Hotel vacancies indicate weak winter season
Data from Smith Travel Research indicate fewer tourists are headed for the Sunshine State, heralding a blow to Florida’s largest industry. In Miami-Dade County, hotel tax revenues were down 1 percent from September to November, and room revenues took a 10 percent drop, their biggest dive in at least five years. Smith Travel Research said room revenues dropped 10 percent in the Keys,
5 percent in Broward County and 23 percent in Orlando, the Miami Herald reported.
Home prices drop to 2003 levels in South Florida
Median single-family home prices in South Florida dropped to 2003 levels in November, according to data from the Florida Association of Realtors released last month. In Miami-Dade, prices fell 48 percent compared to November 2007, and in Broward, home prices were down 34 percent. In Palm Beach County, prices fell 28 percent year over year. But sales continued to rise as sellers cut prices and banks sold off foreclosed homes. Sales of existing single-family homes in Miami-Dade were up 39 percent in November 2008 compared to November 2007, and sales in Broward were up 26 percent.
Madoff mess spreads to Palm Beach real estate
The collapse of Bernard Madoff’s investment empire hasn’t prompted his many potentially impoverished Palm Beach investors to depart the town en masse, but there is heightened scrutiny over real estate listings. Tara Pearl, vice president of both Palm Beach Real Estate and Palm Beach Trash and Treasures, a shop that helps sell estate items, said last month she got at least six calls in 24 hours from people inquiring about putting their home on the market or about selling items like fine art to stay afloat. Nadine House of Northstar Homes said she was seeing more sale pricing, but urged people not to panic, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
Renters left behind as landlords enter foreclosure
As South Florida landlords fall into foreclosure and stop paying their bills, many tenants are being left on their own to manage apartment complexes. At the 11-unit Liberty City complex at 1575 NW 69th Street in Miami, one rental tenant took on responsibility for collecting water bill money from the other tenants, and another bought a water cooler with a hot water tap to replace a broken water heater that the landlord failed to fix. But in other complexes, such as the one at 6901 NW Eighth Avenue in Miami, tenants have been told they need to move out because the building owner has gone into foreclosure, the Miami Herald reported.
Merger talks for Tousa
Tousa, the state’s largest bankrupt homeowner, may soon be part of the consolidation of the battered building industry. Standard Pacific, an Irvine, Calif.-based company that’s among the largest U.S. home builders, confirmed in a news release that it’s in preliminary takeover talks with Hollywood-based Tousa, which filed for bankruptcy at the end of January 2008. Its subsidiaries include Engle Homes, Newmark Homes and Estate Homes, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
West Palm office tower under contract to CBRE
One of West Palm Beach’s most prominent office buildings, the 246,000-square-foot Esperante, is under contract to be sold to CB Richard Ellis Investors. The tower is expected to trade as part of a larger portfolio that includes buildings outside of Florida. Neither CBRE nor the seller, New York-based ING Clarion Partners, has disclosed the terms of the sale, but sources say the Esperante is expected to close at around $70 million, or around $285 per square foot. This price would represent a substantial reduction from the $104.5 million, or $425 per square foot, ING paid for it in 2005. The discount at least partially reflects a decline in occupancy to 75 percent, from 95 percent when ING purchased it from Rockwood Realty. ING first began marketing the property in January 2008, with an initial price tag of around $115 million.