Miami Beach Real Estate has begun to Stabilize

Good fortune has begun to shine again on Miami’s condo market after a long period of ups and downs. According to a recent study commissioned by the City of Miami’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and conducted in partnership with Goodkin Consulting and Focus Real Estate Advisors LLC, condo sales and occupancy rates are on the rise.

Similarly, Miami’s existing home sales rose in March. Home sales increased by 24 percent last month with a total of 16,294 homes sold in the state of Florida. This is significant compared to the 13,090 homes sold in March 2009, according to Florida Realtors. The report by Florida Realtors also reported a 63 percent increase in statewide sales of existing condos last month.

According to the DDA study, there is nothing but good news in the Miami condo market. The market is now coming out of the most prolific overbuilding in the history of Southeast Florida.

The good news isn’t just coming from the DDA though. The Residential Closing and Occupancy Study, published in March 2010, updated a similar study that they reported in June 2009. The studies examined 75 completed condominium buildings located in a 60-block area of downtown Miami, which included buildings that occupy valuable real estate along Brickell Avenue and overlooking Biscayne Bay. The study found that in February 2010, 74% of the 22,079 units built since 2003 were occupied versus 62% in May 2009 and an average of 345 units were leased monthly last year.

According to the DDA, this increase is due to a younger crowd looking to occupying the downtown Miami area, an influx of new businesses and a increase in people staying in the area for after hours activities. Because of these factors, full-time residents now occupy 87% of the 16,415 units with a little more than half of those units rented.

Approximately 7,000 condo units remain on the downtown market. The study predicts that if the current trends continue, all of downtown Miami’s existing condo inventory could be occupied within the next 25 months.

Overall, all recent studies of the Miami Beach real estate market point to stabilization. They show that real estate prices are no longer falling and that there has been a positive upturn in the overall market. In fact, in the luxury buildings such as Apogee, Continuum, Seta and Murano Portofino, the condo market is rebounding and overall prices of closed sales have been much higher in 2010 than they were in all of 2009.