Hadid condo could reshape downtown Miami skyline

The world’s only female superstar architect, Zaha Hadid, unveiled an undulating, spider-like design for a new luxury condo tower on Biscayne Boulevard — her first residential project in the United States — that boldly looks to raise the design ante for Miami’s skyline. The developers of the proposed 1000 Museum, Gregg Covin and Louis Birdman, also hope to capitalize on the location and the big design name to break through the price ceiling for a downtown Miami condo. They are angling for a stratospheric minimum of $4 million for the cheapest units, and a Miami Beach-like $30 million and up for penthouses. That means pricing would start at about $900 per square foot, an amount that’s already roughly double the price of the typical new downtown condo. The 61-story tower would squeeze in among the so-called Four Horsemen high-rise condos across from Biscayne Bay and the emergent Museum Park, taking over a prime spot now occupied by a gas station, which Covin and Birdman have a contract to buy. The pawn shop property behind it on Northeast Second Avenue is not, for now, part of the $300 million project. The futuristic design by Hadid’s London-based firm features an interlacing concrete exoskeleton, a bulging midsection and a set of rib-like lower balconies that has prompted comparisons by some local bloggers to a spider, a bug and an alien spaceship. “We love Miami, and we feel we can create a beautiful addition to the skyline that will define the skyline in a new way,’’ Zaha Hadid Architects director Patrik Schumacher said. “I think it will have a new kind of appeal.’’ The Iraqi-born, London-schooled Hadid, whose firm has also designed a swooping new Miami Beach city parking garage, is known for flowing, curvaceous buildings that sometimes appear to melt. In the past decade, she has gone from experimental-minded iconoclast to sought-after designer, achieving the kind of popular recognition usually reserved for celebrity male architects like Frank Gehry. Her well-publicized struggles to be taken seriously in the notoriously male-dominated profession also made her a kind of feminist icon. She has a residence on South Beach and was known to have long been seeking a signature local project. Previously, her only Miami work was a sculptural installation in the atrium of a Design District building. Hadid is the third winner of the Pritzker Prize, often called architecture’s Nobel, currently working on a Miami condo project. Sir Norman Foster of Britain is designing a tower next to the Saxony Hotel in Miami Beach, while the Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron, also responsible for the new downtown art museum and the instantly famed 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage on South Beach, is designing a tower in Sunny Isles Beach. The firm of a fourth Pritzker laureate, Rem Koolhaas’s Office of Metropolitan Architecture, for whom Hadid previously worked, has designed three companion buildings for the Saxony project, including the renovation of a smaller hotel, and is on a team vying for the redevelopment of the Miami Beach Convention Center. The fact that Hadid and other eminent architects are designing exceptional buildings in Miami reflects a growing maturity and sophistication about design from developers and civic institutions, said Wolfsonian/FIU museum director Cathy Leff. It also means the city can finally lay aside its longstanding inferiority complex, she hinted. “It’s a sign of confidence in our present,’’ Leff, a Hadid friend, said. “We were always the city of the future. We no longer have to define ourselves that way. We are a city of now and it should be defined by the best designers.’’ Hadid’s hiring for the 1000 Museum tower had been previously announced, but Friday provided the first public look at her firm’s design. Such is the interest among followers of design that leaked images and commentary had already been posted on local blogs. Schumacher said putting the structural support on the tower’s exterior and varying its width not only creates a striking appearance, but also has the practical benefit of allowing roomier units in the tower, which is relatively slender because of the lot’s small footprint. “It’s good to have the structure on the outside,’’ Schumacher said. “It’s a fusion of technical issues and technical expression, of aesthetic expression. It gives an identity ot the project, which changes character as you move from the bottom to the middle to the top. It adds variety, rather than have endless, monotonous repetition of the same from the bottom to the top.’’ That last is, of course, a reference to the typical stacked-balconies-on-a-podium design of Miami condo towers, including 1000 Museum’s four companions, all by noted Miami architects. Ten Museum, next door to the planned new tower, was also developed by Covin. But the developers and their architects deliberately set out to shatter that mold, Schumacher said. Although the tower does sit on a multi-level garage, retail and amenities podium, the exoskeleton’s legs reach all the way to the bottom, tying the building to the street, Schumacher said. Designed under the city’s new Miami 21 code, the tower also will avoid some of the much-cricitized pitfalls of its four companions, built under a previous code, he said. Critics have compared their rear facades on Northwest Second, dedicated entirely to service facilities, to the back of a refrigerator. 1000 Museum, by contrast, “will have a nice presence all around,’’ Schumacher promised. “It doesn’t have a back side.’’ He said the building would be “pushed forward’’ on the lot to urbanely meet Biscayne Boulevard and the planned new park across the street, where new art and science museums are under construction.
The 700-foot tower would be the tallest of the ensemble facing the park. Like most recently announced high-rise residential projects, the 1000 Museum developers are aiming the project at the very top of the luxury market, which means principally foreign buyers with ready cash. The units would be large, between 4,500 square feet and 9,000 square feet.

  Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/18/v-fullstory/3292714/hadid-condo-could-reshape-downtown.html BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com

Foreclosure rate falls in metropolitan Miami

The foreclosure rate – the percentage of mortgages in some stage of foreclosure – fell to 14.59 percent in Greater Miami in November 2012, down 3.13 percentage points from a year earlier, continuing a long downward trend, CoreLogic said. The percentage of delinquent mortgage loans in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall area fell 3.87 percentage points in November to 21.24 percent from 25.11 percent a year earlier, the Irvine, Calif.-based data firm reported. The delinquency rate is the percentage of loans more than 90-days delinquent, including foreclosures and mortgages in which a lender has taken title to a property. While metro Miami’s trends show continued solid improvement, its rates of foreclosure and mortgage delinquency remain far above national and state levels. In November, the foreclosure rate was 10.41 percent across Florida and 2.97 percent nationwide. The delinquency rate was 15.45 percent in Florida and 6.45 percent nationally, CoreLogic reported. Source: By Martha Brannigan mbrannigan@MiamiHerald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/29/3206736/foreclosure-rate-fell-in-metropolitan.html

South Florida housing recovery on track

South Florida’s housing recovery remained on track last month. Sales of existing single-family homes in Miami-Dade County jumped 16.4 percent in December 2012 from a year earlier, making 2012 a record year for sales, the Miami Association of Realtors said. In Miami-Dade, the median price for a single-family home jumped 18.9 percent to $214,060 while that of an existing condominium soared 25.4 percent to $163,000 in December 2012 from a year earlier, marking 13 consecutive months of year-over-year gains. Miami-Dade condo sales climbed 9.8 percent to 1,395 units in December. Broward County’s housing market is showing similarly strong demand and rising prices. In Broward, the median price of an existing single-family home surged 21.1 percent to $230,000 in December from a year earlier, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors. The median price of an existing condo or townhouse in Broward jumped 24.7 percent to $95,100 year over year, the group said. Sales of single-family homes in Broward climbed 14.9 percent in December from a year earlier while the volume of condo and townhouse closings increased 4.7 percent over the period. Sellers have gained the upper hand amid a tight inventory of properties for sale and often can choose between competing offers, according to Realtors. The number of single-family homes on the market in Miami-Dade fell 27.5 percent in December to 5,000, while the number of condos declined 20.8 percent to 7,844 units, the Miami Realtors said. “You’re seeing more buyers chasing fewer properties,” said Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors in Coral Gables. Miami-Dade has just 5.2 months of supply of single-family homes and 5.7 months of supply of condos on the market — less than the six to nine months of inventory typical of a market balanced between buyers and sellers. “When it drops below six months of supply, you’re definitely going to see price appreciation,” Shuffield said. Cash remains king, especially for condo transactions, a segment where foreign investors play a huge role. In December 2012, 76 percent of Miami-Dade condo sales were all-cash transactions, as were 49 percent of single-family home deals. “Buyers are quite surprised there is not more inventory after everything they have been hearing,” said Eyvonne Kafourus, an agent with Prudential Florida Realty in Fort Lauderdale. “I see a lot of people coming in from other states, for job transfers and retirement.” The inventory of single-family homes in Broward fell 35.5 percent in December from a year earlier; the inventory of condos and townhomes for sale declined 25.2 percent year over year, the Fort Lauderdale group said. “Buyers are getting aggravated, because they are losing deals,” said Charles Bonfiglio, who recently assumed office as president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors. “Eighty to 90 percent [of sales] are multiple-offer situations. They’ve got to move quickly.” Bonfiglio said offers over asking price are common, although appraisals frequently do not follow suit. The housing market in South Florida has continued to make gains despite a huge overhang of distressed properties that are a headwind on prices. In Miami-Dade, distressed properties accounted for 41 percent of total sales in December, down from 54.4 percent a year earlier. Demand is robust for bank-owned properties and short sales, agents say, and many would-be buyers find themselves outflanked by cash-rich professional investors. “They don’t last long,” Kafourus said of foreclosures. “You have to be really on top of the market and searching every day. If you are looking to get a mortgage, you’re at a disadvantage to the cash buyers.” The median days on the market for a single-family home in Broward dropped to 37 days in December from 56 days a year earlier, the Realtors group said. Florida has been seeing a flow of new arrivals after a period of exodus during the downturn. In addition, foreign investors have rushed in to take advantage of the prices, which are still far below their highs before the crash. “We’ve obviously turned the corner. We’ve noticed inventory tightening up,” said Philip Vias, a broker associate with Prudential in Fort Lauderdale. Vias said more buyers seem to be coming in from the Northeast. “What’s held things up is homes weren’t selling up north. Now it’s starting to trickle down.” Statewide in Florida, single-family home sales climbed 15.8 percent in December from a year earlier as the median price increased 14.1 percent to $154,000. Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/22/3194937/existing-home-sales-and-prices.html By Martha Brannigan mbrannigan@miamiherald.com

Prices for Miami Beach luxury condos soar to records

Ultra-luxury condominiums on South Beach are fetching nosebleed prices. On Tuesday, a penthouse at the Setai Resort at 2001 Collins Avenue closed for $27 million — the highest price ever for a South Florida condominium, according to real estate agents. “We’re definitely seeing the market turning upward,” said Jeff Miller, of Zilbert International Realty in Miami, who represented the buyer in the sale of the palatial 7,100-square-foot condominium. “We’re seeing buyers come in from all over the globe.” Just a few weeks ago, Ohio coal mining businessman Wayne Boich Jr. completed the sale of his Icon South Beach penthouse at 450 Alton Road in the uber-trendy South of Fifth neighborhood for just under $21 million. The 6-bedroom, 7 1/2-bath Icon condo sparked a bidding war that drove the sale $2 million above the listing price — a level that is three times the $7 million Boich paid in July 2007 in the depths of the bust. It was a record price for a Miami Beach bayside condo. “The luxury market is on fire in South Beach — especially the South of Fifth neighborhood,” said Dora Puig, principal of PuigWerner Real Estate Services, who was the listing broker for the Icon unit. “It’s moving Miami to totally different pricing points.” The Setai’s record may not reign for long. Penthouse 2 in the decade-old Continuum South tower at 100 South Pointe Drive in the South of Fifth neighborhood is on the market for $39 million. That is a record listing price for a Miami-Dade condominium, according to Puig, who also snagged that listing. Amid the market sizzle, Puig bumped up the asking price late last summer from $35 million. The penthouse, which has 11,000 square feet of interior space, belongs to Manhattan real estate developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who built the Continuum project at the tip of South Beach and kept the trophy for himself. The Continuum penthouse, which has 6,000 square feet of deck and a rooftop heated pool, boasts sweeping 13 1/2-foot ceilings that give the feel of a single-family home. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami and Miami Beach from 40 stories up. “It looks down on Fisher Island, way down,” Puig said with a smile. The unit has a private interior elevator, of course, and stretches over two indoor levels and two largely exterior levels. One big plus: It has a gated entrance and sits on an expansive enclave of rolling lawns and gardens adjacent to a city park at the tip of the island. The unit comes with an additional 874-square-foot guest quarters that would delight most mortals. “The guest unit is intended for professional quarters: the maid, the nanny, the chef, the pilot,” Puig explained. Also included is a snazzy cabana on the beach. Eichner has used it as a vacation home and once rented it to Tom Cruise for a couple of months while he was in Miami to film Rock of Ages. On Thursday, Puig hosted Miami’s power brokers for a look at the Continuum penthouse over champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Next week, she plans to spend three days in New York touting the property to high-end brokers. Such palatial properties typically are paid for in cash. But what would a monthly payment be? With a 20 percent down payment of $7.8 million, the buyer would have to finance $31.2 million. “I don’t know that I’d be able to find anybody willing to go that high on one unit,” warned Steve Schneider, a mortgage broker who is owner and president of Abacus Lending Group in South Miami. If a buyer could line up a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.5 percent, the monthly payment for principal and interest would be $223,043.35. “I’d hate to see the tax bill,” said Schneider. According to Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser records, the 2012 property tax bill on the Continuum penthouse was $264,896.17. That was based on an assessed value of just $9.5 million, less than half what the Property Appraiser listed as the market value of $19.3 million. The tax break came as a result of the state law that caps increases in assessed values on non-homesteaded property at 10 percent a year. The condo maintenance fee for Eichner’s unit runs $7,624 a month. “I think that’s low for what you get,” said Puig. Source http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/17/3187969/prices-for-miami-beach-luxury.html By Martha Brannigan mbrannigan@MiamiHerald.com

Sellers still reducing their asking price for homes

With the homebuying market still struggling, real estate agencies are trying to lure potential homeowners into moving to their area by slashing home prices.

In a soon to be released report from the real estate website Trulia.com, home sellers have cut more than $24 billion in potential home equity over the past year and trimmed the cost of properties approximately 79 days after posting the initial asking price. What's more, according to the website, 35 percent of sellers will cut their prices again.

Trulia.com reports that the average home seller dropped their asking price by an average of 8 percent, but that rate is even higher in certain parts of the country, such as Detroit and Cleveland, where the average first-time price cut is 19 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

In a statement obtained by the Miami Herald, Tara-Nicholle Nelson of Trulia.com said home sellers often need to make a second cut to lure buyers, and this usually happens to people who underestimate how deeply they should cut their asking price the first time around.

Miami New-Condo Sales Revive As Biggest Markets Fall

The new-condo boom struck louder in Miami than it did in other markets and fell hardest there when the thunder stopped.

Now the area stands out again. Its new-condo market is coming back stronger in sales and pricing, though it's a fraction of its old self.

Thank all-cash buyers from Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Europe and other locales. They see Miami's luxury condos at discounted prices as safe havens for investment money.

Positive sales trends continue.

"These people are parking their cash," said Peter Zalewski, principal of real estate consultancy Condo Vultures. "In Venezuela, they're fearful they're going to lose it (under President Hugo Chavez's strong-arm rule). Canadians are saying their currency is on par with the U.S. dollar, so in their minds they are getting a 25% discount."

Of the top eight U.S. metro areas, Miami was the only one in 2010 to show volume gains in attached-home closings, mainly condos, according to data gathered by Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

The other seven fell 5% to 37% as Miami rose 8%. New York dropped 13%, Los Angeles 20% and San Francisco 37%. Unit sales totaled 4,120 in Miami — above L.A.'s 3,935 — but that still pales vs. pre-crash years 2005-07, when 20,000 to 30,000 units sold each year.

The Miami metro figures cited by Hanley Wood include Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Miami-Dade is almost 70% of the total, at 2,842 closings.

"Miami is a happening place; it's really become a dynamic marketplace," said Jay Massirman, managing director of Asentus Real Estate, a real estate investment and merchant banking firm in Miami Beach.

All About Inventory

L.A. and other spots that dropped off in new-condo sales hadn't seen as big a spike in construction as the Miami area. Some 85,000 new condo units were built in the area from 2003-10, with 49,000 in coastal areas east of I-95, says Condo Vultures. Greater downtown Miami accounted for 22,250 units.

Bulk sales have figured in Miami's condo recovery, as investors bet that South Florida's cachet will continue. Last year 3,700 units in downtown Miami sold, up 57% from 2,300 in 2009, says Condo Vultures. Some 1,600 units sold in 10 bulk deals, Zalewski says. The rest were to individual all-cash buyers, mostly from overseas.

New construction has virtually halted as the market works through new inventory from prior years that hasn't sold yet. As prices rise, the pace of bulk buying seems to be slowing, at least in the coastal and downtown urban cores, leaving those markets to all-cash individual buyers, local watchers say.

Meanwhile, in Miami-Dade County the median price of an attached home — a condo, for the most part — rose 11% to $288,614 last year, says Hanley Wood. The median price was higher than the peak year of 2006, when 17,400 closings were recorded. But many low-price condos have been converted to rentals, skewing inventory to luxury units.

"A lot of the inventory has been absorbed fairly rapidly and it is continuing to be absorbed," Massirman said. Where blocks of brand-new condo towers on Brickell Avenue near downtown stood dark, "lights are on, people are jogging on the street and dining in restaurants."

Buying In Landlord Land

Most new occupants are renters.

"The number of buyers we see who are end users is a very tiny minority," Zalewski said. "The family of four with a dog doesn't have a chance in this (new-construction) market because there's no financing. If you can find a lender, you have to put down 50%."

Even so, the sales rebound is welcome relief to condo associations that have struggled to keep up services at empty or half-empty buildings. At least new owners pay monthly association fees, as their tenants live the high life, enjoying amenities such as sleek kitchens and rooftop pools.

"A lot of these association issues are working themselves out," Massirman said.

Falling prices had a lot to do with the rebound. "In 2009, prices started to bottom," Massirman said, noting that new condos on Brickell fell to as low as $200 a square foot from $600 three years earlier. In late 2009, investors "started piling in."

Bulk buyers and other investors are starting to turn their sights to suburban neighborhoods away from the coast, where prices are still falling, observers say.

"East of I-95 is well past the bottom," Zalewski said. "West of I-95 is a market that doesn't have any kind of safety stop. The 10% local unemployment rate has a drastic effect on the suburban market."

The median price of an existing single-family home in the Miami metro area, which includes condos, fell 18.3% in January from a year ago, to $165,800, says the National Association of Realtors. As prices fell, sales rose 32.9%.

Investors scouting the western suburbs of Miami are looking to pick up multiple units in garden-style condo conversions for $25,000 to $50,000 each, Zalewski says.

"The new-condo market is starting to slow. The resale condo market is starting to heat up," he said.

New construction has virtually halted as the market works through new inventory from prior years that hasn't sold yet. As prices rise, the pace of bulk buying seems to be slowing, at least in the coastal and downtown urban cores, leaving those markets to all-cash individual buyers, local watchers say.

Meanwhile, in Miami-Dade County the median price of an attached home — a condo, for the most part — rose 11% to $288,614 last year from 2009, says Hanley Wood. Both years showed higher median prices than the peak year of 2006, when 17,400 closings were recorded.

"A lot of the inventory has been absorbed fairly rapidly and it is continuing to be absorbed," Massirman said. Where blocks of brand-new condo towers on Brickell Avenue near downtown stood dark, "lights are on, people are jogging on the street and dining in restaurants."

Buying In Landlord Land

Most new occupants are renters.

"The number of buyers we see who are end users is a very tiny minority," Zalewski said. "The family of four with a dog doesn't have a chance in this (new-construction) market because there's no financing. If you can find a lender, you have to put down 50%."

Even so, the sales rebound is welcome relief to condo associations that have struggled to keep up services at empty or half-empty buildings. At least new owners pay monthly association fees, as their tenants live the high life, enjoying amenities such as sleek kitchens and rooftop pools.

"A lot of these association issues are working themselves out," Massirman said.

Falling prices had a lot to do with the rebound. "In 2009, prices started to bottom," Massirman said, noting that new condos on Brickell fell to as low as $200 a square foot from $600 three years earlier. In late 2009, investors "started piling in."

Bulk buyers and other investors are starting to turn their sights to suburban neighborhoods away from the coast, where prices are still falling, observers say.

"East of I-95 is well past the bottom," Zalewski said. "West of I-95 is a market that doesn't have any kind of safety stop. The 10% local unemployment rate has a drastic effect on the suburban market."

The median price of an existing single-family home in the Miami metro area, which includes condos, fell 18.3% in January from a year ago, to $165,800, says the National Association of Realtors. As prices fell, sales rose 32.9%.

Investors scouting the western suburbs of Miami are looking to pick up multiple units in garden-style condo conversions for $25,000 to $50,000 each, Zalewski says.

"The new-condo market is starting to slow. The resale condo market is starting to heat up," he said.

Source: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/564849/201103031443/Miami-New-Condo-Sales-Revive-As-Biggest-Markets-Fall.aspx

By MARILYN ALVA, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Pending home sales up in Miami-Dade, Broward

Pending home sales in Miami-Dade and Broward counties rose in February, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.

Miami-Dade saw the biggest boost, with total pending sales – including single-family homes and condominiums – rising 22 percent, year-over-year, in February – to 11,182 from 9,164.

An increase in pending sales is an indication of future market conditions. A sale is listed as pending when a contract is signed, but the transaction has not closed.

Pending condo deals in Miami-Dade County saw the biggest year-over-year gains in February, increasing 26.9 percent to 6,497 from 5,122.

Sales of single-family homes in Miami-Dade rose 16 percent, to 4,685 from 4,042.

In Broward County, total pending sales increased 7.7 percent in February, to 8,391 from 7,791 contracts signed.

The county’s pending condo sales outperformed single-family home selling, rising 12.3 percent, year-over-year, to 4,878 from 4,343 contracts.

Pending sales of single-family homes increased 2 percent, to 3,513 from 3,448.

“Current statistics for pending sales reflect the positive performance of the South Florida real estate market over the last few months,” said Jack H. Levine, chairman of the Miami Association of Realtors. “We have seen year-over-year increase for pending sales for nearly one year. Pending sales have also increased month-over-month 10 out of the last 13 months.”

Nationwide, pending home sales decreased in January for the second straight month, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Pending Home Sales Index, a national forward-looking indicator, declined 2.8 percent from December to January, and is down 1.5 percent from its January 2010 level.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2011/02/28/pending-home-sales-up-in-miami-dade.html