South Beach Condos Blog

With the real estate market in a state of flux, absorption rates are increasingly used as an indicator to assess how long it would take to sell ALL the existing condos in each condominium, assuming the rate of sales stays constant and no new listings are added to the inventory. Additionally, absorption rates are the best way of tracking market performance. They are usually used to indicate “overall real estate market performance,” or how an entire market is doing.

To calculate monthly absorption rate, I have taken all the condos that are currently on the market in each building in the South of Fifth Street (SoFi) neighborhood of South Beach, and divided them by the number of listings that have sold in their respective condo in the past six months and divided that number by six. Many people compute absorption rates by using the number of sales in a one month period, but I use a six month sales average so it “smoothes” the seasonal “peaks and valleys” to gauge the true overall activity.

The data was based on information from the Southeast Florida Regional (SEFR) MLS or from the associations participating in the SEFR for the period 1/1/07 through 9/3/2007.

Here’s the math:

Number of listings: 40

Number of sales in the last six months: 8

8 divided by 6= 1.33 sales per month

Number of listings: 40 divided by number of sales per month: 1.33= 30 months of supply

Key for South Beach Condos-Absorption Rates

The chart below illustrates the absorption rates for the Continuum, Murano at Portofino, Murano Grande, ICON South Beach, Portofino Tower, Yacht Club at Portofino, and South Pointe Tower, and shows how each building is performing relative to the amount of inventory and the amount of sales.

Red Hot Condo Buyers Market in South Beach

From the graph it is clear the Portofino Tower is a “red hot” buyers market with 34 months of inventory. Also, ICON and Yacht Club at Portofino are good condominiums to focus on as well. A balanced market is generally anywhere between six to nine months of inventory, anything above nine months is considered a buyers market.

What Does This Mean for Miami Beach Condo Sellers?

If you are looking to sell your Miami Beach real estate, make sure your prospective real estate broker keeps you informed about the market conditions in your specific area and building. Knowing the absorption rate for your South Beach condo will help you determine how aggressive you need to be with pricing, staging, and marketing your condo to maximize the likelihood of a prompt sale!

South Beach Luxury Condos in 33139: Continuum, Murano at Portofino, Murano Grande, ICON South Beach, Portofino Tower, Yacht Club at Portofino, South Pointe Tower

If you’d like to forward this post to someone you think might be interested, simply click on the “Share This” link and click “E-mail.”

When I started thinking about who would be best able to offer consumers the most insight on the use of Blogs, I immediately thought of Brad Carroll. Brad is the owner of Dakno Marketing and is a marketing consultant to some of the top Agents, Speakers and Coaches in the real estate industry.

Since Brad eats, breathes and lives real estate web design and blogs, he brings a unique perspective on how consumers can get the most out of real estate blog sites.

Kevin: What can consumers get out of a blog that they can’t find on a standard real estate website?

Brad: I think a big thing is fresh information. Since most standard websites don’t timestamp their articles, it can be hard to determine the age of the article (and more importantly, if it’s still accurate). Blogs on the other hand usually focus on the here and now. In addition, most blogs allow visitors to comment on specific blog post. This gives consumers a chance to connect with the agent.

Kevin: Can you go into a little more detail about “connecting” with the agent?

Brad: I won’t win many real estate agent friends saying this, but a consumer should really use the blog as an opportunity to interact with the agent without having to give up their identity. That’s the beauty of blogs. The consumer can stay in control. If they have a question, they can simply submit a comment on the blog without revealing their contact information. You quickly find out if the real estate agent is going to go the extra mile and be a true information resource. If an agent is willing to answer your question on their blog, then it shows that they truly have the interest of the consumer in mind.

Kevin: That’s a great point. I know website visitors hate it when agents make the visitor give up their identity before giving them any information.

Brad: Yeah, this still amazes me. The internet is a vast information resource. If a website makes me “sign up” and holds the information hostage, I will just go somewhere else. I think I speak for most consumers when I say that I want to be educated before I contact someone. That’s where some real estate agents go wrong. To be honest, I don’t understand why they don’t get this. After all, wouldn’t they rather work with an educated consumer anyway? That’s why I love your website so much. There is an amazing amount of information about Miami Beach Condos! And it’s freely available without any strings attached. I think that is also why blogs have caught on so fast. It’s free and relevant information.

Kevin: Yes free, but not always reliable. How can consumers sort though the true information and the sales gimmicks?

Brad: What? You mean not everything I read on the internet is true? But I am bidding on eBay for this great ocean front property in Kansas! But seriously, there are a few things that help weed out the people who just use their blog as a bait and switch sales tool…

1. See if the real estate agent credits their references. Most legit blogs will often reference other opinions in their blog (in the form of links) additionally; they will credit any quotes or statistics that they used in their blog.
2. Check other sites for relevancy. Is anyone else in the blogosphere (the blog community) discussing this same topic? Is their data in line with other sites?
3. Check the date and frequency. People trying to use their blog as a sales gimmick are typically lazy. They will try to get the most mileage with the smallest amount of work. So check the date of the last post, and check how frequently they add content to the blog.
4. Use your gut. Typically, just looking at the blog from an objective point of view will help determine if you smell a rat!

Kevin: You mentioned other blog sites. Where can consumers find other real estate blogs?

Brad: My two favorite places to search blogs would have to be Technorati and Google Blog Search. You can search by keywords in a post such as your City, or by specific blog sites.

Kevin: Any more advice for consumers using blog sites?

Brad: Just remember that a blog should provide an inside peak at the way the real estate agent thinks and operates. It can reveal their expertise (or lack thereof) about the market, the area, and more. At the end of the day, consumers want an expert in their corner. They like having the opportunity to research agents via their blogs, before diving in and emailing or calling the agent direct, and giving them their contact information. Anonymous posting of comments, gives them that opportunity.

Forget all those news articles trying to explain what it means to you.  Here is a tax-plan calculator, which attempts to give an idea of your possible savings.

Over the last few months, I have been mildly following the tax reform see-saw.  In the very beginning, it was “thought” (or more likely, hoped for) that Florida property taxes were going to be completely eliminated.  Many people jumped on the “no more property tax” bandwagon.  E-mails were sent, initiatives were started.  I, for one, did not get caught up in the ying and yang of it all.  No mass e-mails from me!

You know why?  I have common sense.  Who in their right mind realistically believed that property taxes, being as astronomical as they are, would be COMPLETELY eliminated.

So, here we are with a really complicated and IMPOSSIBLE to figure out tax-reform proposal that in no way resembles the initial hoopla of the “Florida to completely eliminate property taxes” SLOGAN.

Hmmm…feels a lot like the insurance reform we were promised, no?