MIAMI—It isn't the sunbeams that make Miami hot. It's the condos. At least that's how Isaac Feldman of Coldwell Banker All Nations Realty sees it. In fact, Feldman says, Miami's luxury condo market is so influential, its reach stretches across the Sunshine State.
"The condos of Miami, in my opinion, are responsible for the entire Florida real estate market boom," he says. The city, he says, has attracted big developers, including Donald Trump, who developed his first three buildings directly across from Feldman"s office on Collins Avenue.
From an almost non-existent market in the 1980s, Feldman says, Miami's luxury condo sales have grown exponentially. Where once whole plots of land sold for $5,000 and developers had to pay the airfare of potential buyers just to get someone to notice, he says, today, 2 acres of oceanfront condo property are soaring past $30 million. Houses themselves have leapt from 2000 luxury prices of about $450,000 to more than $1.3 million.
The buyers have changed too. "When I moved to Miami from New York in 1991," Feldman says, "there were a lot of houses that were for the 55 and over community. Today you can barely find any of these properties."
Today, he says, Miami is flush with younger families looking for a more permanent home and investors looking to cash in on a luxury market that stays as hot as the Florida summer. "Miami and the rest of Florida," he says, "still have a great growth potential. Having more first- or second-home owners and less investors will continue keeping our market hot and stable for years to come."
This article provided courtesy of Unique Homes Magazine and does not express the views of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation.
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