I happen to live in a nice area of Miami Beach commonly known as "South of Fifth or SoFi". It's full of some of the nicest condo towers you can find anywhere in Miami offering wonderful amenities and offering great views of Biscayne Bay, Government Cut, and the Atlantic Ocean. In SoFi, you'll find a high concentration of luxury condos, and when I say luxury, I mean those priced over 1 million dollars. The following exclusive SoFi properties are available and have been for a while:
The market for luxury condos in SoFi, and in the Miami area in general is broken. As I alluded to in an earlier post, When Buying a Condo in Miami, Cash is King, financing for condo properties is hard to get, and in the luxury market it is virtually non-existent. With the wheels of securitization on Wall Street having ground to a screeching halt, there are no buyers for mortgages over $423,750 originated in Miami-Dade County. Its much harder to find buyers for a million dollar condo when the buyer has to commit over $500,000 of their own money instead of $100,000 or $200,000, as was the case previously.
Looking at recent sales data for condos in Miami Beach, the numbers tell the same story. During the 1 year from 7/1/2008 to 6/30/2009, 1,395 condos were sold in Miami Beach at a median sales price of $283,000. 133 of these (9.5%) were sold for 1 million dollars or more. Of the 133 $1mm+ condo sales, 92 of them (69%) were all-cash deals. The remainder were completed with conventional loans or seller financing. However, in a couple of rare instances, buyers were able to get financing from JP Morgan or Bank of America, both whom just started originating "Jumbo" mortgages again.
The table below summarizes the Miami Beach condo sales data from 7/1/08 to 6/30/09.
| Price Range | Yearly Sales | Current Inventory | Years of Inventory | Average DOM |
| < 150k | 297 | 480 | 1.62 | 103 |
| 150k - 500k | 753 | 1,777 | 2.36 | 152 |
| 500k - 1mm | 212 | 653 | 3.08 | 183 |
| 1mm+ | 133 | 527 | 3.96 | 180 |
The 3,437 condos listed for sale on the MLS in Miami Beach as of 7/12 represent 2.46 years worth of inventory at the current sales rate of 1,395 per year. In the table above, you can see how condos priced under 150k are moving fairly quickly compared with condos costing $1mm+. Additionally, the more expensive condos are staying on the market much longer. The dashed line represents the approximate cutoff for traditional financing and it's clear how the market is much worse for properties costing over 500k.
Tags: buying a condo, cash, condo properties, jumbo mortgages, luxury condos, luxury market, miami beach condo sales, mortgage
