The information resource for Luxury Oceanfront Condominiums in Miami, Sunny Isles, Bal Harbour, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach. (954) 632 3266

To give our readership a look at the luxury oceanfront condo market we have selected a sampling of luxury oceanfront condominiums in Miami Beach.  Mosaic, The Bath Club and The Continuum South Tower, the Continuum North Tower.     The data we are providing will reflect the varying building sizes, the number of units for sale, the price ranges and recent sales data.  These three buildings were picked merely as a representation of new luxury oceanfront condos in Miami Beach.  

A few notes about the data, The Continuum in South Beach is the largest of the three properties with 517 units but only 15% of the building is offered for sale.   The desirable Continuum in South Beach offers the premier…location, location, location!   Continuum sales price per square foot have not been any lower than $717 !

On the other hand Mosaic is the smallest of the three condos with only 86 units.  30% of the building is for sale.  That is higher than the average of about 20% for most newer luxury oceanfront condos.  

Of the three buildings the best price per square foot that was sold was at the Bath Club for $315 square foot.  Somebody got a really good deal.  The lowest priced sale was also at the Bath Club for $650,000.

Across all markets we have seen the stabilization of inventories and are actually starting to show a decline in inventories.   Less condominiums on the market.  Furthermre, the National Association of Realtors reported an increase in pending home sales from July to August.

Several large scale investors such as Jorge Perez and others are stepping in to take advantage of current market conditions and attractive prices.  Real estate will have its ups and downs but unlike paper invesments…..real estate is real property !

Turnberry Ocean Colony North, Turnberry Ocean Colony South,  Acqualina and One Bal Harbour are luxury oceanfront condomimiums in Sunny Isles and Bal Harbour.  All three properties are relatively new.  Following our previous post, we wanted to provide our readers with a market profile for select buildings in the Sunny Isles Bal Harbour area. 

Certain markers of interest, Acqualina has the lowest percentage of units on the market, only 12%. One Bal Harbour had the lowest priced sale at $1.2 million as well as the lowest price per square foot sale of $601 per square foot.  Turnberry Ocean Colony has had 11 closed reported closed sales in the last 6 months One Bal Harbour had 22 closed sales.  When One Bal Harbour units closed there were many investors that put it right back on the market.  

Closed sale data is based on information from the last 6 months.    

South Florida newer condominiums have been averaging around 20% of the building on the market for the past year.  That number hasn’t increased in fact, as I mentioned in a previous post, inventory numbers appear to be on the decline.  

Several large scale investors such as Jorge Perez and others are stepping in to take advantage of current market conditions and attractive prices.  Real estate will have its ups and downs but unlike other investment instruments it is real property !

With the economic news of late, I was wondering how the data looked in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale oceanfront condo market for the last 30 days.   There is plenty of activity out there.  Furthermore, overall inventory numbers are on the decline.   

In the past 30 days…..

Broward County (Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Hallandale, Pompano, etc.)

• 55 oceanfront condos went  to contract (pending) 
• 63 Closed Sales
• Closed sales are on average at 88% of asking price

Dade County (Sunny Isles, Bal Harbour, Miami Beach, etc..)

• 56 oceanfront condos went to contract (pending)
• 62 Closed Sales
• Closed sales on average are at 90% of asking price

As we come to the end of June, a 6 month marker for the year, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at the data. We pulled statistical data for Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles, Hollywood-Hallandale, and Fort Lauderdale (which includes Lauderdale by the Sea and Pompano Beach). Each city has its own statistical identity which you will see in the charts.

We used the following criteria for the data:

• Oceanfront Condo
• Built after 2002
• Units with over 1500 square feet under air
• Minimum of 2 bedrooms

We are looking at average asking price, average closed sale price, average percentage sold to asking price and the number of condo sales with this criteria. This information was sourced from the MLS of South Florida.

On average, Miami Beach commands the highest price per square foot.

Bal Harbour, a much smaller geographic area has the highest percentage of selling to asking price. Sellers are less negotiable.

Sunny Isles had the highest number of closed sales. Sunny Isles also has a dense concentration of relatively new oceanfront condos built after 2002.

You can see that Hollywood and Hallandale offer the best prices per square foot.

Fort Lauderdale does not have that many newer oceanfront condos.

A footnote to add, there is always a delay of reporting on closed sales so additional closed sales data for June is expected.

Following up the article in the Sun-Sentinel that we referenced in our last post, we wanted to look at the data on the actual number of closed sales for oceanfront condos in Miami(Dade County) and Fort Lauderdale (Broward County).

Below are charts that show the average number of closed sales for 6 months back to present. Although, the numbers are not radically increasing there is a positive trend. More people are buying. Furthermore, in Miami there are currently 202 contracts pending and in Fort Lauderdale there are 178, indicating a continuation of this trend.

The actual number of closed sales in Fort Lauderdale are slightly greater than Miami. That surprised me, however, prices in Fort Lauderdale are less than you would find in Miami.

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As reported by the Sun-Sentinel, today, the real estate bust is a big boon for foreign buyers. They are buying in now because they believe the region remains a powerful long-term draw. Some condos are selling at 25-60% less than during the boom times. Flush with cash, buyers from Italy, Germany, England, Spain and other countries are scooping up condos here for at least 30 percent less than the cost of properties in their homelands.

We study the statistics and data on oceanfront condo sales in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, and the trend is indicating an increase in sales in all three areas. Watch for trend data on our next post.

For readers that are not familiar with The Beach Club in Hallandale Beach, it consists of three towers Beach Club 1,2 and 3 with a total of 1200 units between the three towers. The Beach Club is an extremely sought after condo for investors and second home buyers for many reasons. The three most outstanding reasons for its popularity are:

• Location: Minutes from Fort Lauderdale Airport
• Fantastic Amenities with three pools and full service gym and spa
• Attraction and ease for seasonal rentals
• Units with Incredible Views
• Directly on the Beach

We continually receive inquiries by investors and second home buyers as well as renters interested in this development. All buyers are looking for purchasing opportunities. We wanted to offer some statistical data that will provide an insight to the actual activity at the Beach Club.

Below is a chart providing data on the activity at the Beach Club for the past 6 months.

There are approximately 20% of the units on the market and that seems to be pretty consistent for the Beach Club. For many buildings in today’s market that is not out of the ordinary. Some of the newest buildings are averaging 30% or more.

In the past 6 months there have been 18 units sold. Of the 18 units only one sale was from a bank owned property. The other sales were from sellers with varying degrees of motivation. Sale prices averaged 12% of the asking price. Not surprising, none of the closed sales resulted from short sales.

As we have previously written in our blog, the opportunities are out there NOW. There are savvy buyers out there taking advantage of this buyers market. Although there have only been 18 closed sales in the last 6 months, right now there are 25 pending sales under contract! Activity most definitely is picking up.

Available units for sale at the Beach Club 1

Available units for sale at the Beach Club 2

Available units for sale at the Beach Club 3

We receive numerous inquiries for the Diplomat Residences in Hollywood. It has been a while since we provided an update on this Oceanfront Condo so here is a look at the current activity as well as a look at the activity for the past 6 months.

• There are currently 33 units on the market/ 24% of the building is for sale
• There are a total of 135 units in the building
• Prices being offered range from $759,900 to $2,299,000
• In the Past 6 months there has been 7 closed sales
• 6 of the 7 units that sold were sold at a price within 5%-10% of the asking price
• Closed sales have ranged from $317 per square foot to a high of $652 per square foot
• Closed sales were for units that ranged in size from 2458 sq.ft. to 3178 sq.ft.
• As of today there are 3 units that are under contract but have not closed as of yet

Although there are many units on the market, sellers are getting pretty close to the asking price. Many of these units have had numerous price decreases.

As you can see by the number of units that closed and the number of units that have gone to contract… there are buyers out there taking advantage of luxury oceanfront condo opportunities.! Diplomat Condos for Sale.

We report our day to day experiences with the very active luxury oceanfront condo market in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach. We wanted to share the actual statistics behind what we are seeing.

Below is data on the price per square foot of waterfront condos priced over $ 1 million in Miami.   (The data does not allow me to specify just oceanfront so intra coastal pricing is included as well.  The numbers would look somewhat different if they were specifically oceanfront.)  We have included two different time frames. The most recent data which is reflected in a chart from December 2006- February 2008. The second chart goes back in time from October 2005 through December 2006.

There are spikes and dips, but for the sake of interpretation, if we average the last 6 months of sold prices it averages out to $713 per square foot as an average. Going back in time to the 2005-2006 time frame the average price per square foot over a 6 month period was $700 per square foot.

Several conclusions can be made from this data. Simply put, I will say that this is not reflective of the general housing market.

I have worked with several clients over the last few months that have been interested in One Bal Harbour. I have been kept up to date by the developer on units that they had for sale. Some units came back to them when original purchasers did not close. The number of developer units remaining consistently declined week after week. They are selling them all. Everytime I went to One Bal Harbour with a client, the property was busy with buyers everywhere. Last time I was there, the units we went to were also being seen by a very well known celebrity.

Luxury oceanfront condominiums in South Florida certainly do not appear to be adversly affected by the state of the economy or the current conditions of the national housing market. Here are some interesting facts to support this statement:

One Bal Harbour- Luxury Oceanfront Condo in Bal Harbour.

To view all listings currently on the market at One Bal Harbour Click Here.

• Currently there are 13 condominiums pending closing sale
• Price Range of the 13 units pending are from a low of $1,150,000 to a high of $13,500,000
• 8 of the units pending are offered at a price that exceeds $2,000,000
• There have been 27 closed sales in the last 6 months
• There are approximately 68 units on the market out of 185. About 37%. (revised)

In Miami-Oceanfront condos

• In the last 60 days, there has been 47 closed sales of oceanfront condos exceeding $1 million
• There are 54 sales pending to close that had a listing price over $1million

In Fort Lauderdale-Oceanfront Condos

• In the last 60 days, there has been 11 closed sales of oceanfront condos exceeding $1 million
• There are 40 pending sales over $1 million
• 19 of the pending sales are over $2 million
• An Oceanfront Condo over 6000 square feet listed for $7,550,000 has gone to pending. When it closes it will be the highest recorded oceanfront condo sale in Broward county this year.

We have written about the brisk luxury oceanfront condo market before. There are active buyers out there looking for the really good properties! The data speaks for itself!!