Turnberry Ocean Colony Common Areas – Picture Tour

Interior shots look very Palm Beach.

I must be old because I prefer these interiors to some of the modern/post-modern yuck of Miami.

BillyK,

Yes, I’ve been to Acqualina several times. I like the location of Acqualina a bit better than Turnberry Ocean Colony but overall I like TOC better. I like the fact that it’s not a monstrous high-rise like Acqualina and I never liked the limited number of hours that you’re able to get sun at Acqualina’s pool. In many respects, however, they have the same feel.

The building is o’k but as someone mentioned it is for a certain type of people. I am humble in this case to judge. Have you ever been in the restaurant in Acqualina? IT is very expensive but not my type of food. When I was there a lot of people some older some a bit younger men and women all dressed in flashy very expensive outfits with rubies and emeralds the size of elephant’s eggs( if elephant was a bird and could lay out eggs). when these people talk you hear it is not British English. So this is the atmosphere there. Also I felt lack of intimacy and privacy. More of a certain Las Vegas style hotel but not exactly.

Lara,
I was just on the phone with him. He said that he’s in the middle of uploading the update right now. It’ll probably be accessible within the next couple of hours.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009,
Report: Downtown Miami condo closings cut in half
South Florida Business Journal

Cap and Trade? Yeah, like the other countries won’t cheat… It also depends on the target levels but the enforcement is an issue with different countries.

Lenders foreclose on a Related Group property in West Palm Beach
BY ALLISON ROSS
Palm Beach Post

The Related Group, headed by Miami developer Jorge Perez, is turning over control of the 420-unit CityPlace South Tower condominium to an investor group in a ”friendly foreclosure” facilitated by its lenders, the company said Wednesday.

The new owners, a consortium led by Toronto-based Scotia Capital, will acquire title to all of the unsold units in the nearly empty tower in downtown West Palm Beach. There was no price disclosed in the transaction.

CityPlace South Tower developers had contracted to sell 367 units, but only managed to close on 39, according to a statement. However, the souring real estate market — especially among condos — caused ”a number” of those buyers to default on their loans, the statement said.

AGAIN, ANOTHER BAD STORY ABOUT A BROKER

… especially a short sale, you would think they’d want multiple offers in hand in case buyer #1 can’t perform. Who knows? In Miami, always safer to assume the worst.

Anyone looking to pick off a unit in this building better do some due diligence. Aside from the usual concerns about the health of a particular building you’ve got the whole FB Vegas turd circling in the toilet. Supposedly FB Vegas is not cross collateralized with any of the other Turnberry assets, …but Soffer’s guaranty exposure is huge on that project and if FB Vegas fails, who knows what else his name is on with the remaining projects (including TOC) and what effect a large deficiency judgment could have. Not saying you shouldn’t buy…just, know what’s out there.

Aside from that, the project looks nice. Not for me, but certainly for my parents.

Fannie, Freddie ease terms for mortgage refinance

By Patrick Rucker Patrick Rucker – Wed Jul 1, 5:57 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Wednesday expanded its foreclosure prevention efforts to help a greater number of underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages.

Under the widened program, mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) will refinance up to 125 percent of a home’s value, lifting the current 105 percent loan-to-value cap.

^Who is this guy, Yoda?

How do you guys get MLS access, if you don’t mind my asking?

I don’t know about florida but in many places they have their own website where you can browse listings or you can sign up on a realtor’s site to get daily updates that meets your criterior

Lara, Nirvana is a dump. pretty sure it was low-rent apt. community that was converted during the boom.

From the DBR…

Foreclosed Properties
After lull in listings, another wave of REOs to hit market

July 01, 2009 By: Polyana da Costa

After declaring that South Florida was experiencing a scarcity of foreclosed homes for sale by lenders, local real estate agents now say a new wave of listings is making its way to market.

Some industry insiders said the recent lack of listings was an artificial shortage deliberately created by some banks that withheld their foreclosed properties from the marketplace. Other agents blame the decline in so-called REO (real-estate owned) properties for sale on other factors, including lenders’ moratoriums on foreclosures, their loan modification efforts, the uncertainty over government bailout plans and increased demand from buyers for bank-owned homes.

Regardless of the reason, agents say the number of foreclosed homes for sale drastically declined during the first half of this year. But many now say they have been inundated by lenders wanting to list homes for sale.

James Banford, owner of West Palm Beach-based Real Estate Asset Disposition Corp., which works with about 35 lenders and specializes in the sale of bank-owned properties in Florida, said his company received an average of 100 to 150 new listings of repossessed homes per month last year. That number dropped to about 25 homes per month during the first five months of this year.

“But we just saw about 100 new properties come into our inventory in June,” he said. “The reason inventory was down is that homes were selling fast, and they weren’t being replaced with new inventory. A lot of it was because of the moratorium.”

Banford also said sales of foreclosed homes have picked up substantially compared with last year. In 2008, his company sold a total of 725 REOs. In just the first five months of this year, his company has sold 645 lender-owned properties.

The type of buyers has also shifted. While most REO buyers used to be investors, many buyers are now people who intend to occupy the properties, he said.

Hot commodity

Alejandro Diaz Bazan, REO director at Avatar Real Estate Services, said he was about to run out of foreclosed properties to sell when he was assigned about 20 more from different lenders this month.

“Before I was getting about eight new listings a month, and they were selling fast,” he said.

Earlier this year, bank-owned homes in Miami-Dade County remained on the market for an average of 35 days, Bazan said. But in the last month, that average fell to about 10 days or less.

“In the past 30 days, we have seen new REOs last less than one week on market, which is irregular for a real estate market which is typically known for being illiquid,” he said.

The demand for properties continues to increase. He said he averages 10 offers for most of his REO listings.

“There is one home in Homestead that I got 29 offers for,” Bazan said.

The majority of houses that are now being sold are bank-owned properties. In Miami-Dade, for example, REOs account for about 74 percent of the 1,243 pending sales of single-family homes, according to Bazan’s research.

More than half the REOs he handles are occupied, since lenders can’t begin the lengthy eviction process until they have title to the property.

Most lenders don’t want to wait for the eviction process, which could delay putting the property on the market about 60 to 90 days. In fact, to fast-track the listing, lenders are employing a tactic called cash-for-keys. Lenders will pay the homeowners as much as $2,000 to move out of the house within 30 days, so the property can be sold.

Limited listings

A study by RealtyTrac in late 2008 showed that only 18 percent of the about 50,000 bank-owned homes and condos in Florida were listed for sale through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

The California-based research company said it will conduct another study this quarter but expects similar results.

And while there are thousands of residential foreclosures in the region, each South Florida county has only about 600 REO properties listed on the MLS, according to data from ZipRealty.

If banks are now so eager to sell their REOs, why are only a portion of the lender-owned properties listed for sale?

Wells Fargo senior economist Scott Anderson said he saw “some signs” of banks withholding listings in some markets during the first quarter but doesn’t think that’s happening now.

“Obviously they don’t want to flood the market all at once, so if you can spread it out, that tends to make a more orderly marketplace,” he said.

“But there was a certain regulatory uncertainty … and [lenders] were probably waiting to move into the spring selling season,” he said.

Bazan doesn’t think banks are deliberately holding back properties. He said lenders simply have been inundated with foreclosures and can’t process them as quickly as they are being seized.

“The asset managers I work with handle the REOs in teams of two and do 300 to 500 new REO assignments a month. I think they are catching up, getting the assets ready to be liquidated.”

Bazan also said new regulations have slowed the process, causing further delay in the listing of the REOs by the lenders.

“By law, in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, REOs cannot be actively listed and marketed before they obtain a [certificate of use]. This is creating a pipeline of REOs that we will see come to the market in the next months,” Bazan said.

Approaching stability?

Ron Shuffield president of the Miami-based brokerage EWM, said one reason for the increased volume of REO listings is that both lenders and buyers sense the market is stabilizing.

“Prices are down to 2003 levels,” he said.

But Wells Fargo economist Anderson said it’s too soon to declare a price bottom. That’s especially true for Miami-Dade, where he expects at least another 10 percent decline in home values over the next year.

“We may be stabilizing, but it’s a very weak bottom,” Anderson said.

Like many other national forecasters, Anderson said that rising unemployment — which he expects will surpass 10 percent nationwide within the next year — will create another surge in foreclosures.

“We expect the inventory of foreclosures to remain elevated,” he said.

Anthony Sergrich, REO manager of Boca Raton-based foreclosure.com, agreed.

Sergrich said while the flow of inventory slowed down for a few months, it was more of a pause, rather than a shortage.

“After the moratorium, banks are open to foreclosure again, so you are seeing movement coming from that,” he said.

“We’ve definitely not seen the end of the REO inventory. There is a secondary wave [about to hit the market], and there is a large enough inventory out there to last us for several years.”

Polyana da Costa can be reached at (561) 820-2065.

Now that’s my kind of Condo once it reaches $110.00 a foot.

For all the silly optimists with an agenda:

“U.S. housing prices will fall by a double-digit percentage from already beaten-down levels, resulting in an overall 40 percent plunge by the time foreclosures peak in the second half of 2010, Barclays Capital economist Michelle Meyer said.”

– Prices have never been better, buy now. Be a knife catcher.

South Beach is looking a bit down with quite a few run down, for sale, weed infested properties in fairly prime locations. The “condo-hotel” fade will hurt that are for a long time since the ownership structure is a mess and really for all practical purposes can’t be undone. Worse than the apartment to condo conversions. What a fricking mess! I’ve always viewed condo-hotels as toxic and have told many people my opinion since the fade took off around 2003. The condo-hotel fade will hurt SoBe for some time. Also, the apartment to condo conversions in good locations in SoBe have a lot of stalled/BK projects. All of this will take a toll to unwind. The disinvestment in real estate, especially the high end, trophy properties, rarely used properties will be longer than the lower end as we see the cheap prices with the associated low risk get bought up by actual users. Even prime location hotels are for sale in SoBe with no buyers…..

Joey Myers – AJ lost his credibility a LONG time ago. The now tempered shill fools no one. Simple question is if as he says his condos are such good investments, why doesn’t he buy MORE especially at today’s reduced prices. The guy is a fraud I’m afraid. Must be a Realtard®.

Happy 4th of july!

still the greatest country on earth.

Yawn…snore

TOC was hopping on the 4th with a band with tents and all….even the beach boys sported American flag baseball hats and patriotic beads…. Very tastefully done.

Mike – TOC is new construction, not from the 70’s, in case you were mistaking for another building.

What will AJ say now???

“Manhattan home prices plunge
Huge downturn for co-op and condo owners in pricey housing market. Number of sales ticks up as buyers with money take an opportunity.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The housing bust has finally clobbered super-pricey Manhattan home prices.

Reports released Thursday by four major New York brokers show that prices cratered during the three months that ended June 30.

Prices fell between 13% and 19% compared with the same quarter last year. The brokers found median prices that ranged from $795,000 to $849,000.

The decline shows a marked turn from the first quarter of 2009, when the year-over-year change in median home prices ranged from a loss of 2% to a gain of 6%. …”

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/02/real_estate/Manhattan_home_prices_plunge/index.htm?postversion=2009070200

12 people got shot last night a few blocks away from the Park West condos in Overtown. Three suspects in trenchcoats mowed down a party with automatic AK-47 guns. I would hate to own an overpriced condo knowing that its gang warfare right outside the building.