Ramesh Nyberg's Real Estate Blog

It is interesting that the word "doldrums" means a "a state of inactivity" or "depression or boredom", but it also refers to the ITCZ (the intratropical convergence zone) where the building blocks of hurricanes are formed.

Ok, that's the last time you'll hear me use the "H" word all summer. But for those of you who missed it, the season started on June 1st, so get your generators working, your water, batteries, propane, and all that other stuff you've heard of ad nauseum, at the ready.

The May sales stats are out, and the residential real estate market in Miami-Dade County continues it's very determined march back to normalcy. Single familiy home pending sales continued to increase for the fourth straight month, hitting 1338 properties under contract in May. The inventory continued to slim down for eighth consecutive month, to 11,236. That's remarkable, considering that this time last year, the number of unsold homes sat at 17,058. The temptation is to say, "Ah, it's all foreclosures doing that." A good portion of it is. But that's changing, as evidenced by two important stats: one is the recent nationwide NAR report that foreclosures were down 6% from April to May. The other evidence resides in the chart on this site showing average prices for sale and sold--both went up. That doesn't mean prices of homes are going up, it means that homes in higher price strata are starting to sell--and be listed--again.

The other interesting stat to mention is that the days on market number, which jumped wildly from month to month between 125 and 109, has settled down. For the past 7 months, average time for homes to sell in Miami-Dade County has been contained within 103 to 109 days, making the market somewhat more predictable.  

As previously mentioned, homeowners in higher price ranges are gaining more confidence in the market. The average asking price in Miami-Dade County has steadily curved upward from $604,000 in October '08, to $728,000 last month.

Palmetto Bay, which averaged 17 sales per month from June 08 to February 09, has posted pending sale numbers of 25, 29, and 26 the last three months.  Pinecrest, which has been more finicky and unpredictable than the rest of the market and saw numbers as low as 9 and 10 sales several times the past year, had 21 sales in May, and 23 in April.

Ok, no more--for those of you who want more of a mathematical experience  click on $ales by the Numbers, from the menu to the left, and have a statistical smorgasbord.

July 15th is my next Networking Happy Hour-- if you have never been, and you have any kind of business and would like to be invited, please send me an email or give me a call. This a very informal and unstructured group, though I do only invite one person per profession for each get-together. We have a nice time, and build business relationships together.

Einstein quote: "Nothing happens until something moves."
You gotta love the simplicity of that. Now I have time to move. And time? Well, my favorite definition of that comes from my police academy firearms instructor: "Time is what keeps everything from happening at once."

With the amount of varied tasks I was trying to tackle by myself, everything was happening at once. And when that happens, trust me--nothing moves.

This is a short update, in between market data announcements (which are still a couple of weeks away). Updates:
The 9-unit Homestead apartment building I have for sale just reduced their price from $499,000 to $429,000.

The 4/3 Keysgate home I had for sale for some time is now under contract.

New listings are on the way.

A recent special feature in the South Florida Business Journal tells a bleak tale of the commercial retail market. In short, its becoming, or has become, the "tenant's market" we spoke of here in previous posts. It sure looks like it will soon become a buyer's market as well. The article noted that Miami-Dade County is in better shape than Palm Beach and Broward, where vacancy rates hit over 20% last quarter.

More notably is Kiera, my new assistant, with computer skills, people skills, and the ability to free me up to do more face-to-face marketing and do more of working on my business, rather than working in it.
In other words, to have time, to make things move.

The summer market is here.
What's more, I am encountering more and more people who are much more well educated about short sales and foreclosures. This is good. A couple of people I am working with have been burned on short sales, and they are avoiding them without me coaching them to do so.

Don't get me wrong, there are times when it could be wise to put an offer on a short sale--when you have the time to wait, and you don't mind having your deposit tied up for 2-3 months, and you've accepted the fact that it may never close. If you can deal with all that, you might make a killing on a house. Also, I try to find out if the listing agent it using a short sale specialist or lender workout company to do the dirty work on behalf of the seller. It can be daunting. On one of my short sale listings, I had to introduce myself to the short sale consultant four times, and just as many times be told, "we never received anything," after I faxed and emailed them the contracts and other paperwork over and over.

It's interesting to see Lennar's ads in the paper, which are trying to steer people away from all that mess and towards their deeply discounted places. Enough about all that. The new sales data will be out soon, so look for that here, at $ales By the Numbers.

I'm still finding alot of commercial space available for lease along the highway. Some hardheaded landlords are trying desperately to hang on to yesterday's lease prices, but they will eventually have to knuckle under. Like residential properties two years ago, the commercial inventory is starting to pile up, and when that happens, there is only one place for prices to go. From now on, it will be a great time for business owners to upgrade their retail or office space.