The foreclosure document scandal in late 2010 led to a large-scale freeze on foreclosure processing and foreclosure sales activity, particularly in South Florida, one of the nation’s foreclosure epicenters. [more]

Carlos Lopez-Cantera

Former Florida House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera has won his race against incumbent Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia. In a close election, Lopez-Cantera, a onetime industrial Realtor and longtime politician, received 105,914 votes, or approximately 51.2 percent of all votes cast, according to preliminary data from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department. Garcia received 100,929 votes, or approximately 48.8 percent of the vote. [more]

Indian buyers are beginning to scout Miami real estate

With Asian firms and individuals beginning to target Miami’s residential real estate sector, the next wave of interest could come from India. While its fellow BRICS (the emerging economic powerhouses of Brazil, Russia, India and China) have all shown interest, with Brazilians almost single-handedly saving Miami’s condo market, brokers say Indian buyers are beginning to trickle in. [more]

Jack McCabe

South Florida has been widely reported to be buzzing with new condominium development, but at least one prominent real estate analyst is skeptical. Though 26 new projects are slated for the tri-county area, McCabe Rsearch & Consulting CEO Jack McCabe told the Sun Sentinel he doesn’t think the market can digest that many units. [more]

A home on the market in Lake Worth

Palm Beach County home prices continue to lag the average price nationwide, a trend that could shift only after the county’s foreclosure and short sale glut moves through the system, the Palm Beach Post reported. “I would say that, yes, we have overcorrected,” said Jack McCabe, a real estate analyst in Deerfield Beach. “When the market does recover, there’s going to be a lot of room for appreciation.” [more]

Short sales could skyrocket

This year could be the year of the short sale, according to South Florida real estate analysts, as pre-foreclosure transactions increase and bank-owned sales begin to drop. “The banks know they lose less money through a short sale than a foreclosure,” said Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach. “They don’t have to take ownership, they are not responsible for maintenance and right now there’s no positive profit involved in this. It’s all about cutting losses.” [Palm Beach Post]

While Miami home prices have been on the rise, there’s a shadow lurking behind the residential real estate recovery, the Miami Herald reported. Specifically, more than 200,000 homes are either owned by lenders or headed for foreclosure in Miami compared to a current inventory of about 30,000 listed on the active market. “A lot of people don’t understand how much inventory is set to come on line in the next 18 to 24 months,” said Deerfield Beach-based McCabe Research & Consulting CEO Jack McCabe. “When you compare what the Realtors show as inventory to what’s out there, you realize we have a long way to go.” [more]

Clockwise from left: 1450 Brickell, Wells Fargo Financial Center, Flagler Real Estate Service’s Jack Lowell, analyst Jack McCabe and CB Richard Ellis’ Ken Krasnow

From the ashes of the real estate downturn, two large office towers have emerged in downtown Miami. Predictably, 1450 Brickell and the Wells Fargo Financial Center have received much of the attention — and many of the new tenants — in the city’s Central Business District. In the shadow of those two towers, however, is an increasingly fragmented office market. “It’s very hard to paint the market in broad brushes,” said Kenneth Krasnow, a managing director at CB Richard Ellis in Miami. “I think it’s always been difficult to do that, but increasingly it’s gotten more difficult. It’s really become submarket-to-submarket, almost building-by-building.” [more]

More high-end homes began entering foreclosure toward the end of 2009 and the trend has continued through the beginning of 2010, according to CNBC. In February, 4,169 homes valued at $1 million or higher were in the foreclosure process, according to RealtyTrac, marking a 121 percent increase over the number seen during the same month a year earlier. Real estate analyst Jack McCabe said the delayed foreclosure trend among high-end homes is due to the fact that wealthier homeowners were able to stave off financial troubles longer. “Lower-end homeowners were the first ones to see the escalating foreclosures because they generally do not have the cash reserves or credit available that the luxury homeowners do. They had the ability to take their credit cards and pull out thousands of dollars while the lower end buyers were already tapped out,” he said. [CNBC]

From left: The Gallery at Cocowalk on Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove; Palm Beach Gardens Marriott on RCA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens; the Shore Club on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach

It’s not just the South Florida residential market feeling the pain.

Some of the region’s most high-profile developments, from office buildings to hotels and shopping malls, are 60 or 90 days past due on their mortgages, putting them in the same sinking boat as scores of underwater South Florida homeowners.

The Real Deal ranked the top 10 properties with the greatest
amount of distressed CMBS debt (see chart below). As of March 31, the Shore Club on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach was three months behind on its $111 million mortgage. Also 90 days late were: The Gallery at Cocowalk on Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove, which owes $79 million; Palm Beach Gardens Marriott on RCA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, $50 million; Shoppes of Wellington Green at 10500 Forest Hill Boulevard in Wellington, $31 million; Southpark Centre on South Dixie Highway in Pinecrest, $18 million.

A spokesperson for the Morgans Hotel Group, which manages the Shore Club, called the delinquency an issue between the owner and loan servicer that doesn’t impact the hotel’s operation. The Shore Club is owned by the New York-based Philips International, which also owns the Bryant Park Hotel, and could not be reached for comment.  

Click the chart for a larger version

[more]