January 07, 2007

Miami condo projects going away faster than real estate clerks


But Suzanne researched it! And Greg Swann said all would be well!

Guess not...

Miami, Tampa, Orlando, DC, Phoenix, San Diego, Vegas, Chicago, Boston, LA, Sacramento, Boise, ... The list goes on and on - an investor-fueled housing ponzi scheme gone kaput.

Florida's overbuilt condo market starts to fizzle

MIAMI - On a piece of prime bayfront property near downtown Miami, weeds climb the steps of the sales office for Onyx 2, a planned waterview condo where apartments were to sell for $500,000 to $2,000,000.

A sign reads 'For Sale. Land, plans and permits for Onyx 2. Includes fully equipped sales center.'
Three blocks north, the land on which a glassy loft-condo called 'Ice' was to rise lies idle. A realtor's Web site says: 'This project has been canceled and will not be built.'

Developers have pulled the plug on some of Miami's most anticipated condominium developments, a sign the city's sizzling, speculator-driven condo market -- where prices of many apartments doubled or tripled in a few brief years -- has finally chilled.

'This market was too good to be true,' said Lewis Goodkin, a Miami economist and real estate analyst. 'But it was a market fueled by speculators, so it wasn't a true market.'

City officials say 15 condo projects, representing nearly 1,900 units, have been officially pulled from the waning market. But analysts say the numbers are much higher when you consider the rest of Florida's overbuilt condo market.

'We're starting to see projects being canceled almost on a weekly basis,' said Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research & Consulting of Deerfield Beach.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Driving through Miami the other day on the way to the airport I began to wonder if the new state bird of Florida was the Construction Crane.

Anonymous said...

That picture shows the carpetbaggers who scammed the VCs and banks that funded the concept and start-up phases for these developments. They're heading north with a trunk full of money, laughing all the way!

Anonymous said...

this is good news. Good, good, good. good. I don't think illegals are building high rises though.

Anonymous said...

So far this housing crash is not as bad as the one c. 1989-1991 as there were fewer unsold houses on the market than then. If the builders overbuild, the situation may worsen.

http://www.foreclosurepulse.com/

The oil bubble seems to have burst for now too. The high price of oil brought a whole lot of new oil field exploration and development that was not possible when the price of oil was low. The oil market was volatile, but that meant it also went down in value.

Anonymous said...

A small collection of positive articles in MSM this weekend:

Economy Ready to Rebound With Worst of U.S. Housing Slump Over
(Bloomberg, 1/8/2007)

Housing values on rise (Post-Tribune, 1/7/2007)

2007 shaping up as solid year for housing (Los Angeles Daily News, 1/6/2007)

Correction looks to have run its course (Charlotte Observer, 1/6/2007)

JAFO said...

anon posting 2:14:55,

This housing slide is developing a little slower than ones of the recent past to be sure. I believe this one will be deeper and longer lasting as easy credit starts to dissipate. Already we are seeing many subprime lenders go out of business and subprime was a BIG part of the boom of the early 2000s. From where I sit, builders are overbuilding but then what else could you expect. If they aren't building something somewhere they are out of business. As to the oil bubble you speak of, I wouldn't count oil out just yet. We recently dispatched a second carrier group to the Persian gulf to join the one already there off the coast of Iran. What Bush has in mind who can say? Maybe he is crazy enough to start a third war over there. In any case oil is so incredibly volatile and can move on the thinnest of fundamentals so shutting down Iranian production could easily send it north of $100 a barrel.

Anonymous said...

If, as some say, that new housing is beginning to stabilize, then prey tell, why are all the new home builders currently taking huge losses in land contract writedowns?

Toll may be doing the shimmey shimmey two step, but Lennar and hovanian just came out and said;'we see no evidence of any visable bottom, therefore we are taking a huge writedown in land'.

And make no mistake, many hb's are doing the 'fannie mae approach' and delaying filing indefinatly.See kbh. These days out of sight is out of mind.

Anonymous said...

In my opinion, the best overall indicator of average global warming across the globe would be higher sea level.

It isn't happening. Not even a millimeter.

And we are having a very cold winter here in California.

Anonymous said...

Positive articles. There have been positive articles all during this descent. I am amazed at how ignorant economists and journalists seem to be.

I'd bet everything I have that prices will go down at least 40% before we bottom out.

I don't know what to short however. If I short Fanny Mae, the government may bail them out. If I short the mortgage companies, I don't really know enough about how they work and how many of the defaulted loans were passed off in bonds unrelated to the original lender. Home builders may not necessarily crash. Even with much lower prices their margins will still be good. There is no ETF on house prices that I can buy puts on and even if I could, their prices would already reflect the huge number of bears who are already betting on the housing crash.

So I don't really know how to invest to profit off the coming crash.

Anonymous said...

'oil bubble'? The price may be down but its not because more oil is getting on the marked.

World output has been about 84mb/d for the past 2 years.

Anonymous said...

You bitter renters are losers. I bought a $800,000 house with an option-ARM and am sitting pretty watching my home appreciate at 12% every year. I expect to retire and sell my house for $12,500,000 in 15 years while you bitter renters are paying $22,000 a month for rent.

Anonymous said...

free market working as it shouuld:

demand goes crazy
supply is low
price jump
builders start increasing supply
demand slows
too much supply
prices drop
builders decrease supply

and look all that without a new government program or set of regulations, imganine that!!!

Anonymous said...

look at the HB stocks today, all are red!!

just the tip baby, just the tip!!!

Anonymous said...

global warming, not this again, boooooring

Anonymous said...

should have said:

bozonian said...
Positive articles. There have been positive articles all during this descent. I am amazed at how [many sell-out] economists and journalists seem to be.

------------

Hey, they are just trying to pay the bills and not get forclosed on, either!

"It's just a job."

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
free market working as it shouuld:

demand goes crazy
supply is low
price jump
builders start increasing supply
demand slows
too much supply
prices drop
builders decrease supply
--------

But prices only go up!