Ramesh Nyberg's Real Estate Blog

That was the phrase that Coldwell Banker's Regional Senior VP of Southeast Fla, Charles Richardson, used when addressing our sales meeting this morning. He was referring to the specifics of the market, which you know I track closely here on this website. Richardson noted the dramatic drop in the inventory since August of 2008, the steadily rising closed sales, and other indicators that tell us we are now experiencing that "bottom" everyone has been waiting for.

Richardson wasn't all pie-in-the-sky: he predicts at least one or two more waves of foreclosures, but warns that this time a much larger percentage of them will be in that "executive" price range, $500,000 to $999,000. Short sales, he says, are here to for at least 2-3 years.

Once we reach a 6-8 month supply of inventory (we are at 18 months now), we can start to see prices head start to climb again.
I'll have more on the market in about a week or two, when the September stats come out, but I will share this interesting nugget with you: A recent search I did in one area reflected some encouraging "list-to-sale ratio" numbers. As you might remember, list-to-sale is the difference between asking price and eventual sale price. For single family homes in Miami-Dade, that number has been meandering around 89 to 91% the last few months. Back in early 2006, areas of Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay were averaging 96-99%! Well, this search I did of one section was showing not just brisk sales, but list-to-sale ratios of 94-95%, and a three transactions that went either at or above full price (100%).

Richardson also pulled no punches in telling us that our office is currently #1 in sales in Southeast Florida. Nice to hear. Solid, encouraging information, along with the pastries and bagels, always make Tuesday mornings worthwhile.
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What's your sign? I still see a some "For sale By Owners" out there (those red and white ones stand out like a fire in the night, when I glance down the side streets) ---it's worth repeating this equation: 90% of for sale by owners end up listing with a broker, but they end up doing it 4-6 months into a depreciating market. Result? 8-12% lost value in the home, or more if they tough it out longer. And they did it to save the... what.. 6% broker commission, right?

Next post: Among other things, Palmetto Bay's Franjo Triangle--cool stuff is happening!