Best Miami Beach Real Estate

Miami Beach homes are some of the most desirable in the world. Even more desirable are Miami Beach waterfront homes.

Whether it is Old Spanish style architecture, Mediterranean Revival or Ultra modern minimalist design, there is a home for everyone in South Beach/Miami Beach. Back in the 1920s, Carl Fisher and John Collins turned swampland into an international destination.

Miami Beach Home Market Update

In 2009, 129 Miami Beach homes were sold. 20 of the home sales were bank-owned sales, 14 sales were "pre-foreclosure" short sales. Therefore, the distress sales accounted for 25% of the sales in 2009.

Some home were sales as low as $375,000, 40% -50% off the peak prices of 2005-2006. There are some terrific home buying opportunities and a high inventory of homes for sale. As of January 23, 2010, there are 305 homes for sale in Miami Beach.

Miami Beach waterfront homes have been selling at a low of $2,000,000 from May 2009 –July 2009. This is terrific news as you couldn’t touch a Miami Beach home on the water for less than $3,500,000 in 2005-2006. Even Shaq had to sell his Star Island home at a huge discount. Originally listed at $28,000,000 in 2005, Shaq’s home recently sold for $16,000,000.

As of April 28 2011, 78 Miami Beach Homes were sold, 34 of those homes were over one million dollars with the highest sale this year was 13 Star Island listed for $32,000,000 and currently pending to be close.

With each Miami Beach home for sale, the seller’s situation is unique.

Most bank-owned homes are priced to sell. However, there are still many Miami Beach home sellers hoping to well their homes for what they could have sold for at the peak in 2004-2005.

In these situations, some houses sit on the market for years. Therefore, there are plenty of great deals out there, but we do encounter sellers who wants more than market value…and they are not in distress.

Miami Beach Home Buyers – local and international

With over 338 homes for sale in Miami Beach, vacation home buyers and local buyers have plenty of options to look through online. 172 homes were listed last year and did not sell. Just a few months ago, we had over 375 homes for sale. A 18% decrease in inventory is a real positive as unmotivated sellers have taken their homes off of the market.

Most of my clients will narrow their search to 2-3 neighborhoods after seeing homes in each area of the beach. Each South Beach home neighborhood has its unique appeal.

As it is easy to do, many buyers are attracted to the design of the homes, but when they learn the various neighborhoods, they decide the location and design are equally important.

Many customers ask us about the cost of property tax in Florida for U.S. citizens and foreign nationals. Although this is just a rough rule of thumb, you can count on paying 1.9%-2.0% of the price you pay for the home per year.

The previous owner’s property taxes are irrelevant. Most of the state’s tax budget to be used for schools, police and fire services is derived from property taxes as Florida has no state income tax.

They say it is easy to sell what you believe in, and I believe in Miami Beach real estate. You can read statistics regarding the U.S., declining markets, Florida and Miami in general...but Miami Beach is a very small, special area. People from all over the world come here to vacation. Many of the world's wealthiest and most famous own homes here.