When comparing the real estate activity of January 2017 with that of January 2018, there was an increase of 5.1% in general. Operations with luxury properties rose almost 30 percent. Buyers are users, no longer investors. There is also a remarkable growth in construction. A report by the Miami Association of Realtors (MAR) shows that the real estate market in South Florida does not even keep the memory of the crisis. Nearly ten years ago, in January 2018, sales of apartments and single-family homes increased as well as luxury properties ($1 million or more); In addition, foreign investment (with a strong Latin American presence) also grew throughout 2017.
Sales of residential properties in Miami-Dade County (which contains the city of Miami and other very popular in its area of influence, such as Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Miami Gardens and Adventure), grew by 5.1 percent: from 1,731 in January 2017 to 1,820 in January 2018. The total volume of business money increased by 12.7% compared to this period last year.
“The market has a lot of movement, for example, houses in Miami-Dade from $1 million to $4 million, the average number of days in the market is less than 6months,” explained Linette Guerra, broker, andCEO of La Playa Properties. The moment, in addition, is favorable for the buyers: “The prices that are willing to pay those who look for are below what those who sell ask for, someone who has an apartment in $450,000 receives offers for 350,000, for example”.
The data analyzed by MAR, the organization that brings together Miami real estate agents, comes from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the system that centralizes property movements. They make up an image that coincides with the prosperity of the construction, which increased by 68% (also compared to the investment of January 2017 with that of January 2018), according to The Real Deal, a report by Dodge Data & Analytics: it went from $597 million to $1,000 million.
If 5.1 does not seem a striking percentage to measure the growth of the business, it should be comparedwith the activity of the national real estate market: as a whole, it presents a drop of 4.8% this January compared to 2017, according to the National Association of Realtors, the organization that unites the real estate agents of the country.
Broken down, this general increase in Miami and surrounding areas shows a normal growth for an active market, as Guerra described, of homes of less than $1 million and an extraordinary increase for those of more than $1 million. House sales rose 2.1% in the comparison of the months ofJanuary 2017 and 2018. Those of apartments in buildings that already exist, “that compete with one of the most robust new construction markets in the country,”according to MAR, 8.1% in that period. And those of luxury homes, 29.3%, from 99 to 128 units in each month.
Although the availability of houses – the inventory – has decreased (in January 2017 there were 6,590 for sale, andin January 2018 there were 6,255), there was no increase in the values as seen in particular enclaves: for example in the San Francisco Bayarea, wherein2017 some 40 operations were closed with prices $500,000 higher than what the sellers requested. The inventory may be smaller in houses, but it is still a market that favors the buyer.