The Daily Soak - October 27

"Don't Cry For Me, Argentina...But Please Buy My Condos"

An interview with Related Group CEO Jorge Perez appears on a website geared toward readers in Argentina. When asked about buyer activity, Perez says "Buyers are coming back into the market, because we're arriving at the bottom." And when asked where the best deals are, he tells his countrymen, "I think it's the best time to buy an apartment especially in the Brickell area, the financial center of Miami." What a coincidence...according to the Wall Street Journal, Related has ample unsold inventory in Brickell with another 1,800 units set to hit the market. Unfortunately for Perez, Argentina's socialist government just announced the nationalization of all private pensions, so the pool of potential buyers just evaporated in B.A.


FAR Data Shows Single-Family Strength, Condo Weakness

New data released by the Florida Association of Realtors showed an increase in existing homes in September, the first such increase in three years. Statewide, there was a 24% increase in existing home sales and a 22% decrease in median sales price. Sales of existing condos, however, only rose 11% while also recording a 22% in fall in median sales price. The adjacent graphic shows a city-by-city breakdown of Florida condo markets with double-digit gains and losses highlighted in green and red. Markets like Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Melbourne posted strong sales gains and equally large price reductions. The Sarasota-Bradenton market is the only Florida MSA reporting large double-digit decresaes in both sales and median prices.


No Rush: Not Everyone Wants Foreclosure Backlog Reduced

The Lee County court system processes about 2,000 foreclosure filings a month, but they are planning on tackling 3x that number beginning in December. With a backlog of 29,000 foreclosures, some analysts are cheering the news but local realtors are fearful. "I would much rather just stay the course," says Cape Coral broker Elmer Tabor, "If all of a sudden we get a huge supply that starts coming out of the court system, if anything that's going to drop (prices) further." Florida analyst for Moody's, Chris Lafakis, says let's get it over with: "The only way we're going to get ourselves out of the decline is to get rid of this excess inventory."