More news on the trendy SoBe. At the end of the Winter tourism season, developers and owners in SoBe have apparently decided to cut prices to take advantage on tourism affluence. This price cuts have reached an average of 39%, although this average takes into account a bulk deal closed at the South of Fifth condo. Without this deal, prices have been cut 26% in comparison to the same season a year ago.

This puts in the table the question if SoBe’s condos are “price insulated” or not. Well, our best guess is that sellers decided to cut price to stimulate sales, which has worked because the neighborhood’s new condos have sold increasingly this first three months 2011 in comparison with 2010; there are some suppositions that sellers just got tired of waiting for buyers to feel attracted by above $1,300 per square foot prices. But projects like the Setai (at the picture) and the W South Beach Residences bet on high profile buyers, and are high-end residences that have a best interest in keeping the price of a sumptuous good, than in lowering prices to attract anyone who can afford it.

In any case, these are just suppositions, we guess. Due to the fact that per square foot prices have been growing since 2007 in the area, we would stick to the theory that this year’s price cuts during Winter season is a strategy, but also competence from other areas like Brickell could also put some extra pressure to sellers. In any case, THESE PRICE CUTS ARE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR BUYERS! We will wait and see if prices grow again or stay steady in current levels during Summer.

If Brickell has consolidated as the most attractive submarket for foreign buyers, it is because of its central location, its dazzling waterfront condos and its distinctive skyline. Nevertheless, Brickell being the most highlighted neighbourhood in town hasn’t cut the lights that the traditional trendy neighbourhood of South Beach has had, has, and will probably continue to have for centuries.

South Beach is the spot that gathers luxurious condos with an agitated nightlife, and it is home to well known personalities, like high profile ahtletes and celebs. Its most lavish condos are constant spots for them to party, dinner or just hang out. Among this exclussive projects are the Apogee and the W South Beach.

These condos have stand out for maintaining average per square foot prices above $1,300, quite above any other average around. Well, the W SOUTH BEACH condo just features in the news after having a sales jump of 17% in the first quarter 2011, selling 5.7 units average at $1,536 per square foot.

Of course, contrasting with what’s been said above, the W South Beach also had a slip in its square foot prices, falling from $1,753 to $1,536 in a year-over-year comparison. In general, prices seem to be going down in the area, which obviously attracts more buyers and investors, while in Brickell the dynamic is the opposite: Prices are being pushed up while sales are slowing down compared to previous periods.

Still, inventory in Brickell is only enough to cover demand in the next 20 months, while in the W SoBe -408 units-, at the current demand, inventory could cover over 50 months. It will be interesting to check on this subject, as SoBe will never vanish as the prefered spot for party lovers!

South Beach or Brickell? It seems to be a question of volume Vs. pricing.

SoBe has been an appealing real estate market for decades. Its prominence in the market right now is not related to how many buyers it attracts, but to how much it closes its deals for. For example, the W South Beach condo sold during the past three months at an average of $1,800 per sq. ft., in contrast with some $320 that Brickell sold for during the same period.

The difference is Brickell has a lot more product to offer than SoBe. $1,000 per sq. ft. has been considered a floor price, the lowest acceptable, for the SoBe area to be still in healthy shape, different from per sq. ft. prices of $150, which were found some months ago in luxury waterfront condos in Brickell and Downtown Miami, and which aided in fueling bulk buys.

In the latest of its great sales, the W Condo, an astonishing waterfront building in the middle of the traditional trendy profile of SoBe, sold 14 high-end condos for $1,850 per sq. ft., for an average of $1.6 million per unit.

Despite this wonderful sales performance, the condo has only sold 22 percent of its units, although it has managed to position its name as one of the most wanted and exclussive condos in the market, where stars both celebrate and live. LeBron James rented a unit at the W to celebrate the signing of its Miami Heat contract. The new average is an achievement for the condo itself, which came over its previous sale price average of $1,300 per sq. ft.

However, South Beach would envy the flow of buyers and investors going thru the Brickell market to take what’s best to take while it’s still available. The Brickell area has concentrated great international interest in its real estate. In fact, it is thanks to foreign buyers that Brickell has enjoyed the economic reactivation it has been subjetc to, due to the permanent residents flow into the area, and the low retail space vacancy, one of the lowest nationwide. Sure that is something any other area would go up for.

The quarter ended in September had a good balance for people who bought Brickell condos or Downtown Miami condos, since their market value rose 40% from the second quarter.

The price gain is related to the interest this submarket has awaken in foreign buyers, as well as the demand for condos for rent in the area. The result is a per sq. ft. price increase of $213 to $355 from July to September. It was, then, a good quarter for sales in this interesting spot of the Miami area.

Other areas like South Beach also had some gains in luxurious condos like the W South Beach (on the pic), that sold 14 condos in Q3 2010, at an average price of $1,850 per sq. ft., setting a precedent for SoBe condos market, home to some of the most exclussive projects in Miami Beach. SoBe condos have kept their value above the floor-price of $1,000 per sq. ft. The W, on its way, rose its per sq. ft. price from previous transactions, that had gone as high as $1,300.

Although nobody wants more foreclosures, and Government is looking for a way out of the foreclosure waves that threaten demand for homes nationwide, there is no question that foreclosured properties mean a good opportunity to invest in the market.

Social issues with foreclosure processes are a complicated issue. Last week there was a great debate about this, and about what financial institutions and banks can do to avoid foreclosure peaks that so greatly harm troubled homeowners.

BUT if you are an investor and want to take advantage of deeply discounted units that come from foreclosures, then you might want to check our page with hot deals and foreclosures in Brickell, foreclosures in Miami Beach, in Aventura in Sunny Isles, in Coral Gables and in Doral. You will find incredible prices for great units, that could represent monthly revenues of up to 9 percent, depending on the property’s management.

Great units are available for prices as low as $80,000 in Brickell, a very attractive luxury submarket, full of waterfront high rises and righ at the heart of Miami-Dade. Renting these properties in the short term makes it very profitable to own Brickell and Downtown Miami properties. Take advantage of this great opportunity and contact us directly for further information on how to invest or administrate your property!

30-year-fixed-rate mortgages continue to make history. According to Freddie Mac, the average 30-year mortgage rate fell to 4.42 percent yesterday, after setling in another record-low at 4.44 percent the week before.

On its hand, the 15-year-fixed-rate mortgages also went down from 3.92 to 3.90 percent. This is the ninth straight week that mortgage rates fall steadily, said Reuters today. These rates help rise housing loan demand; in some cases, demand for home financing have been reported to rise 50 percent, and refinancing activites also flowrish, as practically everyone that has a mortgage right now could benefit from negotiating refinancing under present conditions.

However, there are always considerations about optimistic prospects of seeing more and more people refinancing. “Underwater” mortgages cannot be refinanced, that is, those housing loans in which the amount of debt has topped the value of the mortgaged asset. Although this is the heaviest concern for the government, good expectations for refinancers are on their way, since lowering their monthly payments amount can help rise consumption and reactivate economy in many ways.

This mortgage rates are ideal to attract homebuyers into the already largely desired markets of South Florida. South Beach, for example, is a real estate luxury submarket that can benefit from low mortgage rates, as US buyers decide to invest in its affordable condos, with convenient monthly payments and the possibility to gain high middle and long term revenues out of a smart investment.

Consult our financing options, or contact us for more detailed information on investing in the Miami real estate market.

The second quarter 2010, between the months of April to June, showed a good level of sales in areas like Greater Downtown Miami, where new condo sales soared in comparison with the same period in 2009. In South Beach, a different submarket. new condo sales surged in comparison with the first quarter of the year, doubling the number of units sold, and showing that SoBe remains as one of the strongest markets in Miami.

There’s always a special appeal about South Beach. Those who buy in South Beach do so because they want to be in SoBe trendy neighbourhood, while those who buy in Brickell or Downtown do so taking advantage of its luxurious options at a favourable pricing; some even preffer to be away from the nightime noise from the beaches.

But SoBe has had a characteristic in these last periods, and it is that its per sq. ft. price has not been lower than $1,000, a very high price in comparison with Greater Downtown Miami’s $333 average sales price. With that price level, SoBe closed 31 individual sales, all of them concentrated in three projects, according to real estate consultancy Condo Vultures.

Those attractive projects are the oppulent W South Beach Condo, Continuum on South Beach North Tower, and the Mondrian Condominium. In total, these projects have sold 48 units this year, that translate into $72.8 million, or $1,365 per sq. ft. A year ago, during the first half 2009, the numer of units sold was 49, but at a per sq. ft. price of $844. This is another hint that shows that SoBe is actually one of the strongest submarkets in the tri-county South Florida area, that has achieved a satisfactory price recovery in a year-over-year basis.

From March to May 130 luxury condos with prices starting at $1 million have been sold in Miami-Dade County. This is the most difficult type of product in the real estate market to be exhausted, due to the hard contidions that the crash established. But in the two-month period from March to May, the numbers available now show that 130 high-end apartments were sold across in Miami, a number that doubles the amount of the same product sold from March thru May in 2009.

Does this mean that the market is recovering? Well, it sure marks a phase of the real estate market that could be pointing to the generalized feeling that bottom prices have been reached. We have been reading (and writing) a lot about this lately here in our blog, and it is that many buyers are rushing to compete for properties as they have come to feel that prices will not get any lower than they are currently.

When these markets, luxury and ultra luxury markets begin to increase sales, it is a good hint to understand the moment of the market. The many buyers out there -now public sector also biding- have projected their idea of market bottom, making luxury sales also increase. For example, luxury waterfront projects like the Setai at South Beach(picture above) has sold $13 million, and the Fountainebleau has sold $9 million.

Interested in luxury and ultra luxury markets? Contact us for more on real estate jewels, and take the decision to buy in the right time!

Another bulk buy has been completed in the trendy South Beach neighbourhood just half a block from Lincoln Road hot spot. 83 percent of the condo conversion Champs Elysees is now owned by First on LLC Lincoln, a private equity group that paid $100,000 per unit, buying the 20 so far unsold units of the condo.

The Champs Elysees was built in 1925, and was renovated in 2006 to join the listings in 2007 as a condominium. Since 2007 the building had only sold four of its units -the only four that the group does not own. Now, the private equity group is the owner of 9,300 resaleable sq. ft. that were closed at $2 million ($215 per sq. ft.).

As I had wrote earlier this week, the competence for South Beach’s properties is having new players like the public sector, which has motivated the private sector to move quickly. Many seem to believe that the bottom prices have been reached, and are rushing to bulk buy while sq. ft. prices are still low. As Peter Zalewski -a principal with Condo Vultures- has pointed out, when bulk buys occur, prices of coastal projects around seem to rise, which is actually what is expected to happen now in South Beach, a place where sq. ft. prices have not fallen below $1,000.

In fact, average prices for Q1 this year were of $1,364, showing a great increase from the same period 2009 when prices averaged $803. The behavior of the South Beach market caughts the attention of buyers that expect to sell later, because it is a very affordable and appealable area. South Beach has not had as many condo sales -by far- as did Downtown Miami this year, but South Beach obviously has a particular appeal and many buy there to be there. If you were considering the options to buy and invest in South Beach now is definetly the perfect timing.