Marina Blue Receives Fannie Mae Approval
April 22, 2010 by Lucas Lechuga
Potential buyers may want to take a look at unit 2203 at Marina Blue. It's a 1 bedroom + den/1.5 bath condo with 943 square feet of interior, 9-foot ceilings and a balcony that stretches the length of the unit. The condo offers views of Biscayne Bay, Key Biscayne, the Miami Beach skyline and Downtown Miami. At an asking price of $300,000, it is being offered at the lowest price per square foot of any 1 bedroom condo at Marina Blue currently active in the MLS. Take a look at the video tour below.
Be sure to also take a look at the video tour of the amenities and common areas at Marina Blue.
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Condo-Sales-Surge-91778939.html
I’m compiling the inventory figures. It should be up within the next day or two.
Seriously, for the piece, couldn’t NBC Miami find a better representative “first time home buyer” for the Icon/Viceroy?
… ” first time home buyer Alicia Lamadrid knew where to get the biggest bang for her buck”
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http://www.rcrs.net/featuredassociate.php?id=302
…Alicia has a long-standing family legacy in Miami Real Estate as her grandmother founded Cervera Real Estate. She is excited to finally be working in the field she grew up surrounded by and joined the RCRS team in November 2009.
She has lived in Costa Rica, as well as Buenos Aires, and Milan. She is currently a member of the Icon Brickell sales team and speaks English and Spanish fluently.
The cheapest unit in Marina Blue is $320/foot and the Icon is selling at <$300/foot. Something is wrong with this picture
SLOTH,
The under $300/sqft condos at Icon are in tower 3. So not only are the views obstructed by the other two towers but you also have the privilege of living with the Viceroy hotel guest.
If you look at tower 1 you can see that everything is selling higher than $320/sqft.
Sloth,
What is so hard to understand about the pricing at Icon? The prices are being determined by the bank and they are giving HUGE discounts to sell the units…just like Marina Blue did last summer.
In June 2009, Marina Blue sold the last of their inventory at $200 a sq/ft and Lucas told everyone to buy. Of course, most of you “oh, the sky is falling” so called “investors” laughed at that opportunity. What happened? 9 months later, those people smart enough to take Lucas’ advice are know selling their units at an average price of $300 + per sq/ft. I’m not saying there was a 50% appreciation since June, I’m saying investors had the opportunity to by Marina Blue units in June 2009 at $0.60 on the dollar. Buyers saw the depressed pricing as a golden opportunity.
That is what is happening today at Icon. The units are currently worth $400-$450 per sq/ft but the banks dropped prices drastically (just like Marina Blue in June 2009) to around $300 sq/ft to sell quickly. Take the lesson that Lucas tried to teach us last June and buy Icon right now because in a year when inventory is drying up, those same units will come back on the market and sell again at the $400-$450 per sq/ft that they should.
Lastly Sloth, I gleened by your post that you think Icon is a great deal because it is selling lower than Marina Blue and you think it is a nicer building? Is that what you were trying to say? If that is the case, turn the computer off, drive down to Icon and buy a unit instead of just talking about it.
Fairly balanced piece in Today’s Herald
Gixxer 1000,
I myself have seen that the prices that the developer/starwood are closing units for in my Infinity Building has went up from last year when I bought my condo from the developer/Starwood.
Last month, in March the developer/Starwood sold 4 units excatly like them (however these 4 were are lower floors) to an investor.
The Investor paid $30,000 more per unit then I did. I am an end user and I am on the highest floor that my unit is built on.
I was shocked. I was told that the deevloper/Starwood is in no hurry to sell out the building since they have a interest free loan from FDIC. Also I was told that they want to sell units around the $250 or more per foot mark.
So maybe you are correct that the bottom has hit in 2009, however like you said only time will tell and we should know by the end of this year if the bottom was hit in 2009 or not.
Another thing I have noticed in March (via condoreports) that other condo units in other middle of road buildings like mine in the brickell area are closing for around 300 per square foot. These building are the Plaza, a couple of others. Icon Tower 1 (not the Icon victory hotel tower) is closing Alot of units for around 400 per foot.
So I have not seen that crazy ACE prediction that condos as a whole will be selling for $125 per foot.
Keep up all the good posts – It will be a very sad day when you get too busy with school, etc, that you will not have the time to post your comments on this site.
PS – It’s a perfect day in Miami, I am on the balcony working on my laptop enjoying my view and the day. (I finally rec’d my free wireless router from Comcast!)
While I agree that there are some good deals out there, I am still very doubtful on the affordability of these units. When looking at the total cost of ownership each month, what is it really going to cost and how much do you need to make for your debt to income ratio to be realistic?
It would be nice if with each posting of the unit there was a quick table listing the monthly cost of mortgage (with an estimated 5.5% rate and 20% down), taxes, basic services (electrical, etc.. that are not included in dues), HOA dues.
example:
Mortgage: $1350
HOA: $450
Taxes: $500
total : $2300/month
total due at signing/move in: $65,000 ($60,000 down payment, $5K loan fees, points, prepay taxes, building deposits, moving deposits, etc…)
Required income: $82,800/year
Gixxer, I still think the views looking either north or east to be very nice. And I personally wouldn’t mind sharing the pool with hotel guests. After all its a boutique 5-star hotel, not the airport mariott. A bunch of NFL players were staying there during superbowl and tennis players during the Lipton. Pretty cool .
Vince, you are 100% correct when you say that I think Icon is a great deal. I understand what happened with the pricing at Marina Blue and am happy for those investors that are flipping for a profit. What I meant by my last post that I cant believe a BUYER would bite on the Marina Blue unit when condos far superior are going for cheaper. I AM trying to buy at the Viceroy, but inventory has gone so fast that you have to be put on a “waiting list” type thing to find out when a unit becomes available (waiting for original buyers to close or back out). And I put my name (and deposit) has been on that list for over a month.
SLOTH,
I was just trying to put in in perspective. $320/sqft at Marina Blue are the best units at Marina Blue whereas the units at Icon under $300/sqft are the worst.
Reading back over you post I noticed that you said the “cheapest unit” in Marina blue sold for $320/sqft. That might be where the confusion is coming in at. Almost all the units at Marina Blue are less than $320/sqft. The cheapest units at Marina Blue are going for $219/sqft.
So a true comparison would be a 840 sqft unit with unobstructed water views at Marina Blue for $219 or a similar size unit at Viceroy staring WEST which is were the unit that sold for $216/sqft is.
Sloth, are you serious they won’t sell you a unit in the Viceroy right now? This sounds strange in light of their advertising blitz and recent newspaper “advertorials”. Sounds like they’re marketing like a Club…. Promoting an event then directing a doorman to keep people out even though it’s empty to try create more demand.
Nothing special at Icon. i went to see and altough all the ammenities and stuff look great the physical actual units arent really that great. They are failrly small for a 2bd and the views are not that great in most cause you have some sort of obstruction.
I think most people buy to live in their units and if it’s cramped quarters then I hope you’re spending most of your times by the pool .
Regarding waiting list that’s non-sense. When I went over they had plenty of inventory and wanted to show me anything and eveything to sell me something.
Again 1st apperances looks really hot and cool but go into the unit and ask yoursef the question are these 4 walls really worth it?
Thankfully Miami is not in the list.
Dear Sloth,
Your post #8
Do not dispair! I focused on more mundane aspects and asked myself many questions when I was there such as – How are they going to keep up with the cleanliness of the pool water that’s 100 meter long? And the cost of maintaining it? How would it be like to share the club with so many hundreds of strangers? How would the parking and getting out of the narrow entrance like when there are so many more people? – it looked pretty bad during the rush hour when I was there. And if you buy a condo at the Viceroy, you don’t get a garage – you just get a valet service only (so I was told in February). And also, I was not impressed with the layout of the unit I was going to buy: paper-thin walls that divide it and small closet space, etc. Why not rent it and experience it? The hype of living there could well be just a hype. You want it so badly that you are on the waiting list and gave your deposit while waiting? I think their practice is predatory. Or am I just a coutry girl. I only live in Manhattan.
Dear What Do You Think,
yesterday I stumbled upon this article about rents creeping back up in Manhattan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/realestate/25cov.html?hpw
There is a slide show attached to this piece, and from what I could glimpse from it, I can conclude pretty confidently that people who choose to live in NYC at those prices in those types dwellings must be the biggest suckers in the world.
I don’t get your thinly disguised snobbery, given what you Manhattanites have to contend with …
Did you actually measure thickness of Icon walls? And how thick are the walls in those pathetic Manhattan apartments?
MB is a nice building. I looked at a 2/2.5 on a high floor there (I think around 50th floor). IMO the units were a little small for my taste and also overpriced. Mainteance was also too high to justify buying there. Of course that’s just my opinion.
What does the recent sales data show? Are units selling? From what I recall, MB was pretty close to being sold out last time I checked. If units are selling at these prices, obviously there are buyers, which would seem to signal that things are/have improved, or dare I say, bottomed (for this building at least), no?