Sean Greco's Real Estate Review:

Hello from Miami Beach,

Please bookmark this page as it will be very helpful in analyzing actual data from the very specific Real Estate market in which I practice. You will be finding yourself looking forward to comparing this month’s data with last month’s data to spot trends and decide for yourself the status of the local Real Estate market, of which I work within 24/7. Please go to this bookmarked page on the 1^st day of each month in order to get the most up to date information immediately, or anytime throughout the month when you have the time. From month to month it will contain data that will help you to analyze market conditions. In addition, it is an unobtrusive way to stay in touch with you regarding my Real Estate Consulting Services.

• The trend of percentage of active inventory selling over percentage of active inventory expiring continues for the 11th month in a row for condos and 10th month in a row for single family homes; we are nearing almost a full year of this fact.
• Inventory of active condos currently listed for sale has hit an all time low this month at 2,162 units - taking out last month's low; This absorption of inventory seems to be happening in all of Florida, Miami-Dade county, and right on down to our local level within the municipalities for which this data is monitored. 

The below chart is data from the past 90 days for Condominiums, ending 01/31/12. The data is taken from South East Florida’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for the cities and townships of Miami Beach (South Beach, Mid Beach, & North Beach), Surfside, Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, and Fisher Island.  The paragraph below the data will explain in more detail what is included in this analysis. Please don’t hesitate to pose any questions you may have, or simply give me a call or send me an email to discuss Real Estate in general. This data will help to analyze market conditions from month to month.

As you can see, I have broken the data into price ranges, and then you can see the amount of Active condos for sale, how many Real Buyers Closed on a condo for sale, how many of those listing agreements Expired unsold, then further calculated what percent of the Active condos for sale Expired and Sold. Then I calculated the Average Days on Market (Avg DOM), which is the amount of days it took the condos that sold to obtain a Real Buyer. Then I show the Average Discount, which is the percentage the Listed Price was discounted to the Actual Sale Price for all Closed Sales. The last column is for Closed Sales that were newer construction, which I considered to be anything built after 1995, versus older buildings built before 1995. I track this data for Condominiums and Single Family Homes separately due to their differences. I also track the data for the more luxurious buildings of South Beach, please feel free to email or call for that data.

The next set of data below is the same information for Single Family Homes. The one difference is that the last column is the Average Age of the homes Sold.

If you are worried about the pitfalls of distressed property, but still consider yourself a bargain hunter looking for such, please contact me so that I may setup an automatic short sale or foreclosure search notification for you. I have found that the best deals usually go the quickest, and to be proactive in your distressed property search is the best way to go about finding a bargain. Please understand that this service I provide adds significant value to the process, and only contact me if you are serious about buying and planning to be loyal. Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly for any such information.

2011 SALES SET VOLUME RECORD:
International buyers spurred Miami-area home sales to a new record in 2011, even exceeding sales volume during the height of the real estate boom in 2005, according to figures recently released. Broward County results were mixed, although inventory across both counties showed widespread depletions. A total of 24,929 condominiums and homes were sold in Miami-Dade County, up 46 percent from 2010 and up 4 percent compared to 2005, according to the Miami Association of Realtors and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service. Condominium sales surged 54 percent, to 15,009 in 2011, and home sales rose 36 percent to 9,920.

"We're on the verge of a real estate boom," said Miami Association of Realtors Residential President Patricia Delinois, citing an array of properties from Design District and Brickell to Miami Beach. International investors, with wads of cash, are behind the surge. "Miami is a top market for international buyers," Delinois said. "We are attracting people from Latin America, South America, Europe, all over the world. What could they not like in Miami?"

Overall, the inventory of residential listings in Miami-Dade dropped 39 percent from 24,278 to 14,087 over the last year, and 8 percent from November 2011 alone, figures show. Bank-owned properties and short sales, comprising "distressed sales," drove the rapid absorption, Realtors said. In December, 54 percent of all closed residential sales in Miami-Dade were distressed, compared to 59 percent in December 2010. Unlike a year ago, there are now more short sales closing than bank-owned properties, Realtors said. "There is a waiting list of investors, with dual and triple offers on REO properties," said Delinois. "We have more of a demand for bank-owned properties than we have a supply."

Cash sales continue to dominate in Miami-Dade, at 63 percent of total closed sales in December. Cash sales accounted for 42 percent of single-family and 77 percent of condominium closings. Nearly 90 percent of international buyers in Florida purchase properties all cash, Realtors said, compared to 29 percent nationally, reflecting the stronger presence of international buyers in the Miami real estate market. In the Miami area, the median sales price of condominiums in December spiked 31 percent to $129,900 from a year earlier. The median price of single-family homes jumped 16 percent to $182,300.
-Source: The Miami Herald 01/21/12, Miami Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors
 
FLORIDA OUTLOOK GETTING SUNNIER:
Florida real estate brokers may be the cheeriest in the South. The latest Beige Book report from the Federal Reserve once again has the Sunshine State avoiding the general gloom hitting the housing industry throughout the Atlanta district, which spans the Southeast. While brokers in the region said November and December brought "soft" home sales, Florida said sales actually "rebounded" after a brief soft patch. The reason: international buyers and cash deals. Florida's housing shout-out came in a relatively upbeat Beige Book, an anecdotal report card on the nation's economic health issued by the Fed about every six weeks. Most districts reported somewhere between "modest" and "moderate" growth, suggesting the recovery is holding steady.

South Florida received two mentions, both tied to the region's strong tourism rebound. Describing encouraging dispatches from tourism businesses throughout the Southeast, Fed authors wrote "South Florida in particular experienced greater travel activity from Canadians and South Americans." In a more discouraging passage, the Fed said most Atlanta district business "contacts" said extra hiring in the winter was mostly "temporary and seasonal."

"However," the report continued, "there were some scattered reports among healthcare and hospitality contacts in South Florida that hiring was occurring as a result of increased demand or expansion." Indeed, healthcare and hospitality companies accounted for almost 60 percent of the 28,000 jobs added in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in 2011.

Only Nevada and California vied with Florida for being hardest hit by the housing crash, so it's natural for Florida to enjoy a stronger turnaround than places where prices didn't fall as far. Florida's relative optimism on the sales front has been a recurring theme in the Beige reports in the past year. There is some reason to celebrate. Since 2008, only Nevada has seen home sales grow faster, according to the National Association of Realtors. In 2008, the real estate bubble was rapidly deflating. Since then, sales are up 47 percent in Florida. That's far ahead of most states, but well behind Nevada, where sales are up 62 percent. Prices, though, remain depressed. They're off 44 percent since Florida's peak in 2006. Nationally, home values are off about 19 percent from their peak level in 2007, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
-Source: The Miami Herald 01/12/12, The Federal Reserve Beige Book, National Association of Realtors, Federal Housing Finance Agency
 
QUICK HEADLINES:

• Miami Beach launched the first municipal car-share program in the state, giving residents of South Florida's most pedestrian-friendly, bikeable city one more reason to forgo automobile ownership. Customer’s register for free at www.hertzondemand.com which they then use to rent a car at rates ranging from $9 to $15.75 per hour or $63 to $170 a day, according to the city. Locations are: Fifth and Alton garage, 7th St. garage, 12th St. garage, 13th St. garage, 16th St. garage, 17th St. garage, City Hall garage and 42nd St. garage. –Source: The Miami Herald 01/22/12, City of Miami Beach
• The 186 rooms at the boutique Kimpton brand Surfcomber on Collins Ave. have all been refurbished. The South Asian street food-inspired restaurant is open. The lobby area holds a collection of well-curated knickknacks and surf-chic furnishings. –Source: The Miami Herald 01/13/12
• Despite a sluggish December, U.S. retailers had a record 2011 and their first $400 billion sales month. In 2011, sales totaled a record $4.7 trillion. That was a gain of nearly 8 percent over 2010 - the largest percentage increase since 1999. –Source: The Miami Herald 01/13/12
• Miami Beach will soon learn just how much interest there is in redeveloping the city's aging convention center. After courting private investors for more than a month, Miami Beach Commissioners voted last week to request that interested developers submit their qualifications for the project. "[The convention center] has been, should be and is our No. 1 priority," said Commissioner Jerry Libbin. –Source: The Miami Herald 01/19/12
• New condo sales in Greater Downtown Miami slowed by 53 percent in 2011, compared to 2010, as developer inventory decreased and the average price rose by 21 percent. Buyers purchased nearly 1,750 new units for a combined $800 million in 2011, cutting the number of unsold units controlled by the original developers to 8 percent of 22,250 condos created in Greater Downtown Miami during the South Florida real estate boom. –Source: The Miami Herald 01/19/12, Condovultures report based on Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser data
• The tiny village of Bal Harbour, best known for its luxury shopping mall, has sought for years to be recognized as more than an afternoon stop for upscale shoppers - a task made more challenging by the lack of a well-known hotel. Enter luxury hotel brand St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, which is in the midst of a worldwide expansion that includes Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Bal Harbour joined that growing list as the 28th St. Regis hotel, cousin to the 1904 Manhattan classic. The $1 billion development includes a 243-room hotel and two residential towers. –Source: The Miami Herald 01/20/12
• Home values are still ahead of where they were in 2003. But perhaps more surprising, local property has actually held its value better than the average home in the United States. According to the FHFA, the average U.S. home is worth about 40 percent more than it was at the start of 2000. In Broward, the average home is worth 49 percent more. In Miami-Dade, it's 56 percent more valuable. –Source: The Miami Herald 01/30/12, Federal Housing Finance Agency
• China may be gaining on the United States as the world's top exporting nation, but the U.S.A. is still the best place in the world to start a new business, according to a global entrepreneurship index. The 2012 Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index, which ranks entrepreneurial characteristics of 79 nations and identifies the entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses of their economies, gave the United States the edge over runner-ups Sweden and Australia. Rounding out the top 10 were Iceland, Denmark, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands and Taiwan in a tie for 10th place. -Source: The Miami Herald 01/09/2012, 2012 Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index
• Kiplinger's released its annual ranking of the 100 Best Values in Public Colleges, with the University of Florida occupying the same No. 2 spot it held last year. Florida's tiny liberal arts honors college, New College of Florida in Sarasota, was a few spots behind at No. 5 - up from No. 11 a year ago. The other Florida schools to make the top 100 are Florida State University (18), the University of Central Florida (39), the University of North Florida (63) and the University of South Florida (87). -Source: The Miami Herald 01/04/2012, Kiplinger's Best Values in Public Colleges
• The Federal Reserve's controversial "quantitative easing" program of buying government bonds to stimulate the economy generated huge profits last year, resulting in a $76.9 billion transfer to the U.S. Treasury in 2011, the bank recently said. It was the 2nd largest such transfer since the Fed was created in 1913, nearly enough to finance the 2012 budgets of the Department of Justice and State combined. -Source: The Miami Herald 01/11/2012
• Downtown Miami activist and entrepreneur Brad Knoefler was tired of looking out of his loft window at the five-acre pile of rubble across the street that was once the Miami Arena, so he undertook what must be the ultimate DIY project: He built a park atop the debris. He didn't just plunk down some sod, either. Grand Central Park, which will open to the public soon, boasts paths winding through a small forest of 250 trees - slash pines, oaks, royal palms, red maples, cypress and sweetgums - and a great sloping lawn, seeded though not quite yet covered with a green carpet of eco-friendly microclover. Crowning it all is a 12-foot hill - built from the crushed concrete - with a panoramic view of downtown Miami and the surrounding hardscrabble neighborhoods, which seem suddenly transmuted with promise. -Source: The Miami Herald 01/20/2012

With the strong fundamentals of an underlying economy poised with continued growth in the International World, opportunities will continue to present themselves. Investors enjoy the safety of the United States, and Florida has a lot of positive aspects with incredibly depressed prices that make this a great place to develop a real estate investing business plan and reap the profits when done correctly. Please contact me should you want to seriously discuss in more detail distressed sales of units. This market presents various unique opportunities that very well may never be seen again in one’s lifetime. Please let me help you take advantage of this situation. I have many strategic relationships with the decision makers regarding distressed properties, and the resources to carry out the objective, right down to the day to day operations.

In the course of continually researching and familiarizing myself with the inventory of the very localized market in which I practice, along with the banking relationships I have cultivated, I have been able to do a lot of the research and legwork recognizing the best potential values in my target markets, or in some instances in other specific buildings or locations where there is excellent value for the product. Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly for any such information. Many are in distressed situations (foreclosures and short sales), and I am very knowledgeable of how best to negotiate these types of scenarios in your best interest, please contact me so we can discuss important factors in more detail and how I can help you profit from these. 

Brazil is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing and most lucrative economies in the world and Miami has a mutually beneficial relationship with this country that will only get stronger. So much so that a supplement in the Miami Herald will run monthly and this publication is dedicated exclusively to business, travel and bilateral trade with Brazil. The online version can be found HERE:

LEGISLATION, PROPERTY TAXES & INSURANCE:  As a property owner or potential property owner, I urge you to keep up to date on the various progress, legislation, and proposed legislation in order to help you better understand how these important issues affect you; please see the below link that will take you to the Florida Association of Realtors Legislative Center, which will help to explain the numerous moving parts concerning these issues:  http://www.floridarealtors.org/LegislativeCenter/TopInitiatives/index.cfm

INTEREST RATES & RELATED NEWS:  It is important to note that different types of loans are ‘pegged’ to different rates, so please make sure to stay in touch with your mortgage broker or banker to keep up to date on interest rates, as this can directly affect many Real Estate related decisions. In addition to the lowered rate when securing a mortgage to buy property, another common question you will see with rates near historic lows is whether or not it is a good idea to refinance. This discussion might be a good one to have with a reputable mortgage broker or your banker and see if this would make sense financially. Or feel free to visit the following mortgage section on our website, http://buybeach.com/access/mort.htm .

This is the website to the Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy section: http://federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/default.htm

Exchange rates play a vital role in Real Estate related decisions for foreign buyers or sellers, a good source to track currency exchange rates is:

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Also, the use of a currency exchange service could save you additional funds; feel free to call me for more details about this. 

I hope this email finds you well and looking forward to comparing this month’s data with last month’s data to spot trends and decide for yourself the status of the local Real Estate market, of which I work within 24/7. You are receiving this because we have been in touch about Real Estate here in the South Florida area, most likely property at the Beach. As you read the newsletter from month to month it will contain data that will help you to analyze market conditions. In addition, it is an unobtrusive way to stay in touch with you regarding my Real Estate Consulting Services. 

That is all for this month’s newsletter and I welcome suggestions, feedback, and of course I am here if you or anyone you know is thinking of buying or selling property here in South Florida. If you wish to further discuss any of the above issues in more detail, or any other Real Estate related topics, please don’t hesitate to call or email. I would like to leave you with the 4 following quotes: 

“Be always at War with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better person." -Benjamin Franklin

“Cheers to New Year and another chance for us to get it right." -Oprah Winfrey

“Many people look forward to next year for a new start on old habits.” -Author Unknown

“America is another name for opportunity.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

DESIGNATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS:

These Designations and Certifications were specifically chosen by me to give my effort, time, and money, as well as meeting the required experience because I feel that this shows my dedication to continually learning and evolving as a Real Estate Consultant. Plus, the market that I practice in is a natural one to achieve such designations to separate myself from the other professionals within my field. Keep in mind these not only prove education but also transactional experience in order to obtain the designations and certifications.

Realtor® - Membership in the largest professional association known as the National Association of Realtors or N.A.R.

C.I.P.S. – Certified International Property Specialist, member of CIPS network; Designation shows education and transactional experience in the International Arena of Real Estate.

C.L.H.M.S. – Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist, member of Million Dollar Guild; Designation shows education and transactional experience in the top tier level within my market, Million Dollar Guild is the highest level of membership with proven experience in numerous $1M+ transactions.