Miami Florida home sales plummet nearly 50%, prices drop $10,000 in October

And we're just getting started... when those 75,000 condo units in Miami come to market, while at the same time the investors (aka flippers) either walk away from their contracts or dump inventory on the market, Miami will see a perfect storm to make Katrina look like a summer shower...

Single-family existing home sales dropped 48 percent in Miami-Dade and 44 percent in Broward compared to the same period a year ago, according to figures released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors. Prices were still up from a year ago, but declined -- by more than $10,000 in Broward -- from September.

Industry leaders attributed the sharp drop in sales largely to the fact that Wilma idled business for days. However, some also speculated that South Florida's galloping housing market was showing some signs of cooling with higher interest rates, mirroring the nationwide situation.

Ronald A. Shuffield, president of Coral Gables-based Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, has been in real estate for 32 years.

''I can't ever remember a drop this big,'' said Shuffield