New Miami Condos – Closing Rates for February 2009

February 8, 2009

It’s been a few months since my last Miami condo closing rate update. The percentage of closed units for 25 major condo developments are provided below, starting with the first development to begin closings. Four condo developments have been added: Icon Brickell, Everglades on the Bay, Infinity at Brickell and Epic.  You’ll find these towards the bottom of this post.

Below, you will find the date that each condo development began closings followed by the number of closed units in each condo development:

• Ten Museum Park – June 14, 2007 – (165)
• Latitude on the River – July 27, 2007 – (374)
• Onyx on the Bay – July 31, 2007 – (74)
• Loft Downtown 2 – September 26, 2007 – (444)
• 50 Biscayne – October 1, 2007 – (526)

With the exception of Onyx on the Bay and 50 Biscayne, the first group above has remained unchanged.  Onyx on the Bay was able to close one additional condo while 50 Biscayne was able to close two.

• 1800 Club – November 27, 2007 – (321)
• Brickell on the River South – December 17, 2007 – (175)
• Opera Tower – December 28, 2007 – (235)
• Quantum on the Bay – January 3, 2008 – (566)
• Plaza on Brickell – January 7, 2008 – (727)

Quantum on the Bay and Plaza on Brickell once again were able to show a decent improvement in their closing rate.  Quantum on the Bay closed an additional 14 condos while Plaza on Brickell was able to close 21.  1800 Club did not have any new closings but I did find another deed that had been recorded twice.  This is the reason why the total number of closed condos in this update is one less than the total stated in the December 2008 post for 1800 Club.  It needs just 7 more closed condos to hit the all-important 70 percent mark.

• Apogee South Beach – January 16, 2008 – (66)
• 1060 Brickell – January 23, 2008 – (238)
• Midtown 4 – February 15, 2008 – (339)
• Marina Blue – February 27, 2008 – (425)
• Wind – February 28, 2008 – (218)

As a result of the 60-unit bulk sale, Marina Blue showed the most improvement of the above five condo developments since the last update.  I did, however, find re-recorded deeds for Marina Blue that I had previously missed.  The developer of Marina Blue has now closed around 82% of the total number of units.

• Asia – April 4, 2008 – (66)
• Met 1 – April 30, 2008 – (150)
• 900 Biscayne Bay – May 5, 2008 – (223)
• 500 Brickell – May 14, 2008 – (213)
• Axis – May 19, 2008 – (169)

In my opinion, the five condo developments above are all likely candidates for some sort of bulk deal taking place in the future.  Met 1 was able to close 7 additional units, Asia 2, 900 Biscayne Bay 13, 500 Brickell 17 and Axis 8.  As a result of the new Fannie Mae guidelines, it is not likely that we’ll see significant improvement in any of the condo developments that haven’t thus far reached the 70 percent mark.

• Ivy – June 12, 2008 – (219)
• Icon Brickell – November 18, 2009 – (15)
• Vizcayne – November 20, 2009 – (31)
• Infinity at Brickell – November 21, 2009 – (21)
• Epic Miami – December 19, 2009 – (12)

Above, you’ll find the four newly added condo developments which began closings within the past 3 months.  Timing could not have been worse for these four.  They’re going to need to find a plethora of cash buyers who are willing to pay dated prices.  Ivy at Riverfront, which began closings back in June 2008, was able to close 14 additional condos since the December 2008 update.

The bright side is that the condo construction cranes of Miami are gone.  The cranes that remain are for commercial developments.  Marquis and Paramount Bay, which should begin closings within the next 3 months, will be the last of the newly constructed condos to hit the market in Miami.  It does appear, however, that Met 3 has begun to lay its foundation.  Hopefully, the condo market will reach some sort of equilibrium by the time that development has been completed.

Disclaimer: The above closing rate information was derived from public County records. There can be a 2-3 week delay from the time that a closing occurs and the time that the closing is recorded.  The information above is not deemed 100 percent accurate as a result of delays in the recording of deeds and deeds being re-recorded.