SF analysts predict end to boom-and-bust

High-level real estate analysts are predicting that Miami’s days of boom and bust are gone for good, Condo Vultures’ Peter Zalewski wrote in the Miami Herald.

The theory goes that Miami’s transformation into an international center for business, arts, education and recreation over the last twenty years has at last given South Florida financial stability.

And this goes especially for real estate, according to proponents of the view, which will be buoyed through any storm by a strong flow of international capital.

“Right now what we are doing is, we are really pumping cash from Latin America and bringing it to the U.S.,” Carlos Rosso, president of the new condo development division of the Related Group, said. “There is a transfer of wealth from all of those countries that have done great during the last years with commodity prices up the gazou and real estate prices up in the sky. They have transferred a lot of money into the U.S.”

But many of the victims of South Florida’s real estate booms and busts are skeptical of optimistic claims by developers. In fact, critics contend that Miami could still be in the midst of the bust that began in 2007, citing the unknown number of distressed real estate in the shadow inventory.

According to Zalewski, the question going forward is, “whether foreign investor preferences and buying power will be consistent and sizable enough to catapult Miami and South Florida into a safe enough place in the market that it is immune to real estate booms and busts.” [Miami Herald] —Christopher Cameron