Ramesh Nyberg's Real Estate Blog

Happy Summer! Didn't it seem like, on one breezy, mild April day, someone flipped a switch and turned this place into a sauna?
No complaints, we had a longer, nicer "winter" this year. The poincianas are beautiful, the mangos and lychees are almost ready, and, well, that's about it as far as positives for summer in South Florida, isn't it?

The positives do NOT include the real estate market, at least not for May (unless you live in Cutler Bay-more on that in just a bit). For the first time in four months, pending sales took a dive, just about everywhere and in every price stratum. One of the new things you will see at this website is the Miami-Dade at a glance home sales chart, right smack on the home page. It breaks down the market statistics for each price range, so that you can find your market, whether you are buying, selling, or both. Some things that jump out of that chart: 62% of all single family homes sold between $50,000-100,000 in May were foreclosures. In the 100-200k range, 41% were foreclosed properties, and then it continues to taper off by half or more each segment after that.

What I did dig out as a positive amongst the rubble of May was that the list-to-sale ratio (the difference between the asking price and actual sale price)has been sneaking up in most places. A few months ago, it was predominantly 89-90% everywhere, and now more places are back in the 90's, and that's good. Cutler Bay, Miami-Dade's youngest municipality, hit 100% for May, and that's something we haven't seen in at least 2 years, anywhere. That means that the average sale in that town was at asking price. Realistically, it's telling us that for everything that sold below asking, there were about as many that closed ABOVE asking price as well.

Click on $ales By the Numbers to get all the charts from Coconut Grove south along the U.S. 1 corridor to Cutler Bay, and see for yourself what is happening in your area. As always, I invite comments and questions, and I'm always happy to prepare a more specific market analysis of your neighborhood, or your specifically your home, if you are thinking about selling.

_______________
I have finished moving and so the updates here will be back to normal. My 25-year old son was just down from Gainesville for a visit, and it was great to see him as always. My 21-year old, Greg, is planning to join the Coast Guard in October, and my daughter "graduated" from Kindergarten a few months ago. Life is NEVER boring when you have kids.

Thanks for stopping by to read this blog.. may your A/C function perfectly... Hope you'll come by to check often

As always, experimentation leads to success. It was Thomas Edison, when a reporter pointed out to him that an invention he had been trying to finalize had "failed" 100 times that he had tried it.

Edison corrected the young man, saying, "No, I have successfully found 100 ways that do not work."
It's all in how you look at things.

Such is the way with sales, and very often, my cooking. I think I have a better than 1 in 100 ratio with my Indian dishes, but that's probably due to my grandmother's cookbook, some lessons from my Mother some 40 years ago that I still remember and help from a very close friend. :)

To get people out of their summer doldrums, I threw out a quick quiz to my email contacts (if you are not on my email contact list, please let me know, and I'll get you on it asap). I posed two questions, both of which require the participant to go to this site, to the sales data charts, and find the answers to the questions, "How many homes were there for sale in Palmetto Bay last month?" and "How many went under contract (pending sale)?" Ok, yes, if you are reading this, consider yourself eligible. The first person to text or email the correct answers to me get a prize, honest to Pete.

Interestingly, I checked on Palmetto Bay and saw that 9 homes have been listed for sale there in the last week. Of those 9, 2 are short sales, and 2 are foreclosures.

Palmetto Bay's neighbor to the south, Cutler Bay, saw 21 homes come on the MLS in that same time period. Of those, 4 are short sales, and 7 are foreclosures.
**************************
If you haven't been to Metrozoo in a while, its getting a new look. My daughter and I went there for Father's Day, and we lasted 3 hours before we just got baked to the bone with the heat.
The new entrance was just finished- its now a colorful collage of animals and designs, and there is now a lighted scrolling marquee as well. The "Giant Insect" exhibit is a lot of fun.. if you can handle the heat, go and check it all out, but go early (they open at 10am). Take plenty of water and sunscreen, and dress light. I saw a lady there with her husband, walking around the place in a black cocktail dress and high heels at one o'clock in the afternoon. Wonder how long she lasted?
Maybe that was an experiment too!