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Foreigners flock to Florida for real estate bargains

By
Real Estate Agent with Majestic Properties 0693914

MIAMI -- Foreign tourists who for years have crowded Florida's shopping malls to buy clothes and electronics, are now flocking to real estate offices to snatch up apartments and homes at bargain-basement prices.

The investors, mainly from Europe and Latin America, are jostling over apartments in Miami's trendy South Beach neighborhood selling for $70,000-$100,000, and in less exclusive areas to the north where they start at around $50,000.

"The buying opportunities are maybe the best ever. Who knows if we'll see prices again like today's in Miami Beach," Keys Real Estate agent Michelle Iglesias told AFP.

Property prices in Miami have fallen by almost half (47%) since the real estate bubble peaked in 2006, according to Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price index.

Analysts predict that real estate market prices will not increase until the banks get rid of all their foreclosed properties and there are more jobs in the region.

"Unemployment is still high. People are afraid of losing their homes and credit is hard to get," said Standard & Poor's vice-president Maureen Maitland.

In and around Miami, banks each month repossess about 5,000 properties, including apartments and commercial real estate, for delinquent mortgage payments, according to real estate brokerage Codovultures Realty, which has 250,000 such properties on its books across southern Florida.

But foreign investors have kept prices from plunging even further, the Miami Association of Realtors said in its November report. "The international buyers continue to fuel market strengthening, we continue to observe positive signs," said association president Oliver Ruiz.

Beatriz Lamanda from Venezuela bought two apartments north of Miami Beach for a reduced price of $80,000.

"I'd rather put my money in real estate than leave it in the bank. In a few years I'll make a nice bundle because the prices are going to go up, no question," she told AFP.

In the "Icon," a three-building apartment complex by French designer Philippe Stark in Brickell, Miami's newest financial district, apartments are selling for $250,000, down from $370,000 two years ago.

"We've sold 350 units in the last few months. Most of the buyers are international," Fortune International's Alejandra Castillo told AFP. -- AFP

Source: http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=22914

Comments (1)

Phil Stevenson, CRMP
PS Mortgage Lending 305-791-4874 or 888-845-6630 - Miami, FL
"Mortgage Nerd" in Miami, Florida and Texas

Excellent post, Anthony.  We have specialized in the Reverse Mortgage over the last few years, and have had huge success.  But now that so many Mortgage Brokers are nearing extinction, we are getting back into loans like Foreing National loans.

Either way, I am subscribing to your blogs.  I am local with you in Miami and its good to see what the top Realtors in the industry are saying.

Dec 28, 2010 01:57 AM