5 Highest Condo Sales Closed in January 2010

Put those agents on a mailing list–lots of $$$

Whoever paid almost $3.5M for a townhouse <3 ,000 sf is an idiot.

$3,482,400. or $1200. per square foot – Continuum North. – Well Joe it looks like you can forget about ever seeing what really does go on behind that locked door on the roof 🙂

Kramer: Hilarious

Here is why hardest-hit markets (Miami, LV) are poised for 20%/yr price appreciation starting later this year:
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-the-most-bullish-thing-weve-seen-for-housing-in-a-long-time-2010-2

Lara,

Any news about the “Quantum smell” ?

Wow, I can’t believe Continuum North @1200/sqf…Who would pay that much for a building where you can get a daily rental! The area is one of the best but something is just not right with this…

Goodnews, you’re actually predicting the real estate market all way out to 2025? Wow, can you also tell who will win the next world series?

How does my opinion fit into that chart. From my past comments you can easily see that I still think housing is a good investment. But I fail to see where you getting this if your using long-term trends. The historical trend for appreciation has been about 4%. If you go back to 2001 pricing and apply 4% appreciation you should be at about $193k now when were about $197, so I’d say were close to the bottom. Inventories are decreasing however we’ll have a steady supply of foreclosures and REO’s probably for the next 3 years. If anything you have it backwards. We’ll flatline until around 2013 and then prices will catch up to long term trendlines.

What bank is offering 7%?!?!?!

Goodnews said housing will go back to 2006 prices in five years.

Seriously. That was said.

So that leaves us all with two options: (1) Write goodnews off as a blithering moron who fundamentally misunderstands what just happened in Miami and around the world; or (2) write goodnews off as another salesman on commission, willing to outright lie regardless of the consequences to the buyer.

Take your pick. I say it’s No. 2.

@RAM, I was just using an example. There are other investment vehicles out there which have better yields. And no chance of dipping into California munis! Maybe @Goodnews could make an argument why it is important to invest in California right now:)

I will be more than happy to sit on the sidelines and give my congrats to people making money hand over fist in the next couple years in the Miami market. I don’t see enough signs that point to Miami doubling in value in 5 years and will accept my poor slumdog status since I am not buying up condos left and right.

The Fed best resource is predicting about an average of a 1% decline in housing prices through April of this year from December. That is the national average. Might be safe to say that Miami condos would be possibly double that??? Say you have a 4% decline in prices, in Miami that would be 8% if double on a $500K condo, that is another $40K. For the year if the price decline continued for 12 months, would be $120K. Just saying…we aren’t at THE bottom here yet, much closer, but not there yet. With Florida having the highest foreclosure rate in the country…..

looks like the arse holes are back. Their (his) 2 week absence was too good to be true. Squash this roach.
Lucas, please remove #26 and show them (him) you mean business. Even if you are unable to block his IP address as he is a master of the concealing game, you can zap these foul posts as and when they appear and hopefully they (he) will get the message.
I think a lot of people will agree with this. If anyone thinks contrary then please tell all of us why posts like this which has absolutely nothing to do with free speech should be allowed to the detriment of this blog.

Condo Vultures. Literally.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/35460133

I actually like the continuum town houses. but then i really prefer a townhouse to highrise condo. we just dont have many options for such housing here in miami.
but those big loft windows at continuum townhomes are fantastic. light up the unit at night and parade around naked, so all the folks walking on the boardwalk are forced to see me in all my glory, up close and personal, disgusted at the site and yet insanely jealous of the house they cannot afford! life would be grand! 🙂

and btw AJ, no to EPIC…

i’m staying on the beach, closing shortly on a great place. slightly overpaying but the buyer is coming to close with 50k out of her own pocket to make the deal work.

Curious…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47649378@N02/4368650151/

Renter Tom –

I think you’re right. We’re getting there but we’ve a year or so to go before we hit bottom. In the meantime, park your cash in my very favorite stock – NLY – for its big fat 17% dividend; its a great play for another 6-9 months. And why shouldn’t we try to time the bottom? We’re watching closely and we see it coming…not yet…but coming.

Just saw this in the Miami Herald.

The issue with this online auction site is that the people whose complaints are aired in this article are the typical “unsophisticated” rookies and/or careless buyers who got caught not doing their research.

No one should be surprised, shocked or astounded to learn that the luxury condo they purchased for $140K at auction is encumbered with debt obligations that remain on going because all buyers must assume that a mortgage lender’s interest is a secured. No buyer should be surprised to learn that the luxury condo he is bidding on has a lien on it from the condo association as these liens are typically secured interests that do not disappear when a property is sold at auction. More importantly, no buyer should be surprised when a property is offered for sale at auction by someone other than the bank or superior debt holder remains encumbered with the outstanding debt obligation(s).

Caveat emptor my friends. Caveat emptor.

Here is the link and, for your convenience, I have the entire article reprinted below.
Happy Friday!

scriv

Miami-Dade foreclosure auction site baffles bargain hunters
The first month of Miami-Dade’s online auction program has led to increased sales, but some buyers say the lack of safeguards has cost them thousands.

By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
[email protected]

A new online foreclosure auction system started with a mission of quickly moving a chunk of foreclosed properties while opening up the bidding process to regular folks.

A little more than a month later, some of the newcomers who bought property online say they were misled by the site and ended up spending thousands of dollars on condo liens and properties laden with hefty mortgages.

In some cases, after purchasing, they found the properties were still subject to foreclosure.

Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin said the online auction process is working as planned, and the few complaints he has received have come from people who did not take the time to understand the process.

The site has sold more than 1,500 homes in its first four weeks, with buyers hailing from all over the world. The clerk expects the number of homes sold each week to continue to rise, eventually reaching as many 2,000 a week, a pace that will help cut into the cumbersome backlog of more than 100,000 foreclosure filings.

Those who have lost money point to the disconnect between the website’s buyer-beware disclaimers, and the county’s attempts to promote the site as simple and straightforward “just like eBay.”

`THIS IS NOT SIMPLE’

Alain Lantigua, a seasoned investor who had regularly attended the courthouse auctions, said that while he likes the new system, the shift to online sales has brought in hundreds of novices, many of whom don’t take the time to properly research a property before bidding.

“This is not simple — this is a very, very complicated business,” said Lantigua who researches as many as 1,000 properties a month and generally ends up buying only one or two. “And you gotta know what you’re doing. And if you don’t, you’re going to lose a lot of money. And people are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day.”

Ruvin said the site is easy to use and more welcoming to beginners than the often-tense courthouse auctions.

But users still have to do their own research.

“Replete on the website are very clear disclaimers that in no way are we representing title or the presence or lack of additional encumbrances on the sites,” Ruvin said. And he emphasized that “encumbrances” — such as an outstanding mortgage that would preclude owning a property free and clear — should be thoroughly researched before placing any bids online.

Condo boards often choose to foreclose when owners default on their condo association payments, but such liens that give creditors a claim against a property are superseded when a mortgage company forecloses, leaving an outstanding mortgage to be paid. Under Florida law, a mortgage company’s foreclosure overrules a condo lien.

Sehan Thompson, a Fort Lauderdale businessman, admits he made a beginner’s mistake when he bid $9,100 for a North Miami Beach condo with an assessed value upward of $140,000. Less than 24 hours after submitting his winning bid, he discovered that what he had actually bid on was the right to buy a $9,000 condo lien.

The owner of the property owed more than $100,000 to the bank, which retained the right to foreclose.

“I thought I had gotten a good deal and I was extremely excited,” Thompson said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do next. To my understanding, there’s not much I can actually do.”

Lloyd McClendon, chief executive of RealAuction, the company that manages Miami-Dade’s auction website, said the site has multiple warning signs that remind bidders to do their own research before purchasing “what could be the largest investment product of their life.”

For example, when users access the site, they are greeted with a 2,300-word terms of use form, which they must agree to before proceeding. Additionally, each time they bid on a property, it’s necessary to click a box that states, among other things: “I further acknowledge and understand that the Clerk makes no warranties regarding title outstanding liens or other encumbrances.”

“There’s no way to protect people from themselves,” McClendon said.

PROTECTING CONSUMERS

The county has taken a few steps to protect consumers from repeating the mistakes of a select few, Ruvin said. After the issue of superseding liens came up, county officials highlighted the part of the disclaimer that addresses outstanding liens with bold, capitalized red letters, and added further details about the kinds of challenges that could come up for potential buyers.

Samuel Sontag, a New Yorker who bid $95,600 for the right to pay off a $13,000 Miami Beach condo association lien, said the easily-skimmed-over disclaimer shouldn’t be the only safeguard against buying encumbered property titles.

The site, which offers bidders links to information such as a property appraiser’s report and the foreclosure files, should also provide a direct link to title records, he argues.

There should be a “red flag” attached to properties that are likely to face bank foreclosure or other lien issues down the road, he said.

After wiring $95,600 to the county for what he thought was a clear title to a one-bedroom condo in Miami Beach, Sontag got a call from a Sarasota woman who told him that IndyMac Federal Bank had a superior lien on the property and there was an outstanding $265,000 mortgage.

“Everything was there to give the impression that you’re buying the full lien, you’re going to get a clean title and you’ve got yourself a bargain because the real estate market in Miami-Dade County is down,” he said.

Sontag said he would not have found out about the $265,000 mortgage until months later if the woman had not called him — a fate some say will soon face other unsuspecting buyers when they are foreclosed out of the properties they won via auction.

Sontag later resolved the issue after flying down to South Florida to meet with lawyers and members of the condo association board, but still ended up losing about $20,000.

A WARNING

He has been calling people who place winning bids on condo liens to warn them not to pay the balance, typically due by noon the following day.

After receiving such a call, Sylvia Belmonte, of Miami, walked away from her winning bid on a downtown Miami condo. She forfeited her deposit, losing more than $5,000.

RealAuction, which began operating county auction websites in Florida in 2008, maintains that the onus remains on the users.

“When you purchase a property at a foreclosure, you have to do your own research to find if it has liens on it, if it’s a toxic waste dump, if it’s burned down,” McClendon said.

The Plantation-based company, which receives up to $70 for each sale processed through the site, is scheduled to launch an online foreclosure system in Broward County next month.

There have been 3 other murders out of South Beach in the last month, but the press just buries the stories.

Its funny how people here ignore actual facts and would rather talk about speculation. Renter Tom takes a prediction that a national decline of 1% in 4 months (which would be just over 3% for a year) and turns it into a 24% yearly decline for 5ook Miami condos.

But Just the Facts? posted MLS numbers showing that supply off condos in Dade county were was at 37 months in Nov ’08 and it was at 18 months in Dec ’09 and no comment.

Furthermore the average price per sqft for Dade county condos was $176 in May ’09 and hasn’t been that low since.

The average price per condo sold also hit a bottom in May ’09 at $210k

Foreclosures also peaked in Apr ’09 and have been lower ever since. They are currently 32% lower YoY.

Is there a condo that will sell 24% lower in a year…. probably. But just like in DJ’s case there are condos out there that could sell at at a profit. That why we look at things like average price sold and average price per sqft. Not only have these numbers not gone down, they’ve gone up. And this has happened during a time when most sales have come from cheaper condos. Even as more expensive condos are discounted and begin to sale there not going to be lower than $176 sqft. I think 2010 will be volatile and there will be winners and losers so you have to be a careful investor but when its written in the history books the bottom will be etched in as occurring in the middle of ’09.

By what measure are people using when they are saying were not at the bottom?

AJ, calm down. If people post moronic stuff simply ignore it. One person posted a stupid thread and you’ve now posted three times complaining about it. Honestly I’d rather Lucas spend his time publishing an inventory report since the last one was published back in Jul ’09 (hint, hint).

Gixxer 1000 – NOOOOO, that was 1% PER MONTH. Sorry for not being clearer in my post for four months. Hence 4% or 12% IF trend continues for the year.

Gixxer 1000 – It was from an article by First American CoreLogic on their home price index and forecast. Didn’t save the link but just do a google search.