Affluent Buyers Reviving Market for Miami Homes

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

MIAMI — South Florida is the default capital of the country. Here in Miami-Dade County, one out of five households with mortgages is in foreclosure. Nearby Broward and Palm Beach counties are not far behind. Nearly 200,000 South Florida families are stuck in the mire of default.

And yet much of Miami is gripped by a housing mania as the oversupply of distressed homes dries up and foreigners and investors swoon. Only a few years after it seemed there were so many unwanted high-rise condominiums that the only solution was to tear some of them down, there are plans to build even more.

Home sales in the metropolitan area during the first half of the year rose 16 percent from 2010 for the best spring since 2007, according to the research firm DataQuick, far outpacing the negligible growth in the rest of the country. Two-thirds of the sales were all cash.

Prices, after a brutal drop, are firming up or even increasing. During the first six months of the year, there were 439 sales for at least $2 million, up 13 percent from last year.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/business/affluent-buyers-reviving-market-for-miami-homes.html?pagewanted=all

[Go2Peace]

1. Yep, don't worry. The housing market will recover as the wealthy

build larger and larger portfolios of real estate. Same thing happens in second world countries. Real estate still climbs, but the average guy is priced out.

[Jim Warren]

2. "Two-thirds of the sales were all cash"

I had read it was more like 70% all cash.

Lotta foreign too money buying in a deflationary market.