Retired tennis player Anna Kournikova has sold her Sunset Island III home in Miami Beach. The 6,630 SF Mediterranean estate was built in 2000 and has seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

Originally listed in May 2011 for $9.4M, it closed on January 26th for $7.425M or $1,120 PSF, which is a 21% reduction in price. Ouch. Her luxury property at 2345 Lake Avenue was on the market for 231 days; the average number of days on the market for a Sunset Island home in 2011 was 116.

In 2011, there were eight sales on the Sunset Islands for an average of $870 PSF and a median PPSF of $833.

Don’t worry, fans.  Anna hasn’t left Miami Beach.  She’s leasing at Apogee South Beach.

View Photos of Anna Kournikova’s luxury home on Sunset Island III in Miami Beach

Related Reading:

Miami Beach Celeb Real Estate:  Seikaly and Piazza Sell [SBCB]

Browse All Miami Beach Real Estate Here

Originally listed for $27M in April of 2010, this 5,803 sf residence was owned by Netscape Founder Jim Clark.  Clark originally purchased the unit in 2004 in “decorator ready” condition (raw) for $9,000,000.  The Penthouse has 4 bedroom and 4 baths.  The buyer is not a celebrity and said to be a private businessperson

Two records were shattered not only in South Florida but all the way up to New York City.  To my knowledge, there has not been a single condo unit South of New York City that has traded for over $16,500,000 ($2300 psf) which was in Apogee South Beach ‘PH C’ ; additionally, I’m certain that no unit ever has obtained in excess of $3700 psf.

Setai PH ‘A’ sits atop of the 40-story world-famous Setai Resort known for its luxury and celebrity clientele.  The Setai South Beach is serviced by Singapore-based, five star hotel management company GHM Hotels.  There is also a Setai outpost in New York City.

More pictures of the Record Breaking Miami Beach Real Estate Sale at Setai South Beach

The last PH that sold in Setai South Beach was a lower PH, which sold in 2010 for $15M.  There has been intense activity in the ultra-high end homes and condos here in Miami Beach this year.  Apogee PH ‘A’ sold for what I believe was an unremarkable number of $11.5M, earlier in the year.  So far this year there have been four properties that have sold at or about $20M in Miami Beach:

• 1736 W. 28 -Sold for $19.8M in July*
• 4570 & 4580 North Bay Road- Sold for $20 in September*
• 13 Star Island Drive- Sold for $25.5M in April
• 101 20th Street PH ‘A’ -Sold for $21.5M in December*

*denotes ONE Sotheby’s International Realty’s involvement in sale

Related Reading:

• Miami’s Million Dollar Real Estate Boom [Florida Trend]
• The New Global City [WSJ]
• Condo Inventory Detailed in New Report [Miami Herald]

I knew this was a really good year, but it wasn’t until I started to pull the stats that I realized HOW good a year it’s been – and continues to be.  We regularly track nine condos in South Beach’s South of Fifth (SoFi) neighborhood for a few reasons:

• Location
• Types of buildings
• Buyer profile

These to me are the most important factors for really gauging the luxury condo market here in Miami Beach.

South Beach-South of Fifth Condos We Track

• Apogee South Beach
• Continuum South Tower
• Continuum North Tower
• ICON South Beach
• Murano at Portofino
• Murano Grande
• Portofino Tower
• South Pointe Tower
• Yacht Club at Portofino

“I Have a Friend, and He Told Me…”

I’ve had many (oodles) clients during the last few years who wanted “deals.”  Of course, because I do these stats regularly, I know the numbers in my sleep.  (For the record, I’ve encouraged them ALL to pull the trigger.)  I’ve had to explain, ad nauseam, that Miami proper is NOT Miami Beach/South Beach.  I would liken Miami proper to Los Angeles and the Miami Beach/South Beach luxury condo market to, say, Beverly Hills.

You Want a “Deal?” It May Be Too Late.

Some bought, some didn’t.  It was ALWAYS their choice.  I must admit, I do get a certain sense of satisfaction knowing that my clients are making smart moves.

Okay… on to the stats.

Number of Miami Beach/South Beach Condos Sold

• 2008: 153
• 2009: 129
• 2010: 149
• 2011: 128 thru June 30

A few notes on the graph above.  The Apogee Penthouse closed in Q2 for $11.5M.  I thought it was a very unremarkable price for the property, but I’ll leave it at that.  Apogee South Beach tends to sell in waves.  One wave was May-July of 2010.  The last wave started in March 2011.  The current all-time high PPSF sold is Apogee unit #1404 at $1,769.  I’m particularly proud of this because #1404 was my listing.  The penthouse sold for $1,678/SF.  Ahem.

Continuum South has really impressed this year with 17 sales, and unit #3603/04 traded for $10.576M for a PPSF of $1,643!

Well, it’s clear that we are on track to get back to pre-2008 numbers.  Madoff and that whole economic “bizness” affected SoFi, and Miami Beach luxury real estate in general, more than that “other” stuff (sub-prime loans, jobs losses, etc.).

The Miami Beach/South Beach real estate market is a cash market.  There were a few peeps who had to do a short sale or foreclosure, but those deals were the exception, not the rule.  I would venture to guess that 80% of the 2,000+ units in this index were purchased with cash. (I’m so not doing THAT research.)

Most Expensive Condo for Sale in Miami Beach

• 50 S. Pointe Drive, PH 1, South Beach-South of Fifth (Continuum North)

Average Days on Market [DOM]

2008: 148

2009: 188

2010: 193

2011: 161 thru June 30th

Wow. Wow. Wow.  A market is considered “normal” when approximately 10% of its total inventory is available for sale at any given time.  It is definitely a sellers’ market.  Continuum North has fairly substantial inventory available because the developer held back and dumped about 40 units on the market at one time.  Although it seems like there are plenty of units left in this condo — the oceanside of the building is basically sold out.  Now, let’s take a look at available units in the rest of the South of Fifth buildings:  all hover around 5% of inventory.  That’s nothing.

Apogee is clearly the most expensive condominium in South Florida on a PPSF basis.  In six months, the average PPSF rose from $1,303 to $1,659.  All buildings are enjoying a nice increase in PPSF from 2010′s numbers.  I’ll end my post with one little nugget: low inventory and high demand only mean ONE thing.  Draw your own conclusions.

Related Reading:

• Nearly Three Years Later, Apogee South Beach Penthouse Sells for About Half Its Original List Price
• Miami Beach Real Estate: 2010 Condo Market Index
• Miami Beach Real Estate: A Six-Year Retrospective of the Miami Beach Condo Market
• Miami Beach Real Estate Statistics:  Distressed Properties & Diana Olick

Search Miami Beach Condos Here

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After lingering on the market for almost three years, the Apogee Penthouse in South Beach closed for $11.5M yesterday (April 14). Originally listed for $22M in July 2008, owner Peter Fine paid $15M for the ultra-luxury condo property in February 2008.

The buyer is Yulia Solodova for Apogee 702, LLC.

Fine produced the Tony Award-winning musical “In The Heights” and is a prominent New York developer of affordable housing. He also owns a home on Miami Beach’s celebrity-studded North Bay Road, which he purchased from the then-developer of Canyon Ranch Miami Beach, Eric Sheppard.

The Apogee Penthouse is comprised of the top two floors of the east corner of the condominium building. It also has a large rooftop “palazzo” with a private pool and summer kitchen.

The Penthouse has 6,853 interior SF and more than 11,000 SF of terrace space. On the inside, that amounts to $1,678/PSF, which is an unremarkable number, considering the real estate involved.

The condo has five main bedrooms, a housekeeper’s room, elevator and a 2.5-car, air-conditioned garage.

Apogee South Beach Penthouse – The Real Estate

The main drawback to the Apogee Penthouse is that the Murano at Portofino tower hovers over the pool area (you can’t tell from this photo.). The pool area is not very private. Ahem.

More Info on the Apogee Penthouse

• Apogee South Beach Penthouse Lists for $22M
• Apogee South Beach Features and Amenities

Related Reading

• Miami Beach Real Estate: 2010 South Beach Condo Market Index

Number of condo sales:

• 2010: 149
• 2009: 129
• 2008: 153

Luxury Condo Statistics for Condos in the SoFi Neighborhood of South Beach

Days of Market [DOM] was 193 for the nine condos in the index.  In 2009:  188;  2008:  148.  2010 was a pretty bland year.  The number of sales and $/psf  is pretty stable.

I’m going to go out on a limb and rate these condos as “healthy.”  A “normal” market is considered to be approximately 10% of the total number of units in the condo could be on the market for sale at any given time.  Continuum North has higher inventory because the developer put approximately 40 units on the market during 2010.  Currently the developer owns about 30 units which are all rented.  Portofino Tower has been the poor performer for a few reasons:

• It’s the oldest of the “newer” luxury buildings and a tad dated
• It is not on the ocean or bay
• The buyer profile for a SoFi condo wants new and chic.  They are not necessarily looking for “deals”

With all that being said, I think Portofino is the BEST value to be in this expensive neighborhood.  Portofino is known for their excellent floor plans and views.  Financially speaking, the building runs like a top and maintenance is about $.70 PSF (about half of what the other condos in the neighborhood charge) and has never, to my knowledge, had a special assessment.

Ok.  Apogee South Beach continues to be the BMOC with average $/PSF of $1303.  Continuum North comes in 2nd at $1009 PSF.   Here is a quick and dirty of 2009 vs 2010:

Related Reading:

• Miami Beach Real Estate:  2009 South Beach Condo Market Index
• Miami Beach Real Estate:  2008 South Beach Condo Market Index
• A Six-Year Retrospective of the Miami Beach Condo Market

Search Miami Beach real estate here

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Rony Seikaly, a retired basketball player, sold his stunning lower North Bay Road manse to Brightstar CEO, Marcelo Claure.  The approximately 9,300 sf home, built in 2005 and sited on a 26,500 sf lot, was sold to Claure for $11.5M.  The house was not listed with a broker but it was widely known that it could be for sale. Asking price:  $15M.

Rony Seikaly Sells North Bay Road for $11.5M

The deal also included a condo at Murano Grande in South Beach, that Seikaly now owns.  The Murano Grande condo was completely redesigned by a renowned interior design firm.  At one point, Claure was asking $5M; the unit traded for $2.5M.

Mike Piazza Sells Condo at Murano at Portofino in South Beach

In other sports related and real estate news, former baseball great, Mike Piazza, closed on his unit at Murano at Portofino condominium in South Beach.  The unit has been rented for the last year.  The property was listed for $3.8M and closed for $2.88M.  Piazza has been trying to sell the unit ever since he and his wife purchased their home on guard-gated Sunset Island II in 2008 for $10M.

For the most accurate and complete Miami Beach real estate info, subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feed.

Related Reading

• Miami Beach Real Estate: Has A-Rod Finally Stepped Up? $7.4M Acre of Land on Celeb-Studded N. Bay Road Sells
• Miami Beach “Castle” Sells to MTV Exec Bill Roedy for $4.42M
• Miami Beach Real Estate: Waterfront Home Sales Down a Shocking 50%

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Why do some properties languish on the market for an eternity, while others get snapped up?

Some sellers don’t want to admit that they know the real reason that their property isn’t selling. 

Enter Terra Beachside Villas at 6000 Collins Avenue

Why Terra Beachside is Selling

• Location
• Supply and Demand
• PRICE

Period.  Have a nice day.

For more info on Terra Beachside Villas click here

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Fun with Graphs (Lots and Lots of Them)

After punching up all these graphs, I was a little surprised to see where we’ve been in relationship to where we are now. In this post, I’ll review the inventory of available Miami Beach condos, as well as the average price per square foot (PPSF) and the luxury condo market over $2M.

Six-Year Snapshot of Miami Beach Condo Inventory: All Ranges

The graph above shows that the market peaked in 4/05, when the number of condos for sale was the lowest (911) and the number of condos sold was the highest (249). At that time, there were only 3.7 months of condo inventory available, which represents a strong sellers’ market. A real estate market is considered balanced when six to nine months of inventory is available.

Inventory peaked in 7/07, with almost 4,000 units on the market. The sales low-point was between late 2007 and early 2008, with only 70 units sold in 1/08. Currently, there are 2,751 condos for sale in Miami Beach.

Miami Beach Condos: Months of Inventory

Months of Inventory is used to indicate or assess how long it would take to sell all existing condos on the market, assuming the rate of sales stays constant and no new listings are added. Again, the market is considered balanced when six to nine months of inventory is available. In 1/08, there were 56 months of Miami Beach condo inventory available based on closed sales. Today, we are clearly still in a buyers’ market with 17.1 months of inventory available.

Miami Beach Condos:  Tracking Average Price per Square Foot

This graph is kind of boring. Not much can be gleaned from it in my opinion, but some people love it.  I don’t like it because it represents an average. Miami Beach condo inventory swings from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Say you are interested in buying a condo at Apogee South Beach and want to use this chart as a guide. Waste of time. It includes all condos, all price ranges and distressed sales (short sales and bank-owned real estate).

One interesting nugget of info seems to be that the average PPSF peaked in 4/08 at $679. Weird. Today, the average PPSF is $463, which puts us just about at the 4/05 price level ($464).

Average Price per Square Foot for a Miami Beach Condo:  Excluding Distressed Sales (bank-owned and short sales)

I know these numbers are spot-on because the average PPSF in 4/05 and 4/08 is the same in this chart as it is in the previous chart ($464 and $679 respectively). The effect of distressed sales begins to reveal itself in 1/09 through today. The current average PPSF (w/o non-distressed sales) is $659.  That is almost a $200 PPSF difference.  Moving right along to my favorite niche…

Luxury Miami Beach Condos: Six-Year Retrospective – $2M+

This chart is pretty self-explanatory. Inventory peaked in 1/09 with 228 Miami Beach condos for sale OVER $2,000,000. Currently, there are 162 units on the market at this price point. One note about this graph: Apogee and Continuum North were not built until 2008.

Average Price per Square Foot: Miami Beach Luxury Condos

Interesting to note here that the average PPSF for luxury Miami Beach condos peaked right around the same time as the under $2M condos. The numbers here are up and down, but the average PPSF is currently at $1,138 in the luxury sector. The numbers are elevated because a few high-priced condos at Setai, One Bal Harbour and Fontainebleau II closed in the last month or so.

Miami Beach Luxury Condos: Months of Inventory

Eeeh. Some sharp peaks, but overall it looks as though things are headed in the right direction for the $2M+ condo market.  Currently, there are 24 months of inventory at the high end, and clearly that’s not good, but all the really good, prime units in A+ buildings are sold. I think the luxury condo market bottomed out last summer. Deals, really good ones, on really good apartments, have been had. Those days, my friends, are gone.

Before I wrap this all up, I found one more chart that is really eye-opening to me. Probably the best one of them all:

Miami Beach Distressed Condo Sales Statistics: Under $500k

• 2,751 condos on the market in Miami Beach
• 640 or 23.3% are distressed sales
• 585 of the 640 are under $500k (see chart above)

Well, Kevin, What’s Going to Happen Here?

Since my crystal ball, along with everyone else’s Mercedes, is in the shop…

I think that for Miami Beach, clearly, the worst is over. The market has bifurcated. It’s either you are over or under $500k. Period. But, now more than ever, real estate fundamentals, along with your objectives, should be the things that guide you most as you meander through the real estate landscape. Obviously, the best units in the best buildings in the best locations are no-brainers. If you are looking in the under $500k range, there are still going to be some good buys for the foreseeable future. As you can see in the chart above, the inventory of distressed properties is still coming to market at a fairly steady rate, and I don’t see any signs of that inventory drying up anytime soon.

Related Reading

• Miami Beach Real Estate Statistics:  Distressed Properties & Diana Olick

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I liken Miami Beach to Manhattan or Beverly Hills.  Manhattan real estate operates on its own from the greater New York area, much the same way that Beverly Hills is its own little market inside the greater Los Angeles area.

I service South Beach and Miami Beach; the majority of my clients are NOT from here.  When they read a Case-Shiller report or news report from Diana Olick of CNBC that says X percent of X is X, and prices are falling and foreclosures are everywhere, I’m the one with the task to sort out the mess and misinformation.  Many of my clients have missed out on properties they wanted desperately to buy, but took the info that was produced en masse for the masses and made their decisions on that.

Just the other day, I had a conversation with a client, a very good client, who wanted to buy a unit at the Bath Club in Miami Beach.  It was a year ago today that we put in our offer for $900K.  My client would NOT go up.  The seller would have taken $1.1M.  It sold right after our offer for just over $1.2M.  It came back on the market about a month ago for, get this, $1.8M.  My client looked at me and said, “Kevin, you should have made me buy it!”

What can I do?  I knew it was a steal.  She knew it was a steal.  But when people smell blood, they want more.  The owner was in foreclosure, and conservatively, today, the property is worth about $1.550M.  Can’t beat those numbers with a stick, Diana!

But I digress. Let’s get to the TRUE picture of distressed real estate in Miami Beach (bank-owned and short sales) and show Case, Shiller and Olick a graph or two or three.

Distressed Real Estate in Miami-Dade County

The chart above represents all distressed properties in Miami-Dade County, including Miami Beach.  There are 10,219 homes for sale in a distressed state.  There are more than 1,100 of them selling per month, and about 2,300 properties are being pended per month.

Distressed Real Estate in Miami Beach

Now the true picture is revealed.  In ALL of Miami Beach, there are 700 distressed properties on the market for sale, with about 75 of those being sold per month.  Since our season ends in June, the dip in pended sales makes sense.

Distressed Miami Beach Real Estate over $500,000

If you break it down even further, approximately 100 of the 700 units in Miami Beach that are in a distressed state are
$500,000 and over—that’s like nothing.

Miami Beach Distressed Real Estate

• 3,121 active listings in Miami Beach
• 700 or 22.4 percent are in a distressed state (bank-owned or short sale)
• 600 of those units are under $500k

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Moving right along.  I’ve got lots to talk about this week-so I hope not to annoy you…but I promise it will be QUALITY content.  I’m out there with my ear to the ground looking for INTERESTING stuff to pass along.

Jim Clark, Netscape Founder, and Developer of Marina Blue and Blue condominiums, Lists THE Penthouse at Setai South Beach for $27M

The Real Penthouse, owned by Silicon Valley wizard Jim Clark, at Setai South Beach, was listed for a WHOPPING $27M.

Now, I know that you’ve heard tale of another Setai “Penthouse” being on and off the market for years by Philadelphia lawyer Andrew Barroway–but Penthouse A is the mack daddy of Setai South Beach and arguably one of the two best pieces of Miami Beach real estate.

Setai South Beach PH Villa B Sells for $15M

Finally, after YEARS of being on the market, Setai PH Villa B, sold for a impressive $15M, that is over $2400 psf for the 6,208 sf unit. The buyer(s) are said to be a Scandinavian investment group from West Palm Beach.

The highest price ever paid for a condo is PH C at Apogee in South Beach for $16.5M.

Check out more Miami Beach real estate here