Archive for June, 2009
So Far Coconut Grove Real Estate Has Outperformed Last Year
June 30th, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Market Conditions, What is selling in Coconut Grove?
Looking at the numbers below, we have roughly 30% more sales the first half of this year as compared to last year. I believe that three contributing factors to the increase in sales are that prices have continued to fall, sellers have finally become more realistic, and interest rates remain low.
If last year’s trend continues, the summer should be a busy one for Coconut Grove real estate. Keep in mind that any first time home buyer looking to get their $8,000 tax refund has to close by the end of this year which should help the lower end townhouse and condo market significantly.
2009
| Month | Homes Sold |
| January | 3 |
| February | 6 |
| March | 7 |
| April | 5 |
| May | 8 |
| June | 14 |
| Midyear | 43 |
2008
| Month | Homes Sold |
| January | 2 |
| February | 3 |
| March | 7 |
| April | 7 |
| May | 10 |
| June | 4 |
| Midyear | 33 |
If you are interested in buying or selling real estate in Coconut Grove, please give me a call at 305.342.1623 or send me a note here
| Discussion: 2 Comments »
Land In Coconut Grove….The Time Is Now
June 29th, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Market Conditions, New Listings in the Grove
Aside from the $1,000,000+ single family home market, vacant land has also taken quite a hit in the current real estate market. Due to stricter financing requirements, developers aren’t snapping up lots as fast as they once were. For the most part, the only people who are buying vacant land in Coconut Grove right now are buyers who are building custom homes. And from what I’ve heard, builders are lining up to do the work.
In South Coconut Grove, I just listed an 11,600 square foot lot priced at $550,000 ($47.00 psf). It sits on Ventura Avenue between Braganza Avenue and La Playa Boulevard. The lot size is 11,600 square feet. The beauty of this lot is that it sits in the center of a great street surrounded by million dollar homes and has already been cleared and is ready to build. See photos below.
So far this year in the South Grove there have been 3 land sales. The first was a 10,000 square foot lot on 3855 Poinciana Avenue with a list price of $495,000 and a sale price of $450,000 (sold for $45.00 per square foot). The second was a 15,000 square foot lot on 4060 Battersea Road with a list price of $749,000 and a sale price of $550,000 (sold for $36.00 per square foot). The third was an 11,287 square foot lot on 3777 Irvington Avenue with a list price of $425,000 and sale price of $412,000 (sold for $36.50 per square foot).
If you are interested in finding out more about this property, feel free to give me a call at 305.342.1623 or you can also contact me here.
| Discussion: 1 Comment »
June ‘09 Townhouse Market Update
June 29th, 2009 categories: Townhouses
Keeping buyers informed of the townhouse market in Coconut Grove, here are the following pending and closed sales for June of 2009.
June Pending Coconut Grove Townhouses:
| Address | List Price | Beds/Baths | Square Feet | Year | Distress? |
| 3182 Jackson Avenue | $525,000 | 3/2.5 | 2,350 | 2003 | No |
| 3128 Center Street | $414,999 | 2/2.5 | 1,405 | 1976 | No |
| 2998 Virginia Street | $289,000 | 2/2 | 1,116 | 1979 | No |
| 3095 Ohio Street | $284,900 | 3/2.5 | 2,555 | 2006 | Foreclosure |
| 2927 Catalina Street | $229,000 | 3/2.5 | 1,370 | 1986 | No |
June Sold Coconut Grove Townhouses:
| Address | List Price | Sale Price | Beds/ Baths |
Square Feet | Distress? |
| 2970 Shipping Avenue | $449,000 | $425,000 |
3/2 |
1,756 | No |
| 3120 Bird Avenue | $139,900 | $135,000 | 2/1.5 | 1,143 | Foreclosure |
To stay updated with all Coconut Grove real estate information, receive my blog posts via email by subscribing here. Once you register, you must activate the subscription in a followup email.
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Come See My New Listing on Tigertail Avenue!
June 27th, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Real Estate
You will see my signs all over town this Sunday as The Real Estate Coconut team is holding 5 of our 15 listings OPEN. I will be located at my new listing on 1645 Tigertail Avenue property, stop in to see this gorgeous Old Spanish home or even just to chat about real estate.
Click on the addresses below for more information about each property.
1645 Tigertail Avenue – NEW LISTING
Open Sunday, 2:00 to 4:00 pm
5 Bedroom/3.5 Baths $1,295,000
If you saw this home previously you MUST see it again, the owners have made some great renovations and reduced the price!
____________
Open Sunday 2:00 to 4:00 pm
3 Bedrooms/3.5 Baths $899,000
____________
Open Sunday 2:00 to 4:00 pm
5 Bedrooms/5 Baths $1,179,000
___________
Open Sunday 12:00 to 1:30 pm
2 Bedrooms/2.5 Baths $379,000
____________
Open 12:00 to 2:00 pm
3 Bedrooms/2 Baths $695,000
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Pick Up A Rake!!
June 26th, 2009 categories: Grove News
Being a 40 year resident of the Grove, I love it here more than anybody and appreciate the overgrown canopies and landscaping. But one of my pet peeves as I drive around the streets here is that some property owners just don’t take care of their swale areas. Although the City of Miami technically owns the swale outside your home, you have a (legal and moral) responsibility for maintaining it.
I won’t name names, but check out the picture I took this morning on my drive in to work. It is unfortunate because there are some great houses on this street but their values are being brought down by their “messy” neighbors.
If you are one of the offenders, for the community’s sake, pick up a rake!!
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By The Numbers….Coconut Grove Pending Single Family Homes
June 25th, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Real Estate
Currently in Coconut Grove we have 22 single family homes that are under contract. The list price of these homes ranges from $380,000 for a foreclosure on Battersea Road to 3071 Lucaya whcih was listed for $1,250,000.
Lets break down the pending sales in several different categories. Of the 22 homes in Coconut Grove that are under contract:
- 11 are in North Grove and 11 are in South Grove.
- 6 are foreclosures, and 5 are short sales.
- Above $1,000,000 there are 2 that are currently under contract, and of those, only one will close over a million.
- From $800,000 to $1,000,000 there are 2 that are currently under contract (1 of those is a short sale).
- The bulk of the pending sales are listed from $500,000 to $800,000. In this price range there are 11 homes under contract.
- The rest of the homes under contract were listed below $500,000.
- Of these 22 pending sales only 6 of them occurred in June.
Because quite often it takes a long time for foreclosures and short sales to close, we have some houses that went under contract in January and are still pending sales.
To stay updated with all Coconut Grove real estate news and updates, subscribe to my blog by clicking here.
| Discussion: 1 Comment »
Relationships With Other Realtors………No Not That Kind!
June 24th, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Real Estate
To be successful in real estate, it is not only important to cultivate good relationships with your clients, but also to maintain a good working relationship with the other Realtors in town. I can honestly say that I have a professional and friendly relationship with just about every Realtor in Coconut Grove. Doing so, benefits me and my clients.
Let me tell you about a couple of recent happenings:
- Last week I had some clients who were looking at townhouses in Center Grove so I called a few Realtors up to see if they had any properties that were coming on the market soon but not yet listed. Berk Boge happened to have a great townhouse that he was listing the next day. Before he put it on the MLS I took my clients over to see it and they submitted their offer the day it was officially listed for sale. It certainly pays to have the inside scoop.
- I ran into Javier Gonzalez of ReMax on Friday night at Scotty’s and we got to talking about some properties. My new listing on Lennox Drive came up and he said that he may have some buyers for it.
- My listing that went under contract in one day on Chucunantah received an offer because I knew that an agent in my office had the perfect buyer for this house. I took the agent and her buyer to the house the day it came on the market and they submitted an offer immediately.
These are just a few examples of why it is very important to use a realtor who has a good relationship with other local realtors and who has strings to pull if need be.
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3500 Frantz Road Slips Into A Short Sale
June 23rd, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Real Estate
I was driving down Kumquat Avenue the other day in the South Grove and couldn’t help but notice the neglected yard at 3500 Frantz Road. I knew instantly that the home which has been on the market for 2 years had either fallen into foreclosure or become a short sale. The home is new construction, completed in 2007.
Why didn’t the home ever sell? For one, the $1,000,000 and up market is slow. For two, the home has a view out the front door of the Coral Gables water department.
Along with the status of short sale came a price drop of $200,000. That is a VERY hefty price reduction on a home that was already priced well. This home has only one major problem in my eyes and that is that it sits across the street from the water department. If you were to put in some heavy landscaping and a wall you could easily camouflage the eye sore and make the home much more private. Having owned my own landscaping company in my past life, I believe it would take about $20,000 worth of plants and trees to hide the water plant and soften the exterior of the home.
The home features 5,000 square feet of living area, 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, a 2 car garage, pool. At a current list price of $1,299,000 the home is now priced at $259.00 per square foot. This is a great price per ssquare foot for a new construction home.
To see more information about3500 Frantz Avenue click here.
If you are interested in seeing this home, just give me a call at 305.342.1623 or send me a note here.
Broker of 3500 Frantz Road is JFA Realty.
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Hand Crafted Jumbo Loans – The Key To The Luxury Home Market
June 22nd, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Real Estate
This post is authored by our Guest Contributor James Venney. James is a Mortgage Banker with Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, is a licensed mortgage broker, Certified Mortgage Planner and a State Certified Residential Appraiser.
As I mentioned in my post “The Rise of The Regionals ~ Filling The Funding Gap” some smaller more nimble lenders with true private mortgage banking offerings are providing the financing solutions needed to complete transactions in the luxury housing market. The feedback I have received from that original post has been very positive however many readers were not familiar with the solutions that are offered by portfolio lenders to facilitate transactions in the luxury market, solutions that the big box lenders do not offer.
Below is a list of the most common techniques, and their associated definitions that we are currently utilizing to help facilitate transactions in the luxury home market.
Bridge loan: a bridge loan is typically a line of credit or in some instances a mortgage secured by a buyer’s current home to be utilized for the down payment on a new property. Once the purchase of the new home is completed the original home is sold and the proceeds are used, in part, to pay off the bridge loan balance. (Also see cross collateralization)
Asset dissipation: this technique is used when additional qualifying income is needed for a buyer. Through the use of an assumed rate of return and time frame we can calculate a hypothetical monthly cash flow that a buyer could derive from their liquid assets and use this income for qualifying purposes.
Cross collateralization: is the use of two or more properties and/or assets owned by the same party as the security for a mortgage. By using multiple properties we can lower or even eliminate the down payment requirements and/or secure better terms on the mortgage for the property being purchased.
Collateral substitution: collateral substitution is the removal of one property as the security for a mortgage in favor of a new property. Substitutions of this nature are offered for existing clients with portfolio loans and alleviate the need for a new mortgage thus lowering closing costs on the new property.
Pledge assets: the pledging of stocks, bonds or other liquid asset as additional collateral for a new mortgage. In addition to the property itself, pledged assets can be used to secure a lower down payment requirement and/or more favorable terms on the mortgage.
Many potential buyers of luxury homes are being discouraged from taking advantage of the tremendous values that are available in the housing market by lenders that either do not offer solutions of this nature or simply are not aware that these solutions exist.
If you would like to learn more about the flexible finance options that are available for luxury home buyers please feel free to call or write. 305-476-5539. jvenney@gibraltarprivate.com
To view this post in its original form, please click here.
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So You Want An Ocean View In Coconut Grove?
June 19th, 2009 categories: Coconut Grove Real Estate
Many people who come to this blog are not completely familiar with Coconut Grove so I like to write posts that offer general information about different segments of our market.
If you are looking for something with ocean views, Coconut Grove offers properties in all price ranges.
You will notice that in the lower price ranges the options are limited to condominium buildings, but as the price goes up you get into the luxury townhouse market as well as single family homes.
The Sonesta and The Mutiny Ocean View Condos Start At $200,000-$300,000
If you were interested in what we have to offer in the lowest price ranges, you would be looking at The Mutiny or The Sonesta condo/hotel buildings. The units in here are relatively small but do offer water views beginning from $200,000 to $500,000. Water view units in this price range offer 1 or 2 bedrooms with approximately 600 to 1,500 square feet of living area.
Ritz Carlton, Grove Towers, Coconut Grove Bayshore, Grove Isle and Yacht Harbour Ocean View Condos Begin At $600,000-$800,000
If you can go up a little bit in price you would be looking at buying property at The Ritz Carlton, Grove Towers, The Coconut Grove Bayshore, Grove Isle and Yacht Harbour. Here prices ranges start at $600,000-$800,000 for water views. In this range the water view units feature 2 to 3 bedrooms with roughly 1,500 square feet of living space.
Grove Hill, Grovenor House, L’Hermitage, Abitare with Ocean View Condos Start At $1,000,000
Once we get into the million dollar price range, you are looking at the Grove Hill and Grovenor House condominiums as well as the luxury townhouses such as L’Hermitage and Abitare. The lowest prices for water views in The Cloisters (another luxury townhouse community) run in the $2,000,000 range.
Coconut Grove Waterfront Homes Start at $3,000,000
To get into the single family home market with water views, you would have to start in the price range of about $3,000,000. Be aware that there are homes that offer Riparian Rights (access to the water) that are priced lower.
To see more information about the Coconut Grove condo buildings I mentioned above, see the left sidebar of my website. If you are interested in viewing any property in Coconut Grove I would be happy to arrange a showing for you. Give me a call or send me a note here.
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