Downtown Miami condo deals cut into beach-area sales.
Dennis and Rowena Bennett were set on moving to South Florida from St. Louis. And they thought they knew exactly where they wanted to buy.
“My wife was totally, totally set on a beach property,” said Bennett, a patent attorney. “She said: `Don’t even show me something that’s not on the beach.’ ”
But then they saw the ICON Brickell building in downtown Miami. By the end of January, the Bennetts were sold — and the two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo was theirs.
It’s a tale of two sides of the causeway, where palm trees and high prices on one side give way to towering downtown buildings and relative bargains on the other.
On the sands of South Beach, sales of new condo units are sluggish, with only 17 closing in the first three months of 2010.
Across the MacArthur Causeway, the pace picks up. During the first quarter, buyers snapped up 713 units in the downtown Miami area — nearly twice as many as during the first quarter of 2009.
A look at the price tag explains the difference: in South Beach, the average price per square foot for new condos was $1,364; downtown, buyers paid an average of $326 per square foot. Those figures are according to a report from the real estate research and brokerage firm Condo Vultures. It describes new condos as any built since 2003 with direct sales from the developer to a buyer.
“Many people are just sort of saying this is too good a value, so they’re jumping over the causeway and going downtown,” said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the firm. “It’s cheaper to live downtown.”
The situation is different in Broward County where more deals can be found on the beaches. There the average price per square foot for new coastal condos is $276. Over the last six months, 254 new units sold. Beach units were largely condo hotels, Zalewski said.
“In South Beach, you buy because you want to be there,” he said. “In [coastal] Fort Lauderdale, you buy because it’s better value.”
The prime location in central Broward is east of Interstate 95, including downtown Fort Lauderdale, and west of the Intracoastal.
Prices are higher there — an average of $587 per square foot — than coastal and inland areas in Broward. Sales aren’t as brisk as in downtown Miami, where the price per square foot is lower. Over the last six months, 470 new units closed in the urban area of Broward that includes downtown Fort Lauderdale.
West of I-95, “new” condos are mostly apartments converted to condos, even if they were built decades ago. There the average price is $86 per square foot, with 904 units sold in the last six months.
But in Miami-Dade, downtown is where the deals are.
Miami Beach-based real estate agent Kevin Tomlinson said now prices have gone down to where they belong on the mainland. “If you’ve got $300,000 to spend, it’s going to get you a prettier, newer building,” he said. “You’re not going to get that over on Miami Beach.”
But he said the chic neighborhood south of Fifth Street on South Beach still has strong sales of high-priced existing condos, which were not included in the report from Condo Vultures.
He said the new building getting the most traffic on the Beach is the Caribbean, 3737 Collins Ave. There, 33 units closed in the first quarter at an average of $562 per square foot, according to Condo Vultures.
At Canyon Ranch Living-Miami Beach, 6801 Collins Ave., which wasn’t included in the Condo Vultures report because sales weren’t direct from the developer, 88 units have sold since last May at price points between $300 and $900 per square foot. The most popular units fall at about $600, according to a spokesman for the property.
