There’s no question that Miami is seeing fewer high-end home sales than in the boom years of 2013 and 2014. But ISG Principal Craig Studnicky contends that the slowdown isn’t as bad as you might think.
Studnicky stopped to catch up with The Real Deal South Florida’s Managing Editor Ina Cordle to break down his perspective on why Miami is in good shape to weather a contracting luxury market.
Slowdowns typically range from 18 to 24 months in his experience, he said, and almost all of his brokerage’s clients are expecting a moderate rise in demand next year, similar to that seen in 2015. Developers have also started adjusting prices to renew interest in their products.
Miami also still has a lot going for it: Brickell Avenue now holds the second-highest concentration of commercial banks in the United States behind Wall Street, he said, making it attractive to financiers and business people. And excluding the ultra-high-end market, Miami Beach and Sunny Isles Beach are still the most popular areas, he said.
As for what’s keeping high-end buyers out of the market, Studnicky said it’s not the Zika virus or even sea-level rise. The high U.S. dollar is the biggest deterrent, as it makes purchasing properties stateside a much more expensive endeavor for a foreign national.
Studnicky was one of more than a dozen expert panelists who spoke at TRD’s biggest-ever South Florida Showcase & Forum on Oct. 20 at Wynwood’s Soho Studios. A crowd of more than 4,500 wheelers and dealers showed up to network, browse the latest developments and get an in-person education from some of Miami’s biggest real estate players.