South Florida Luxury Condo Short Sales
June 4, 2009 by Lucas Lechuga
- Aqua Allison Island #6111 - Asking $1.69M. Property was purchased for $3.15M in June 2005.
- Mosaic #TH-3 - Asking $1.7M. Property was purchased for $3.2M in February 2007. Bank approved at $1.7M.
- Oceanside Fisher Island #7941 - Asking $1.85M. Property was purchased for $3.9M in November 2006.
- Oceanside Fisher Island #7735 - Asking $1.85M. Property was purchased for $2.4M in September 2005.
- Oceanside Fisher Island #7761 - Asking $1.95M. Property was purchased for $3.2M in September 2005.
- The Bath Club #1004 - Asking $1,999,999. Property was purchased for $3.5M in January 2007. Bank approved.
- Turnberry Ocean Colony #2804 - Asking $2,295,000. Property was purchased for $3.27M in January 2008.
- Bayview Fisher Island #5123 - Asking $2.3M. Property was purchased for $3.7M in March 2007.
- Acqualina #4201-2 - Asking $2.8M. Sales history not found.
- Oceanside Fisher Island #7821 - Asking $2.8M. Property was purchased for $3.92M in November 2006.
Thanks for the info. Any short sale listings in SoFi?
Its hard enough to complete a short sale when the spread is minimal ($50-$200k). Why waste your time trying to persuade a bank to agree to take a $1M+ hit? I don’t see it happening.
Lucas, Whats up with this “South” thingy. 3 of your consecutive posts are
1. South pointe park…
2. South of Fifth….
3. South Florida….
could we go sideways a bit Pliz?
I am confused also.
Short sales are for broke people with no assets.
Why would the bank accept a 1 million loss on a no recourse short sale when obviously the person must be rich to have ever bought a 4 million condo in the first place.
Seems like it would be much better to just get the condo back in foreclosure and then sue the millionaire owner for the difference.
“Short sales are for broke people with no assets.”
I think the bubble proves otherwise. We’ve all heard the stories about the school bus driver or the janitor making $40k/year and getting approved for a half million dollar mortgagte on no income stated loans.
Who’s to say the poeple who bought these places mentioned above actually don’t fit into the same category? I’d be willing to be most were robably most were shitbag speculators without any real assets.
^Last sentence should read: I’d be willing to bet most were probably shitbag speculators without any real assets.
yeah Lucas, can you please talk about midtown Miami or the new publix in Mary brickell village? Az88 errr I mean aj wants to talk about this baaaad.
The people that bought these places weren’t millionaires they we upper middle calss idiots.
It doesn’t matter if these people are millionaires or not. These are no recourse loans, which means that all the bank can do is reclaim the collateral and simply cannot sue people for the difference regardless of what other assets they have. There is a reason that speculation was more rampant and thus the bubble more inflated in non-recourse states like Florida. All the risks were on the banks in the first place. The reason they are willing to agree to short sales now is that they will have even higher costs if they have to go through the foreclosure process.
Petronius,
In FL, the lender can pursue a deficiency judgment, no?
Actually, you’re right that is a possibility here. I was thinking of CA law where no deficiency judgment is possible on a primary residence as I recall.
Petronius – I think there are some nuances….in CA the non-recourse loan is only the primary purchase mortgage, not a second mortgage or HELOC as I understand it (I haven’t researched it but recall from a previous article, could be wrong though, the point was it isn’t all home loans). In FL, the loans ARE recourse. In CA the non-recourse loans should have made banks more careful…..but apparently didn’t cause they didn’t hold the loan.
I think there are a lot of things going on with “short sales”. Don’t know why banks would do it other than to avoid the cost of the foreclosure….like the borrower threatening to go ahead and light themselves on fire since they don’t care anymore so go ahead and hurt yourself bank type of threar. A lot of misinformation out there with respect to short sales……like a gold rush in reverse to unload your house/debt. I have heard numerous people get upset that the bank won’t lower their mortgage, write down their principal, or do a short sale…..as if it is the bank’s fault for you overpaying……crazy talk. I say banks should sue for the difference since I know more than one person who admitted to hiding assets to get the short sale done…..unbelievable…….they are all crooks in my book. The buyers took the money, now pay it back. Pretty simple….or go into personal bankruptcy.
yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnn yawn yawn……………..i long for the old days, aj fighting with
everyone, posts about murders and homeless in parks,
we should all get together and buy lucas a better camera enjoy hurricane season
i dont do miami in hurricane season thru summer back in september
anybody want a homestead townhouse for 55 grand 4 bedrooms ???/
i will even throw in some chinese drywall
good article on brick condos
Week of June 4, 2009
Downtown Miami Price Cuts Spur Sales At 2 Projects
Developers at two new Greater Downtown Miami condo projects have cut retail prices to as low as $189 per square foot – far below the generally accepted replacement cost of $250 per foot – in an attempt to unload product to all-cash individual buyers swarming the market, according to a new report from Condo Vultures® LLC.
Buyers are picking up deeply discounts units that come in a designer-ready state with concrete floors and primer on the walls. An additional investment of between $10 and $25 per square foot is likely necessary before the units are livable. Not surprisingly, many of these deeply discounted units tend to be the least appealing of the remaining developer pool in the various buildings.
Despite the potential drawbacks, purchasing these units appears to be gaining popularity with discount buyers, especially investors.
Developers at these two projects located in Miami’s Brickell Avenue area have completed 46 sales valued at nearly $10.6 million since April. The average price per unit is $229,409 or $192 per square foot, according to the report produced using public records.
“Heaven for developers is selling units at $300-plus per square foot to individual buyers, and Hell is unloading product at $100 per square foot to bulk buyers,” said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures®. “Purgatory – which is where the Downtown Miami market is currently positioned – is developers attempting to move product at around $200 per square foot. These prices are far below what developers and lenders want or can even afford, but it beats dumping the product to bulk buyers at half that price, which in some cases may be unavoidable.”
Based on the early success of lower prices leading to closed sales, at least two other competing projects have adopted similar approaches for a portion of their remaining product in hopes of stimulating their own sales.
At one condominium, more than 50 contracts were apparently written in a 30-day period as buyers flowed into the sales office to deposit checks on deeply discounted units. As of the first week of June, few of these units have yet to close.
“It is unclear how many of today’s buyers who are writing up contracts will be able to close given today’s financing challenges in South Florida and the nation as a whole,” Zalewski said. “The flip side is, financing could be returning to the Downtown Miami market sooner than most people think is possible due in large part to the changing attitude at Fannie Mae.”
Fannie Mae has approved 26 South Florida condo projects for financing already in 2009 after not approving a single project in 2008. In the two years prior, Fannie Mae approved 25 South Florida projects in 2007 and an additional 19 in 2006.
Fannie Mae is a publicly traded entity created by Congress to purchase and securitize mortgages on the secondary market.
I’m know of several buildings that has filed to have a court appointed receiver take over the building. Nobody is paying maintenance fees.
Wild Bill,
Does it mean that that developers are banrupt or HOA are bankrupt. What a receiver do with them.? force owners in foreclosure? What are the buildings?
Please clarify. The reason I am asking is that there might be some attractive deals there. I know the group of investors in Lee County who just purchased 19 SFH from 1 receiver.
Thank you
One thing I always find interesting about people who say BUY a condo versus renting….most people aren’t going to live in a condo for 30 years and just like most businesses out there, renting makes sense. Few companies actually go out and purchase their office space…most are leased (even when property values were going up), it makes business sense. Only for homes do the emotions really come into play…..most businesses don’t have the burden. Just something think about esp for all those Mini Trumps out there like AJ.
Wild Bill – I take it the HOA’s are going under with no one around to run them…..why would ANY owner want to hassle with an HOA in a condo death spiral, it’s bad enough to volunteer when times are good, but with no $$$ for an officer person, management, maintenance…..a big burden with no payback. Condo death spirals are irreversible until all are dead in a building I’m afraid.
….besides the smart money people that had time to analyze the market probably already sold and those that remain aren’t capable of running the HOA let alone in a crisis like this. Only lawyers make $$$ here.
…so much for the carefree condo lifestyle like in those purdy marketing brochures.
Anyone who thinks home prices are going up should look at these two graphs from CalculatedRISKblog dot com:
2.bp.blogspot DOT COM/_pMscxxELHEg/SilaOTXh-KI/AAAAAAAAFdA/__REypAIiYg/s1600-h/PartTimeMay2009.jpg
3.bp.blogspot DOT COM/_pMscxxELHEg/SilahsXdsQI/AAAAAAAAFdI/GHwuyesifvw/s1600-h/EmployPopMay2009.jpg
Those should concern everyone….where will the incomes from to support home prices or even rental prices? People will just shack up to share expenses out of necessity leaving more empty units….
Replace the DOT COM with .com in the above links so I could get them to post….argh.
Are they finding all these body parts in Biscayne Bay near 1800 Murder Club? I don’t remember the condo brochures with skinny models lounging by the pool with body parts floating in the bay.
$7.761 monthly maintenance on the Setai unit? Is that a typo? It has to be.
Hello, could someone please give me some pros and cons of the one miami condo buildings. I haven’t been able to get any good information.
Thanks,
Louis
“$7.761 monthly maintenance on the Setai unit? Is that a typo? It has to be.”
It probably isn’t a typo. That’s why these condos are so out of whack right now. I’d much rather buy/own a condo than rent one, but as others keep pointing out here, for the same $200/day or $300/day people are paying in HOA fees at some of the high-end condos, a person could simple check into a nice SoBe hotel and rent the experience while they’re in Miami.
I’d love to see the HOA books at some of these condos. I’d almost bet my life that there are millions of dollars in improprieties (combined) at condos around Miami properties, but somehow, I’ve never heard of a single arrest or lawsuit.
can people tell me the advantages to living on or around brickell ?? if you dont work in the area ??
its central location ok ……..new towers like everywhere else , ?? help me out ??
seems like theres so many other areas with tall buildings i gotta get some feedback on why brickell is the focus of everyones attention ??
thanks
and the fact that this is a site devoted to the area is not an answer
What is the relationship between previous purchased price vs asking price today?
Are we playing the “finding the fool” once again, where last fool sells the property to next fool on the way down?
How about some objective analysis on the price? Anyone wants to by my Enron shares for $1 a piece?