah near the entrance of her home, and in letters to the association cited the fact that at least one other owner was allowed to keep a Christmas wreath up months after the holiday.

The association cited rules against exterior modifications and threatened eviction and a $1,000 fine.

Both sides refused to budge and ended up in civil court until the Florida Attorney General's Office intervened on behalf of Richter Spector and ordered the association to allow mezuzahs. The association was also ordered to post a sign in the building to let owners know their right to display mezuzahs.

Now it's a rule of the land. In 2008, the Legislature amended state law to guarantee condo owners a special right to display religious objects outside the door. While the statute does not mention the word "mezuzah," it covers objects with the same dimensions of a traditional mezuzah — 6 inches long, 3 inches wide and 1.5 inches deep.

Richter Spector says her ordeal remains a bittersweet victory. It also serves as a civics lesson about protecting your rights as an owner in a shared community.

But keep this in mind: Your condo or homeowners association may be able to put the kibosh on large religious displays and nonreligious decorations of any size.

Before you decorate this year, give your governing documents a once-over. Some associations limit sizes and locations of holiday displays, some enforce fines for taking too long to remove them post-holiday. Others may have no rules because they were not passed properly or have lapsed.

The state of Florida, which regulates condo communities, allows condo associations to pass rules that keep the community and residents safe. That means if your decorations interfere with that, you could have a problem.

There are not similar regulations for homeowners association per se, but an HOA may ban displays that block common areas, walkways, street intersections or the view of drivers on the road. An outdoor lighting display with poor wiring could be the subject of removal, possibly at the expense of the owner should governing documents provide the association the authority to fine and/or pay to have a display moved.

Source:http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/condos/fl-decorations-condocol-1117-20101116,0,7701864.column

Daniel Vasquez can be reached at CondoColumn@Sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4219 or 561-243-6686. His condo column runs Wednesdays in Your Money and at SunSentinel.com/condos. Check out Daniel's Condos & HOAs blog for news, information and tips related to life in community associations at SunSentinel.com/condoblog. You can also read his consumer column Mondays in Your Money and at sunsentinel.com/vasquez.

For the quarter, home prices fall

South Florida home prices continued to drop in the third quarter, spurring an increase in condominium sales, even as single-family sales slumped, a report released Thursday by the Florida Association of Realtors found.

In Miami-Dade County, condo sales jumped to 2,527 in the third quarter, up 43 percent compared to the third quarter of last year. Single-family home sales dipped slightly to 1,812, down 1 percent from last year.

In Broward County, both condo sales and single-family home sales were down in the third quarter. Condo sales totaled 2,459 for an 8 percent drop, and single-family home sales totaled 2,076, an 18 percent drop.

Median prices dropped across the board. Single-family homes in Miami-Dade was $191,100, down 1 percent. Median-priced condos cost $104,600, a decrease of 24 percent.

In Broward, condo prices were $73,100 and single-family home prices stood at $209,600, down 10 and 2 percent, respectively.


Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/12/1921731/for-the-quarter-home-prices-fall.html

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA

Slide in South Florida home prices continues

South Florida homes continued to shed value, sellers were still slashing prices and distressed sales were still dominating the market in the third quarter of the year-- all signs that the real estate recovery has a long way to go.

A report released Wednesday by real estate firm Zillow found that 45.2 percent of South Florida homes sold between June and September were sold for a loss, up slightly from the previous quarter, but down 2 percent for the month.

``Distressed sales have contributed to that 50 percent decline,'' said David Dabby, president of Coral Gables-based Dabby Group. ``They will continue to put a lid on prices for the foreseeable future.''

The continued slide has added to the ranks of underwater homes in the region. Since the June 2006 peak, home values have fallen 53.5 percent in South Florida, the largest drop among the top 25 markets covered by Zillow. That has left some 42 percent of single-family homeowners underwater, or owing more on their mortgages that their homes are worth.

That's slightly better than the third quarter of last year, when 45.1 percent of homes were underwater, but still much higher than the national average of 25 percent.

A high foreclosure rate and a weak job market continued to influence housing in the third quarter, the report found.

Deborah Katsikas, who recently sold her home in Southwest Miami-Dade County, said she had to cut the price, finally accepting an offer that was considerably less than she originally hoped for.

``The only way to sell is if you're competitive with everything that's out there,'' she said.

Now she's reaping the benefit of a buyer's market as she looks to purchase a new home. She has a contract to buy a short sale in Palmetto Bay, and the price of that home has been slashed multiple times, said her real estate agent, Anthony Askowitz.

According to Zillow, 21 percent of South Florida home sellers reduced prices in the third quarter, with a median reduction of 10 percent. The median selling price for a single-family home was $221,200 in the third quarter, up 1 percent quarter-over-quarter, but down 7.8 percent from last year.

For South Florida condominiums, the median sales price was $109,800, down 4.3 percent over last quarter, and down 14.2 percent from last year.

Askowitz, who owns two Re/Max offices, said price-cutting is the new normal, as home sellers seek to compete with the glut of foreclosures on the market.

According to a sales analysis by Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realty, short sales and foreclosures account for more than 60 percent of South Florida home sales.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/10/1917884/slide-in-south-florida-home-prices.html

By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

Real estate market improves as bargain hunters begin buying

Amid South Florida’s recession-battered real estate market, there’s some pretty good news: We haven’t lost our allure and bargain hunters have moved in.

That’s the feedback from a panel of real estate experts gathered for the 10th Business Journal Critical Conversation for 2010. Previous installments of the news series have covered topics ranging from health care and manufacturing to cloud computing and the cruise industry.

Residential real estate shows considerable movement, with bargains spurring sales and some builders starting new single-family homes with little competition left, our experts said. Industrial space is tight in some areas, but office space is expected to lag in the recovery.

Hotels are seeing a rebound in occupancy rates, but there are more bad loans and foreclosures still to be worked out.

Condo bargain hunting
The conversation about condos has turned from the bust story of 2009 to the bargain hunting of 2010, said Hermen Rodriguez, managing director of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler in Coral Gables “I think the condo story, particularly for Miami, has been very strong. Yes, it was overpriced. Yes, it was too much supply. But, there are people who believe in Miami.”

Shari B. Olefson, a partner with the law firm of Fowler White Boggs in Fort Lauderdale and the author of “Foreclosure Nation,” said: “Every major morning show has covered what a great deal Miami is.”

The host of one national network show interviewed her and then turned around and bought a condo in Miami, she said.

“A lot of buyers are stepping in and buying at 50 cents on the dollar,” said Brad Hunter, chief economist for Metrostudy.

In some recent months, there have been 300 sales a month in downtown Miami.

“That’s not happening in Vegas,” Rodriguez said.

Pricing is very market specific, said Mark Pordes, president and CEO of Pordes Residential in Aventura. For example, he’s seen a big uptick on Miami Beach.

He’s involved with several projects, including Terra Beachside Villas on Collins Avenue at 60th Street, which was purchased out of foreclosure, he said. “The group that picked it up repositioned it the right way, and we have been able to raise prices. We are selling them.”

Neil Merin, chairman of NAI Merin Hunter Codman, said a lot of entrepreneurs are buying in Miami.

“If you are in Barcelona, Brazil and Budapest, you can buy a beautiful beachfront apartment,” he said. That is tremendous for Miami.”

There are also a lot of cash buyers from places like Venezuela and Brazil, some of whom rent their units and get cash flow, Pordes said.

Many condo buildings are now qualifying for Federal Housing Administration financing, which was not as widely available six or 12 months ago, Pordes said. Other units are selling after banks recognize that a developer has a good sales force and opts to take a haircut on the loan, rather than selling to a bulk buyer at a drastic discount.

That can go too far, though.

Some of our panelists were concerned that some bankers were going too easy on developers whom they hope to continue doing business with when the economy turns up.

Pordes cited an example of a well-done deal: 2700 North Ocean on Singer Island in Riviera Beach was acquired by a group that is rebranding it as Ritz-Carlton Residences.

“It’s going to sell well now,” he said. “You have fresh people in there and fresh blood going on.”

Even condo-hotel units, which received a black eye during the downturn, are showing signs of life, Pordes said. Would-be buyers can go to the front desk and find out just how well the units are being filled with guests.

By law, condo-hotel units aren’t supposed to be marketed as investments, but that didn’t prevent some buyers from falling into that trap during the boom – and later being sorely disappointed by a lack of cash flow.

One example of buyer interest: Pordes said he was involved with the purchase of 25 condo-hotel units built next to the original Fontainebleau hotel on Miami Beach. He only has 11 left to resell, with more deals pending.

Single-family rebound
It’s been a long, slow slide when it comes to single-family homes.

The residential market peaked in 2005, and the bottom for housing starts was reached last year, Hunter said. “We are slowly crawling our way off the bottom.”

While it is difficult to stop in mid-construction on a condo high-rise, it’s easier on a single-family home project.

“What happened is the builders were very quick to slash their prices in 2006 and blew out the inventory really fast,” Hunter said. “Existing home prices were a lot more sticky.”

By 2009, builders had pretty much gotten rid of their excess inventories, so now some are at the point where, every time they sell a house, they have to start building a new one.

Homes are selling fast in areas such as Doral and Jupiter’s Abacoa, and GL Homes has had success in Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, selling $300,000 to $500,000 residences, Hunter said.

Shane Soefker, senior managing director for Cushman & Wakefield in South Florida, noted that land speculators have started to acquire residential tracts with infrastructure to resell to single-family homebuilders as the market returns.

Hunter sees two drivers for what’s going on.

“Basically, in a lot of cases, the builders’ competitors went away – they went out of business or got out of the homebuilding business for a while,” he said. “Secondly, and very important, these projects all have something in common. They are in ‘A’ locations – close to jobs, recreation and shopping. They are where people want to live.”

Buyers prefer newly built homes over foreclosures, which may need fixing up, he said.

South Florida has chewed through a wave of foreclosures on lower-priced homes, which have probably reached bottom in pricing, Hunter said. Now, there are more foreclosures of nicer homes.

Demographics are another factor.

A lot of the homes built during the boom had five or six bedrooms for baby boomers and their families, but the kids are growing up and moving out. The result was an oversupply of oversized homes.

Generation X came to home-buying age at the peak of the market, and many owe more than their homes are worth or have lost them, Hunter said. “Then, we have Generation Yers, who are saying, ‘Now I’m going to be renting, and will be renting for several years.”

Institutional interest
Many commercial property deals these days are dependent on deep-pocketed institutional investors after financing dried up and cracks formed in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market.

The success in dealing with the overbuilt condo situation is a positive signal to institutional investors in general, Pordes said. “Where one lives translates into where one works.”

Rodriguez said: “To institutional investors in New York and Chicago, this seems like a very orderly disposition of real estate.”

Many investors have bicoastal strategies for the U.S. and consider South Florida a tier-one location, Rodriguez said. “We are on the East Coast, so it’s New York, Boston and Washington. Then they bypass Atlanta and come to South Florida.”

Merin said investors thought South Florida was a bulletproof market when the area hit about 5 million in population and started accepting low initial rates of return with the expectations of a payoff as prices rose.

“So, they are coming back now and realizing Florida is still a cyclical market,” Merin said.

Miami is recognized as a global gateway city, but buyers start drilling down into markets further north, he said. “Do I want to be in Plantation? Do I want to be in downtown Fort Lauderdale?”

Hunter said some institutional investors are looking for distressed properties, such as stalled townhouse projects and half-built subdivisions.

A lot of funds have raised $1 billion or $2 billion, and are itching to get the right yields and deploy their capital, Merin said.

Rodriguez said more commercial property owners are willing to sell – telling themselves they avoided selling at the worst of the market and it’s time to make new investments.

Banks with foreclosed commercial properties are also taking a strong look at exit strategies, especially if cash flow isn’t so great and repairs are needed, he said.

Some bargain hunters are deceiving themselves if they think a property held by a troubled bank will be easier to get when the bank fails, Olefson said. The best window is usually the two- or three-month period when a bank is still trying to raise capital.

“It’s the exact opposite as to what people think,” she said.

Obstacles for office
Office space represents a challenge with the high unemployment rate and retrenchment by many employers.

“We didn’t overbuild, but we had a jobs recession,” Merin said.

Firms such as ADT Security Services, which just signed a deal to relocate its Boca Raton operation, have been able to lease space 40 percent cheaper than they did before.

Some markets, such as Plantation, have available space vacated by firms that downsized or went out of business.

The economy is not adding jobs at a steady pace and it will be a while before increased employment will boost the office market, Cushman & Wakefield’s Soefker said. Downtowns are doing better than suburban areas, but it will generally be a long, steady recovery when it comes to leasing rates.

Future development will be contingent on leasing and rental rates that enable builders to get financing for projects, Soefker said. He doesn’t expect to see that until 2012.

Rodriguez said office space would be the last to sector to rebound.

In the meantime, the market would favor owners, which are also strong operators, Merin said.

Improvements in industrial
The rebound has been quicker for industrial and warehouse space.

“Corporations and users in general have gone from a destocking mode to a restocking mode,” Soefker said. “A lot of it is consumer driven and import/export driven. You can’t look at any port that hasn’t had an increase in container volume from an industrial standpoint.”

Many economists believe that manufacturers and retailers anticipated a worse recession than actually happened, Merin said. “So, in warehouse and manufacturing, you are seeing a quicker restocking because there was an overreaction to the news in 2009.”

Industrial projects are much easier to cycle through than office towers or shopping centers, which require longer development time frames, Merin said.

Soefker said: “You can turn the spigot off on the deliverables and control it much easier.”

There are not a lot of raw sites left for industrial projects in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Soefker said. Many of the locations in Miami-Dade are controlled by a couple of entities.

Institutional buyers are paying record-low capitalization rates (the first-year return based on income in relation to sales price), Soefker said.

Merin termed this “chasing yields.”
Soefker cited a recent 800,000-square-foot industrial sale with a 5.9 percent cap rate. The buyer said it liked the site because the purchase price was less than what it would cost to build a similar project.

Turnaround for hotels
Hotels are dealing with two key cycles, and there has been a fundamental shift in recent months, said Guy Trusty, president of Lodging & Hospitality Realty in Coral Gables.

The revenue cycle is turning up in the form of higher room rates, so that’s starting to help the other cycle of real estate prices.

About six months ago, investors only wanted to buy notes on properties, and lenders “would go there with a lawyer and a hammer and foreclose on the note,” he said.

Now, with the rising room rates, good operators are finding new slack.

“It boils down to whether the bank has confidence in the operator and works with the owner or forecloses on the note,” Trusty said.

He is dealing with real estate investment trusts and other investors “who have a pile of cash and want to invest it in a hotel,” he said.

Transactions involving the Royal Palm Hotel and Seville Hotel in Miami Beach show some long-running issues are being resolved, he said.

Sometimes, Trusty said his strategy is to initiate separate talks with the bank and the owner. “Sometimes they don’t like to hear that.”

Olefson says she is seeing recovery in some urban areas like Miami Beach, but problems linger in areas where there might be a cluster of suburban hotels.

Merin said some buyers see an opportunity roll out new concepts and brands, but he’s also had his hands full with the former DoubleTree in Boca Raton, where he is acting as a receiver.

“The property is going to waste,” he said. “We have to shut down the hotel and fire all the people,” he said.

Merin is worried that South Florida’s humidity could create damage that could necessitate leveling the structure if the power is turned off.

The foreclosure situation in general is creating a lot of uncertainty and delays, Olefson said. Some banks don’t think they have the authority on pricing the notes on properties and aren’t sure how they will be reimbursed under FDIC loss-sharing agreements.

She said: “A lot of workouts will start hitting the foreclosure dockets – lots of hotels, a lot of multifamily foreclosures.”

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/print-edition/2010/11/05/real-estate-market-improves-as.html

South Florida Business Journal - by Kevin Gale

Florida Real Estate Prices On the Rise in Miami and Orlando?

As we all know, Florida has seen some of the most dramatic falls in real estate prices and the total number of homes sold since the housing market collapsed. Although things are bad in much of the state, it seems that the real estate market in Florida may be on the mend.

Some of the most hard hit areas such as the Orlando, Miami, and Fort Myers areas have seen nice rebounds in the number of homes sold over the last several months, raising hope that prices will soon follow. Fort Myers, located in Southwest Florida, has seen the number of home sales rise from about 850 sales in February of 2008, to well over 1,700 in October of this year. Miami has seen even bigger gains in that time period, with approximately 2,000 sales in February of 2008, compared with over 5,100 last month.

As inventory reduces, prices should begin to rise, not only in hardly hit Florida, but in real estate markets nationwide. The one variable that is still an unknown is what affect remaining foreclosures may have on this market. As long as foreclosures trickle in, instead of all hitting at once, inventory reductions should hopefully leave us with a stronger market come the end of 2011, and 2012.

Market bright spot: condos in Dade

As South Florida's shaky real estate market searches for recovery, an investor group's $1 billion bet on the local condominium market is about to be put to the test.

Starwood Capital-led investor group ST Residential -- in charge of more than 1,200 new condo units in South Florida -- launched its ST Miami initiative this month, announcing plans to release hundreds of new condo units into South Florida's fragile market in the coming months.

Condo sales were the standout figure in the September existing sales report released Monday by the Miami Association of Realtors.

Existing condo sales in Miami-Dade County rose 36 percent in September compared to the same month last year, with 833 sales closed. Month over month, sales were down 2.8 percent, despite a 5 percent decline in median prices. In Broward County, condo sales slid to 828, down 4 percent from September of last year.

Existing single-family home sales continued their descent in September, falling 6 percent year over year in Miami-Dade, with 582 sales. In Broward, year-over-year single family sales dropped 16 percent to 673.

Nationally, the housing market improved in September, with existing sales increasing 10 percent from August.

Prices are still falling in many sectors of the housing market, but ST Residential CEO Wade Hundley said brand new condos have avoided that fate this year, even posting increases.

``Relative to all the other markets in the U.S., Miami is doing well,'' Hundley said. ``We've seen prices increase about 10 to 15 percent since the beginning of the year.''

ST Residential became a major player in South Florida's real estate market about a year ago when it bought a stake in the distressed real estate portfolio of failed Chicago-based Corus Bank. In a public-private deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, ST Residential bought into a portfolio of condo projects that includes Paramount Bay in Miami, Jade Ocean Condominiums in Sunny Isles Beach and Tao in Sunrise.

The purchase made ST the second-largest owner of developer units in Miami's downtown condo market, behind Jorge Perez's Related Group, and the public-private deal gave the investor group the flexibility to adjust pricing levels.

ST Residential is ``coming in at a time when prices have stabilized, and they're creeping upwards, in that Brickell-downtown area,'' said David Dabby, a real estate analyst with Dabby Group Advisors. ``The market is weak overall, but there's enough acquisition activity to begin moving that [developer] inventory.''

Dabby noted however, that prices are still 50 percent below where they were four years ago, and not likely to make significant gains anytime soon, since discounted foreclosures and short sales rule the market.

Distressed properties are responsible for more than half of existing home sales in South Florida, dragging down median prices.

In September, year-over-year housing prices fell nearly across the board, with Broward single-family homes standing out as the sole exception. The median priced home in Broward sold for $214,200, up 7 percent compared to last September. Broward condo prices were down 9 percent to $71,600. In Miami-Dade, condo prices fell 25 percent to $99,400, and single-family home prices fell 2 percent to $188,000.

ST Residential plans to relaunch 530-unit Mint on the Miami River into the market in December and will kickstart sales at the 346-unit Paramount Bay on Biscayne Bay north of the Performing Arts Center next year, pricing units ``at market'' rates, Hundley said.

``We control so much inventory that if we come in at very low price point we could disrupt the market,'' he said. ``And we don't want to do that.''

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/26/1891129/market-bright-spot-condos-in-dade.html

BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

Firm can buy debt of downtown condo

A New York-based real estate investment firm has won a bank auction and court approval to buy the debt of downtown Miami's Everglades on the Bay condominium towers.

Rockwood Capital paid about $142 million for the note, according to South Florida real estate consultancy Condo Vultures. But the sale of the 849-unit project on Biscayne Boulevard did not go smoothly, with the developer, another bidder and the bank holding the debt battling over terms.

Developer Cabi Downtown LLC -- which faced a 2009 foreclosure suit by Bank of America on a $209 million construction loan -- claimed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week that Rockwood went behind its back to cut a deal with the lender, after pledging to deal directly with the developer. Elias Cababie, managing member of Cabi, claimed he had secured a higher bid from a San Antonio-based private investment group, court documents show.

Cabi had been juggling negotiations with Rockwood and San Antonio-based Lynd Company this summer, taking representatives from both groups to see the property's twin 49-story towers.

According to Cababie's sworn statement, sometime in July, Lynd put in an offer for the note, and Cabi solicited Rockwood to make a counteroffer. Rockwood responded by asking for more information about the property and then abruptly cut communication with Cabi, Cababie claims.

Rockwood execs tell a different story: ``Before we had completed our due diligence, [Cabi] informed Rockwood that it intended to accept a different entity's proposal and to end negotiations with Rockwood,'' said Dwight ``Arne'' Arnesen, Rockwood's senior managing director of portfolio and asset management, in a sworn statement. Arnesen also said Rockwood had been willing to pay more than Lynd's initial offer.

Attorneys for Cabi and Bank of America did not return calls for comment. The purchase may be the target of future litigation from Cabi as well as Lynd, who lost the bid, said Peter Zalewski, principal at Condo Vultures.

One motivation for the drama: The building offered what may be the last sizable bulk purchase of new condos in downtown Miami, where developers have built more than 20,000 units in the last seven years.

Developers have sold just over 175 units at Everglades, and there are hundreds of renters in the building, which was completed about two years ago.

The purchase price amounted to at least $191 per square foot, Zalewski said. ``I think Rockwood paid too much,'' he said. ``But with time, that number will end up looking better and better.''

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/29/1897264/firm-can-buy-debt-of-downtown.html

BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

Take a dip - Miami luxury stays afloat

There are many ways to take the pulse of the Miami market, many methods of observing and appreciating and worrying about its real estate. But as developer Gil Dezer says, “You haven’t really seen Miami until you’ve seen it by boat.”

So, late on a recent Saturday afternoon, obligations are ignored, schedules re-jiggered, and a sunset cruise on Miami jewelry mogul Bobby Yampolsky’s 72-foot boat commences. The small group of VIP guests includes Dezer and Francois-Henry Bennahmias, president and CEO of Audemars Piguet North America. (This is a friendly gathering, but Yampolsky is in business with his guests, too: One of his East Coast Jewelry shops is in Dezer’s Trump International Beach Resort, and East Coast moves a lot of Audemars Piguet watches.)


The Trump Towers development in Sunny Isles has sold more than $150 million of condos this year, mostly to buyers who have paid all cash.

ONE TO WATCH: The eye-catching One Bal Harbour is on the ocean and near the pricey Bal Harbour Shops.

WOW: W South Beach has closed $170M.
These are men whose fortunes are dependent on selling something nobody really needs: diamond-encrusted bracelets, vacation homes and $20,000 limited-edition timepieces. And, recession or no, they are in a good mood as the boat leaves North Miami Beach.

In the background, one can see Dezer’s Trump Towers, a three-tower, 813-unit Sunny Isles Beach development that’s sold more than $150 million of condos in its second tower this year — at prices around $450 per square foot, with an average transaction around $880,000. (Tower III sales started a few weeks ago.)

“We were just amazed at how many people have the ability to pay cash,” Dezer says a couple days after the boat ride, noting that about 80 percent of his recent transactions have been with all-cash buyers. “It used to be [developers] would take 20 percent down and wait three years for the rest of the money. Now a guy walks in Monday and can close on Wednesday.”

Recent price reductions have no doubt been significant. Dezer’s nearby Trump Royale condo building, which once fetched around $1,000 per square foot, is now trading oceanfront units — with terraces, Miele and Sub-Zero appliances and master-suite Jacuzzi tubs — at around $550 per square foot. (“The Royale is where we got stuck,” Dezer says, freely admitting that many buyers walked away from deals during the economic downturn. “We had 364 units sold out of 384. Only 90 came to close. We have sold about 190 in the last two years.”)

The boat passes Bal Harbour, where excitement about the St. Regis Bal Harbour hotel and condos, scheduled for completion in 2011, is growing. But there’s already the beachfront One Bal Harbour, where condo resales are around $850 per square foot and the developer might put hotel-condo units on the market at around $1,000 per square foot next year. On the same day as the boat cruise, the hotel hosted a runway show for Kiki Hamann Canine Couture, which sells $500 dog dresses. “The spending pattern [in Miami] is finally coming back,” says Florent Gateau, general manager at One Bal Harbour. “You see it at the Bal Harbour Shops.”

Right across from the St. Regis site are the fancy-pants Bal Harbour Shops, where the 700-square-foot Audemars Piguet store racked up more than $6 million in sales last year. “Even though last year was bad in terms of the economy, we were the second brand in terms of revenue per square foot at the Bal Harbour Shops,” Bennahmias says. (No. 1 was a jeweler that declined to comment.)

The store’s average transaction was around $30,000, largely powered by a customer base that is about 60 percent Latin American, Bennahmias adds. “Business overall in Florida is picking up; many retailers are calling to get the brand,” he says. “But I just cannot sell to everybody.”


The Trump Towers development in Sunny Isles has sold more than $150 million of condos this year, mostly to buyers who have paid all cash.

ONE TO WATCH: The eye-catching One Bal Harbour is on the ocean and near the pricey Bal Harbour Shops.

WOW: W South Beach has closed $170M.
Yes, there are those in the Miami luxury market who can afford to be selective. Members at Miami Beach’s new Soho Beach House, for example, report that the club has sold its initial memberships ($1,800 per year, $900 for those under 27) so briskly that it is being extra choosy about additional members.

The boat heads down to South Beach, where the W South Beach Hotel & Residences closed a $6.2 million sale of a fully furnished, three-bedroom, 2,752-square-foot unit (with a 2,090-square-foot rooftop) in September. The W, where LeBron James celebrated after announcing he was taking his “talents to South Beach,” has closed on about $170 million of condos, including an all-cash deal for a 1,950-square-foot, $3 million unit this month, says developer David Edelstein.

“The enthusiam [surrounding James] is like having another entertainment venue open up,” he says. “People will extend their stay — a lot of games are Mondays and Fridays — to see the Heat.”

Of course, all is not so rosy in Miami, especially in the downtown areas near the Heat arena. The boat passes the tony, private Fisher Island. Next up is downtown, where thousands of condo units along the river and beyond remain empty. By now, it’s dark — which makes downtown, with entire buildings without a single light on, seem even more depressing.But Dezer sees opportunity here, too, and says he has been bidding on multiple downtown buildings.

And the truth is, the emerging neighborhoods that make up downtown are showing serious signs of life. In the area north of Brickell Avenue, which Ocean Drive magazine just christened “NoBri,” the new, ultra high-tech JW Marriott Marquis hotel is home to a 10,000-square-foot, NBA-approved basketball court and a soon-to-open Daniel Boulud restaurant. The hotel is part of Metropolitan Miami, a billion-dollar mixed-used development, where the 40-story Met 1 condo building has prices starting at $350 per square foot and 447 units that are 80 percent occupied.

A few miles away, another mixed-used development, the $2.3 billion, 56-acre Midtown Miami complex, has created its own neighborhood.“The idea was to have it be a very pedestrian-friendly environment,” Midtown developer Jack Cayre says. “A lot of people call it home now.” (So do about 900 dogs.)

Midtown’s three residential towers, with more than 900 units, were originally intended to be all condos. Midtown sold about half the units (closing condos for around $350 per square foot in 2007) and decided to rent the rest. The rentals are now more than 95 percent occupied. (One-bedrooms start at $1,500 and 800 square feet.) And Midtown’s big-box stores, boutique shops and destination restaurants like Sugarcane and Sakaya Kitchen, bring in the masses.

Lee Brian Schrager, who runs the South Beach and New York Wine and Food festivals and lives in Miami’s Design District, says he visits Sugarcane at least three times a month, sometimes walking the less than 2 miles there. “Before Sugarcane opened [in January], I had never been to Midtown before,” he says. “Now that we go, we sometimes stop at Target and West Elm, and eat at Mercadito, Five Guys and Cheese Course fairly often, as well. To me, Midtown now has a pulse, and that clearly came from the culinary scene.”

The boat leaves downtown and cruises back toward North Miami Beach. After an entertaining and enlightening almost-three-hour ride, Yampolsky and friends are back on land. It’s not even 9 p.m., still early for Miami on a Saturday, and the restaurants and bars near the dock are just starting to buzz.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/realestate/residential/take_dip_6isnqcIy2bnFgM0bDqhKaL/1

By ANDY WANG

Miami Heat's Big Three a boon to neigjboring condos

Drivers making their way east on Interstate 395 toward the exit marked ``Arenas'' can't help but notice the four skyscrapers towering over downtown Miami -- the highway seems to steer directly into them before curving off to the shores of South Beach.

As more cars and more cameras will be taking that exit to the arena where basketball giant LeBron James will bring his talents this season, downtown Miami's condo developers are looking to cash in on the new-found cachet of the Miami Heat team.

Developers of the four skyline-shaping condo towers across the street from AmericanAirlines Arena -- Marina Blue, 900 Biscayne Bay, Ten Museum Park and Marquis Residences -- are hoping James and Co. can increase their buildings' clout and help them sell virgin square feet.

Some say that's already happening.

``You can call the sales office and sometimes not get through to anyone because they're so busy,'' said Lori Levine Ordover, director of sales for Marquis developer Africa Israel USA. ``That bodes well for what's going to happen this season.''

With restaurants, retail space and residential units to fill, downtown's stakeholders are bracing themselves for the yet-to-be-known impact of the new Miami Heat, as the regular season starts Tuesday against the Celtics in Boston. The home opener is Friday against Orlando.

Built during the mid-decade developers boom, the four condo buildings closest to the arena symbolize the spectrum of real estate highs and lows in South Florida over the past five years.

Two of the buildings sold out quickly as the market peaked, while two others still have a glut of unsold units available at off-peak prices. Buyers in the properties enjoy top-of-the-line amenities, but many have seen their home values plummet during the market crash. In all four buildings, thousands of square feet of office and retail space sit empty at the base of the towers.

While real estate analysts acknowledge that James' arrival in Miami won't cause a massive condo-buying stampede or heal the city's battered housing market, there is growing evidence that the new Heat lineup is spurring activity in the area around the arena.

At the Marquis, 1100 Biscayne Blvd., a penthouse unit sold for $4.2 million on July 8, the same day James announced he would be joining the Heat. That purchase was the largest amount ever paid for a condo in the downtown area, and the businessman who bought the unit admitted proximity to the arena influenced his decision.

``I'm a big basketball fan and we chose the Marquis because we like the building and the location,'' said Russell Wright, who has floor-level season tickets for the Heat games. ``At first, I was just hoping that Dwyane Wade would re-sign -- I had no clue that LeBron and Chris Bosh would join him.''

At Marina Blue, 888 Biscayne Blvd., a Sunny Isles Beach investor scooped up 5,100 square feet of retail space in August, netting the sellers $2.1 million. That investor, Sergey Novov, has drawn up plans to build a microbrewery there.

There are also reports of rising rent prices, game-day sellouts at hotels and soon-to-come hangout spots within walking distance of the arena.

With economists calculating James' impact in Cleveland in the hundreds of millions of dollars during his seven-year tenure there, Miami stakeholders are maneuvering to cash in on the star's presence once the season starts.

``I think downtown is just coming into fruition, coupled with the Heat stars and all that's going on there,'' said Penni Chasens, a real estate agent who has been selling developer units at 900 Biscayne Bay and the Marquis. ``I think it's given us a shot in the arm that we needed.''

The four towers are likely to be in hundreds of aerial shots of Miami's skyline during internationally televised Heat games, and each is looking to gain from that exposure.

Here is a look at each building.


MARINA BLUE

The southernmost building among the group, Marina Blue, pitches itself as one of the healthiest buildings downtown. The developer's residential units are completely sold out and the Castle Group, which manages the building, said more than 95 percent of the 516 units are occupied.

The so-called ``LeBron Effect'' made its mark in the building's retail sector, which had been sitting empty and unheralded for two years.

``The week that the LeBron announcement came -- we sold three commercial units immediately,'' said Donald Campbell, general manager at the 57-story Marina Blue. ``They started construction three days later.''

The micro-brewery envisioned by Novov, the investor, is in a frenzy to open as soon as possible, Campbell said.

Another restaurant is set to open there early next year, pitching Brooklyn-style pizza and plasma TVs to sports fans. A sign hanging in front of its undeveloped space plays into the hoops-generated hype: ``Pucci's Pizza: Coming soon. Before the playoffs (hopefully).''

A Spain-based advertising agency, Tribeca Media, also scooped up about 5,000 square feet in the building shortly after James announced he'd be joining Wade and Bosh in Miami.

On the residential side, rental interest has grown over the summer. Selling prices averaged about $350 per-square-foot during the boom, and many investors have had to buffer falling values by renting units during the market downturn.

``Some of our investors are taking the opportunity to raise their rent [asking] prices,'' Campbell said. ``If we have someone move out, we'll have someone new in there within the week.''

MARQUIS RESIDENCES

Marquis Residences, the tallest of the four structures, probably has the most to gain from increased attention and foot traffic around the arena. The 67-story structure has more than 200 unsold condos, and a recently opened hotel, restaurant and lounge that could benefit from pre- and post-game patrons.

Ordover, the sales director, said the Heat's new lineup has already increased interest in the luxury building, and residential ``sales have been good and steady.''

She attributes at least three recent sales directly to the Heat effect, including the $4.2 million penthouse purchase. With a typical two-bedroom trading for more than $500,000 at Marquis, that's about $5 million in revenue that can be tied to the team across the street.

As the tallest residential skyscraper in the state, Marquis will stand out as aerial cameras zoom in on the city during more than 30 nationally televised Heat games this season.

Ordover is hoping to parlay that free advertising into increased interest at the building's boutique hotel, and has placed ads in Heat game programs and the team's commemorative yearbook.

One ad for Tempo, the hotel, describes the building as ``within three-point range of the arena.''

Those kinds of ads will be common this season, Ordover said, as they have already shown results.

``I have a room in the hotel, because I travel back and forth. Now the hotel has so many nights of 100 percent occupancy that they're kicking me out,'' she said. And it's directly correlated to the Heat games.''

Out-of-town visitors searching online for the closest hotel to the arena will find Tempo listed at the top, 0.3 miles away, another marketing boost for the hotel, which opened in June. Rooms start at about $229.

The hotel has bought into the Heat mania, with player-based room specials tied to Wade, Bosh and James.

900 BISCAYNE BAY

The 900 Biscayne Bay condo tower, built in 2008, also has a large number of condos left on its rolls. The building has nearly 130 of its 509 developer units available and sold 18 units between July and September, according to data from real estate consultancy Condo Vultures.

Peter Zalewski, principal at Condo Vultures, said that with units going for $500,000 and more in buildings like 900 Biscayne Bay, the Heat effect will be limited.

``I don't think anyone is going to buy a residential property because of LeBron,'' he said. ``But I do think that they're going to go to the bars and restaurants and get more comfortable with the area.''

Owners of Miss Yip restaurant are counting on those expected bar-hoppers to help boost sales at the Chinese eatery's new downtown location at 900 Biscayne.

Shortly after the Heat play their first home game, the Chinese restaurant will open its downtown Miami branch, said Deniz Kose, the restaurant's manager. Miss Yip, a mainstay in Miami Beach since 2003, had contemplated expanding downtown long before this summer, but the Heat's revamped team was the tipping point.

``We have a lot of customers coming from downtown saying `I wish you had a location near me,' so it's the demand and supply thing,'' he said. ``We expect to have even more people for the basketball games.''

Still, the Heat effect at 900 Biscayne has been limited -- the building has a good chunk of vacant retail space near its bottom that has been for sale for more than a year.

TEN MUSEUM PARK

Ten Museum Park sold nearly all of its 200 units soon after being completed in 2007, and many boom-time investor-buyers have seen an uptick in rental interest this summer, said Shelly Abramowitz, owner of Museum Park Realty.

Those renters have helped the building reach near-full status, as they dish out $1,700 and more each month for one-bedrooms there.

The building has been a draw among the young professional crowd seeking big-city life, Abramowitz said.

``This neighborhood spreading its wings right now by adding all these entertainment options,'' he said.

``That was what was missing before.''

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/24/v-fullstory/1889670/miami-heats-big-three-a-boon-to.html

By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

Foreigners Buying Up US Property

Home and condo prices have gotten so low in many areas of the country that foreign nationals are buying up property like it's an old Blue Light sale at K-Mart. American real estate seems like its on sale at bargain basement prices. But whether the spike in foreigners buying property materializes into a full swung market rebound may be the bigger question.

“We’re seeing an increase,” said Lamont Crump, director of sales for Condo Vultures in Miami, Florida. “Foreign purchases make up 50 to 60% of our sales.” Investors are swarming to Miami Beach from as far away as Europe and Israel to grab American land and condos. Buyers from Columbia, Brazil, France, Italy and Norway have been counted in recent transactions.

The trend has also been seen in many other large urban U.S. markets, including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas where housing prices have deflated at least halfway from their market peaks. Record low mortgage rates tied with low property prices may be driving the beginning of a real estate rebound anticipated and hoped for by real estate professionals for years.

Pending home sales, including single-family homes and condominiums in Miami-Dade County increased 28.6% in September compared to year ago figures, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. South Florida real estate sales are up due to the impact of international buyers.

“Current market performance points to sustainable demand for South Florida properties,” said Jack H. Levine, chairman of the board of the Miami association. “Record affordability, a wide selection of properties to choose, and an enviable lifestyle continue to attract both international and U.S. buyers.”

Pending condominium sales in Miami are higher than single family homes. In September, condominium pending sales increased 40% over a year ago to 5,838 units for the month. Pending sales of single-family homes rose 16.1% over 2009 levels.

“The Euro has recently re-strengthened, resulting in even greater demand from European buyers,” said Oliver Ruiz, the association’s president. “Many Latin American buyers are looking for a safe haven to invest their money. The Miami area is the top market for European and Latin American buyers in Florida.”

Source: http://www.housingpredictor.com/foreign-buyers.html

Foreign buyers see big opportunity in housing bust

The Viceroy, a swanky condominium complex in downtown Miami, gives the impression that the United States is in another real estate boom. The sales office is strangely exuberant. Buyers gush about the glam condos — designed by hipster tastemaker Kelly Wearstler — and their hotel-like amenities: poolside libations, daily housekeeping and room service food stirred up by a celebrity chef.

Since January, 262 of the Viceroy's 372 units have sold. But there's a twist: Almost 90 percent of the buyers are foreigners. And they all paid cash.

The Viceroy's story is playing out across Miami. Individual investors from as far as Argentina, Canada, Colombia, France, Israel, Italy, Norway and Venezuela are swarming the city's sales offices to get in on what they see as one of the greatest real estate fire sales in the history of the United States.

At one time, these people would have invested in the U.S. stock market. Now they see the opportunity of a lifetime in the nation's debilitated housing market. The idea is to rent out the properties and then sell them once the economy turns around.

The math is seductive: Prices at the Viceroy are roughly 52 percent off the 2007 peak. Units once sold for as much $670 a square foot. Today the average price is $319.

"I have never seen such a high concentration of foreign nationals acquiring real estate," says Peter Zalewski, who has been in real estate for 15 years and founded Condo Vultures, a consulting and brokerage firm. "Eighty percent of the sales in downtown Miami are foreign-based. This is unprecedented."

Miami is hardly the only hot spot for buyers from outside the United States. Real estate brokers say they've seen a surge in Washington, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Seattle, Asians are buying property sight unseen, says Joe Brazen of Brazen Sotheby's International. In New York, 25 percent of buyers at the Armani-designed 20 Pine building, near the World Trade Center site, are from overseas.

"It's a positive in a sea of negatives," says Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel, a real estate consulting firm in New York.

This year in Phoenix, for the first time, there have been more buyers from Canada than from California, according to real estate data outfit Information Market. With the Canadian dollar approaching parity with its U.S. counterpart, the opportunity was simply irresistible to Jim Chuong, a 38-year-old Novartis sales manager from Toronto.

Chuong, whose house in Canada is already paid off, used to invest in U.S. stocks. Now he's investing in Phoenix condos, paying $50 a square foot for units that would cost $500 a square foot in Toronto.

"It's ridiculous is what it is," Chuong says.

For foreigners with cash, the deals can make them money from day one. Chuong buys two-bedroom condos for less than $40,000 in low-crime areas. He only picks up units that already have renters. After paying association fees and taxes, he walks away with $300 a month, pre-tax, on each. The deals are now easy to do, thanks to the cottage industry of companies that has grown up to manage virtually everything for foreign buyers, down to badgering renters for the monthly check.

For the international investor class, the United States' bloated inventory of homes, high unemployment and weak currency make for an unusually attractive buyer's market.

"Never before have all these things come together like this," says Patrick O'Neill, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong-based O'Neill Group, which helps Chinese invest in international real estate. O'Neill says Chinese buying in places like New York is on track to double this year.

"Unless you want to go to Baghdad," O'Neill says, "the United States is the best you can get."

The trend is showing up in the statistics. In a National Association of Realtors report released in July, 28 percent of brokers reported they had worked with at least one international client, up from 23 percent a year earlier. Among those, 18 percent had completed at least one sale, compared with 12 percent in the 2009 report.

"I was going invest in the stock market, but I decided to invest in real estate instead," says Diego Garcia, a Mexico City native on assignment in New York City with Pfizer Inc., where he is a regional finance director. Garcia paid $850,000 for a Manhattan one-bedroom in a gleaming new high-rise that he plans to live in for now. "I'm a conservative guy," Garcia says, "and this was more conservative."

That's not to say there aren't steep risks. An economic jolt could easily throw the whole plan into disarray. The housing market is far from a recovery. In many places, prices continue to fall. What happens if currency values reverse and a foreign owner needs a quick sale? Or a renter bolts in the middle of the night, leaving an empty unit and no cash flow?

It's not as if foreign buying can be counted on for a housing market turnaround. Overseas buyers represent a mere 7 percent or so of today's total. Yet in some cities, such as Miami and Washington, the foreign sales are helping to stabilize the markets.

In past downturns, buying a property in the U.S. was the prestigious purview of the wealthy, but today the market is within reach of the swelling ranks of the global upper-middle class.

Colombians, who often call Miami the most beautiful city in their country, have always been drawn to Florida. The difference now is the upside-down economics. It is cheaper to buy in Miami than in Bogota, and you can fly between the two cities for $59 each way.

"Muchos muchos muchos muchos opportunity," says Elsa de Blaschke, who owns a construction company with her husband in Barranquilla, Colombia, and is hunting for an investment property to buy in Miami. De Blaschke chose not to invest the capital at home because she says Florida offers a better chance of a bigger return.

"The international buyer pool is better than we have ever seen it before," says Phillip White, president of Sotheby's International, based in New York.

To match demand, U.S. brokerages are hiring agents who can speak foreign languages and are pouring more resources into marketing overseas.

In October, agents from 11 Sotheby's International branches will descend on Hong Kong's convention center to regale wealthy buyers there with slick visuals on showcase properties. In Toronto, agents from Florida Home Finders play to crowds of 800 every other Sunday at a Holiday Inn banquet hall. Jenny Huertas, Condo Vultures' international sales director, throws seminars for potential clients across South America.

"Their jaws drop. They can't believe it," Huertas says. "They think these deals are too good to be true."

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gLyL-V2T4vaQdAOvlFcoliG1yGoQD9IL4I780?docId=D9IL4I780

By MICHELLE CONLIN

Interest Rates And Property Prices Are Going Down In Miami

Miami, Fl – When interest rates and property prices drop many renters start to wonder - ”will be this the right time to become a homeowner instead of a renter? ” This is the biggest question for many residents of Miami in these days, and since property prices and interest rates went down, in many cases buying can be a better choice.
The prices of properties in South Florida are being affected by the big number of short sales and foreclosures; making homes more affordable for investors and home buyers.
These days, international investors are putting their eyes in Miami as one of the best real estate investment places in the world; many of them are using cash instead of financing to accelerate the closing process.
So this might be a big opportunity for Miami renters to become homeowners. The price of properties and the interest in the banks are at their lowest point in many years

Source: http://www.webnewswire.com/node/594393

Heat's Chris Bosh scores a deal for Miami Beach home

Miami Heat big man Chris Bosh has purchased a 12,000-square-foot home on North Bay Road in Miami Beach, the real estate firm listing the property said Friday, shortly after the sale closed.

The 7-bedroom, 8-bath mansion just south of La Gorce Island sold for $12.5 million, said listing agent Lourdes Alatriste, of real estate firm Engel & Voelkers.

Built in 2009, the home features 20-foot ceilings, a gourmet kitchen, gym, elevator and an infinity pool with unobstructed views of Biscayne Bay.

``When he saw the house, he was overwhelmed,'' Alatriste said. ``It's perfect for him. He's seen a lot of houses, but he wanted a brand new house.''

Alatriste said she nabbed the high-profile sale by tracking the NBA free agent drama this summer, and watching the movements of the Miami Heat's new stars in the weeks following LeBron James' decision to join the team.

In late July, Bosh and his girlfriend traveled to the Hamptons, staying at the home of Alan and Diane Lieberman, who own seven hotels on South Beach. Diane Lieberman, who also owns SBI Realty, started discussing housing options with Bosh during the trip and Alatriste called to offer up the North Bay Road home she was listing.

In the next few weeks, Bosh and Lieberman visited a lot of homes, not settling on any, and Alatriste continued to put in calls to Lieberman pitching the North Bay Road home as Bosh's next pad. Eventually, Lieberman took a visit, and Bosh later viewed the home and put an offer in, Alatriste said.

Lieberman declined to comment on the sale, as did Bosh's representative.

The home is also the reportedly the site where Bosh proposed to his fiancée, Adrienne Williams, on Aug. 27, soon after going into contract.

The owner of the home, Glenna Norton, developed the property, completing the all-white, glass-enveloped structure in March 2009. ``It's a beautiful contemporary home -- it's perfectly proportioned, and it has all the amenities,'' Norton said. ``It has beautiful finishes, and it's a transparent house, with all glass and with fantastic walls for art.''

The North Bay Road neighborhood has housed a number of celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, members of the Bee Gees and Matt Damon, who lives a few doors away from Bosh's new home. The mansion owned by insurance executive Mel Harris, also a few blocks away, is rumored to be the top choice of Heat guard Dwyane Wade, who has been house hunting this summer after selling his Pinecrest home earlier this year.

Bosh's home was originally listed for more than $16 million.

Norton said she had offers to buy and rent the home back in 2009, but wanted to wait out the market, since new homes in Miami Beach are scarce.

``The market at that time when I finished (construction) wasn't good, but I was patient and I knew the right person would come along,'' she said. ``And he did.''

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/25/1841821/heats-chris-bosh-scores-a-deal.html

By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com