Luxury Home Sales in Miami on Fire

August 1, 2011 (Shirley Allen)

Sales of new and resale homes in Miami climbed up 1.4 percent from May to June, but sales of luxury homes shot up 21.2 percent from May and sales for the first six months of this year are 13.4 percent higher than during the same period last year according to the latest data released from DataQuick.

A total of 9,857 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties area in June. Sales were 1.4 percent higher than May and were 6.0 percent higher than June of 2010.

Home sales in the region typically increase 6.7 percent between May and June. Home sales were 20.7 percent lower than Miami’s average June sales rate of 12,427, but were the highest total for the month of June since 2007.

New home sales, like many regions in the country, remained at depressed levels. A total of 526 new homes closed escrow in June, 1.5 percent above May’s levels, but 9.0 percent lower than June of 2010. Sales of new homes were at their lowest level on record for the area in June.

Cash buyers were responsible for 64.2 percent of the purchases in June, which was down from 64.9 percent in May, but up from 56.9 percent a year earlier. The record for cash purchases was in March 2011, when 68.6 percent of the sales were for cash.

Absentee buyers, usually investors and vacation home buyers, accounted for 37.1 percent of all homes sold in June. The prices they paid were also less than previous months with the median price paid in June being $90,700, which was down from $98,000 in May and down from $105,000 in June of 2010.

Foreign buyers made up nearly 6.5 percent of all purchases in June. The median price paid by foreign purchasers for condos was $110,000, while the median price paid for single-family homes was $165,000.

Out of all the foreign buyers who had an identifiable address, 76 percent had an address in Canada.

The overall median price paid for new and resale homes and condos in June was $135,000, which was down 1.5 percent from May, and down 10.0 percent from June of last year. The median home price is 53.4 percent below the peak median price of $290,000 in June 2007.

Miami’s multi-million dollar luxury market remained hot. Sales of houses and condos for $2 million or more were up 21.2 percent from May and up 27.2 percent from June of last year. Muy caliente!

Tags: DataQuick, existing home sales, Miami, distressed properties, resale homes, condos, cash buyers, investors, median price

Source:
Data Quick