Florida Housing Market

Miami, Florida - May 28 2008 - Take the latest data on the housing market crash with a huge dose of salt.

I have just finished a week-long tour of the real estate market down here, one of the worst hit parts of the country. And one of the few things I can say with complete certainty is that nobody down there knows where “the market” overall really is. In a crash like this one, talk about “average” home prices is almost meaningless.

But if you have wanted a vacation or retirement home in Florida and you have been waiting for prices to come down, this really is the time to start looking.

The market is in chaos. Some owners are still trying to sell homes for near peak prices. Others have slashed them by 50% or more. There are some amazing discounts around. You can find properties selling for prices last seen in the late 1990s.

According to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Schiller report, Miami home prices have fallen about 25% from the peak levels of 2005-2006.

Tell that to the owner of a three bedroom luxury condo in the new “Aqua” development on Miami Beach. He bought his home for $1.8 million in October 2005. It’s now on the market in a distressed sale… for $900,000.

“And you may be able to get it for a little less,” says broker Oliver Davis of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell in Miami Beach.

A little further up the coast, in Fort Lauderdale, a stunning two-bedroom condo overlooking the beach is on the market – in another distressed sale – for $749,000. And again, you might be able to get it for less. Based on sales prices for similar units, local broker Rob Rose of Rose & Co. Realty says it would have fetched nearly $2 million at the peak.

Even in super-exclusive Palm Beach, veteran local agent Douglas Rill of Century 21 America’s Choice showed me a condo that has been slashed in price in just one year to $2.5 million from $3.3 million and still hasn’t found a buyer.

The Truth Behind Florida’s Housing Numbers
by BRETT ARENDS | Wall Street Journal