The Daily Soak - September 14

The Next Miami: Panama Condo Bubble Poised to Explode

Panama City real estate analyst Daniel Quesada pens a brilliant analysis of the condo boom and coming bust in that capital city. Quesada knows the market and sees the parallels with recent cycles in states like California and Florida. When strippers and cab drivers start peddling condos on the side, Quesada says the end is near. Such is the case in Panama City where over 100 high-rises representing over 20,000 units are coming out of the ground thanks entirely to foreign flippers. (No sane end-user would consider paying $500,000 for a 900-square-foot unit in a foreign country.) Aside from pure greed, Quesada says naivete will be the developers' undoing: "Many Panamanian developers have never been through a true real estate cycle before, so many don't know what it is like. (They) are about to learn a very valuable lesson."


Incredible Shrinking Inventory Another Positive Sign

Interested buyers like Stan Kassan had plenty of homes to choose from earlier this year around Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast, but the Palm Beach Post reports today's options are not as generous. Outstanding inventory has dropped from four years to two years thanks to the freeze on new construction coupled with frustrated sellers pulling their homes off the market. At the peak of the housing boom, housing inventory for sale was a meager 3 months. That figure skyrocketed to 46 months in January of this year but has settled down to 28 months today. Real estate analyst Jack McCabe says excess inventory is only one of Florida's lingering housing problems: "We still have way too much inventory, way too many foreclosures and prices that are out of whack with incomes."


Central Florida Condo Board Picks On Amputee, Weiner Dogs

Ah, the joys of living in sunny Florida in perfect harmony with one's neighbors under the cozy blanket of an authoritarian set of HOA bylaws closed to interpretation that everyone can agree one. OK, at least the sunny Florida thing was accurate. A Longwood condo board has been sparring with an amputee resident for six years, because he walks his two miniature dachshunds with 24 foot leashes rather than the board-approved 4 feet. The Florida Attorney General's office recently filed a suit against the board accusing members of discriminating against Kent Nauman. In the board's defense, Nauman has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and takes no medication for the condition. "I'm not a very popular person," Nauman says.