March Sales in SoFi Neighborhood

In the month of March, 2023, 30 condominiums in the South of Fifth Neighborhood were recorded as sold through the MLS. They were not all multi-million dollar units in in the Waterfront Towers.  They did not all have unobstructed water views. In fact there was quite a range in almost every metric for which they could be measured.  Here are some of the bullet points that I noticed:

The 30 Units that Sold ranged in price from a low of $300,000 to a high of $10,800,000.
16 of the Units Sold for over $1 million
5 of the Units Sold for under $500,000
9 units Sold for between $535,000 and $950,000
6 units Sold between $1-2 Million
3 units Sold between $3-5 Million
6 units Sold between $5-10 Million
1 unit Sold for over $10,000,000

13 Units Sold for less than $1,000/SF
12 Units Sold for between $1,000-2,000/SF
4 Units Sold for between $2,000-4,000/SF
1 Unit Sold for over $4,000/SF

21 of the units were on the Waterfront
9 of the units were not waterfront
8 units had an address on S. Pointe Drive
8 units had an address on Alton Road
6 units had an address on Ocean Drive
5 units had an address on Washington Avenue
3 units had an address on Meridian Avenue

12 of the units Sold had a Living Area of under 1,000SF
18 of the units Sold had a Living Area of over 1,000 SF
3 units contained between 2,000 and 3,000 SF
3 units contained between 3,000 and 4,000 SF
1 unit contained more than 4,000 SF

7 units Sold in less than 10 days
5 units Sold between 11 and 30 days
6 units sold between 35 and 100 days
6 units sold in between 100 and 200 days
5 units Sold in between 200 and 317 days
1 unit was on the market for 836 days before it Sold

The single Studio unit Sold contained 605 SF of Living Area
The 11 1BR units Sold contained between 621-850 SF of Living Area
The 11 2BR Units that Sold contained between 1010-1862  SF of Living Area
The 5 3BR Units that Sold contained between 2340 and 4510 SF of Living Area
The 2 4BR Units that Sold contained between 2393 and 3979 SF of Living Area

Highest Priced Listings and Sales

The South of Fifth neighborhood remains one of the most coveted neighborhoods in South Beach and indeed in all of South Florida.  Evidence is clear not only from the high prices Condos that are on the market, but also from the sales prices that have most recently been achieved.  The two lists were printed on March 19, 2023 represent the units that are currently on the market in the South of Fifth Neighborhood and the ones that have been sold in the Neighborhood within the past 6 months.

The Units range in price from just under $10 million to a staggering $40 Million for the Penthouse unit at the Icon and $25 Million for a combined unit at the Apogee.

10 Highest Priced Listings

The units that sold during this recent 6 moth period all traded between $4.5 Million and $11.25 Million

10 Highest Priced  Sales

 

Million Dollar Towers Trend

Absorption Rates

The South of Fifth waterfront towers selected for this  comparison show how differently buildings in the same neighborhood have fared over the past 6 months. It is no surprise that the Real estate market could not sustain neither the pace of sales nor the price increases that it realized in 2021. Add to that substantially higher mortgage  interest rates, falling stock market prices, inflation and the fear of recession, and it is no wonder that the market has changed.   For reference, the housing market is considered balanced when there is between a 6 and 9 month inventory of units available for sale. When there is less inventory it is considered a Sellers market and prices rise, when more, a Buyers market, and prices generally fall. It’s the basic law of Supply and Demand.  For the purpose of the data contained herein, only units with a List Price of $1 million or more were considered when compiling the numbers used to create the chart above

While Sellers enjoyed the higher prices they achieved a year or more back, Buyers are now poised to be in more control going forward.  Looking at the chart above, the Continuum North Tower at 50 S. Pointe Drive fared the best among the buildings surveyed.  On December 25, it had 10 units available for sale, and in the preceding 180 days 6 units sold. That’s an average of 1 unit sold a moth, and with 10 units currently on the market, the absorption rate would be 10 months. The Continuum South Tower at 100 S. Pointe Drive also had 10 units available for sale, but only sold 4 in the preceding 6 months, and the absorption rate was 15 months. The Murano at 1000 S. Pointe Drive had the most units for sale among the buildings surveyed with 15 currently on the market, but over the past 6 months only 2 units were sold and that imputed an absorption rate 45 months.

Naturally, past performance is not a guarantee of future results and any sale will be based on a Buyer and Seller agreeing on the specific price and terms for the subject unit. Because each of these buildings is a small sample by itself, what may be an important factor at one Builing may not even be relevant to another, and those conditions may change quickly. For instance, when a building announces a Special Assessment it may cause some unit owners to put their units on the market so as not to incur the additional cost or just not to live through a year or more of noise and disruption. Those same reasons may cause potential buyers to look at other buildings. Together those decisions could both increase the supply of units for sale and simultaneously decrease the demand for those units. Price reductions are among the ways to align the parties in such circumstances.

So while the chart shows the wide variation in the absorption rate among the neighboring luxury buildings if we combined the totals of each of the buildings we would find a total of 83 units for sale over $1 million and that 30 had sold in the previous 6 months. So at the rate of 5 sales per month, we would anticipate it would take just under 17 months for all of the inventory be be absorbed.  Turns out that is also be the median point, as four of the buildings had higher absorption rates and four had lower than 17.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays 2022