Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Is there a real estate boom in South Florida? ... by gimleteye

One of the driving motivations for our blog, Eye On Miami: shining light on the fraudulent (political, social, and economic) underpinning of the housing boom in Florida that ended in the greatest financial calamity since the Great Depression.

We hoped for accountability after 2007, from the Federal Reserve to the small cogs of the Growth Machine like US Century Bank, the worst performing bank in the state -- measured by TARP funding -- that nevertheless continued to promote itself as though nothing had happened.

We hoped for accountability, to re-arrange our economic priorities. We were right to hope for change, we were wrong to expect it.

This week, Weekly Condo Vultures Market Intelligence Report features "Boom Time: 139th New Condo Tower Proposed For South Florida Coast Since Crash".

Judging from the rising confidence of homebuilders, the spring is back in the step of the Great Destroyers. How is that possible?

For one, Ben Bernanke at the helm of the Federal Reserve prevailed in maintaining the lowest benchmark interest rate -- available only to the banks -- in US history. The banks, in turn, used the last five years to repair their balance sheets by lending to qualified consumers at many times the cost of their funds. (If you were unqualified, good luck.)

The flood of money in the economic system created momentum to halt the slide and reverse housing prices in some of the hardest hit, formerly fast-growing parts of the nation.

But obtaining home owner insurance, at least in Florida, is a nightmare. Altogether, quite a fix we are in, notwithstanding the glimmer of a boom.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a boom in Urban areas and along Brickell in Miami. There's no boon in the boondox of Urban Sprawl, though the BCC will use any excuse to move the UDB. Insurance? That is a joke. Cash buyer's can afford not only insurance but A+ policy's at premium rates. The rest of the County cannot afford a low grade Citizens policy or whoever Scott picks to not cover our homes under the insurance "pool"!

The investors are having a field day. The rest of us are stagnant. South Dade is still terribly depressed, deeper South Dade (south of Cutler Bay) also has a severe increased poverty rate.

Anonymous said...

Condominiums are bad investments. The people who are buying them are foreigners and bulk buyers. They will try to flip them. Unfortunately they will not find buyers to get out of their investments. Any boom in the condo market is short lived, as prices in condos can decrease practically overnight. The developers don't want to build rental buildings and hold those investments because the numbers don't work in Miami.

Anonymous said...

There has been a significant price increase in real estate. Are people making more money? Are employers hiring? Is this new boom fake?

Prem said...

This boom is all bubble.
There are only two important sides in determining the health of a market: supply and demand.
Considering how south florida moves both upwards and outwards, is demand honestly keeping up with supply? When supply increases so much shouldn't the price accordingly drop?

Your allusions to FED responsibility are on point. Creating an environment of every increasing LOANS is a bubble, but bankers get lots of money from bubbles both while inflating it and as it's popping.

Anonymous said...

Good point about the water currently being hot.