23 April 2009

Unclear Market Direction

I looked at a (non-modern) house in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea with clients of mine. Interesting project, but what a project. I wonder: are deepwater (= waterfront with no fixed bridges) home prices on their way up?

I run my own statistics every month, condos and townhomes in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade, as well as single family homes in these three counties. Yes, you certainly can atomise the market into nano-sectors. But I don’t have the time to do that. I created two subsets of two “model homes”, one on a dry lot and one on the water with no fixed bridges.

After the peak in Jan 2006, where $527 per sf under air were paid on average for my waterfront “model home”, prices tanked to a low of $355/sf or so under air. Now I see three months of increases, and a preliminary April search showed another uptick.

This would be in line with what I had previously mentioned in my client newsletter*: houses will recouperate before condos, and the best locations will improve before the others. Three-and-a-half months sure don’t make a trend, but I will keep an eye on that one.

(*Please let me know if you are interested in subscribing; I'll be happy to send it to you).