The real estate market in Miami is not in a bubble. This is according to Oren Alexander, who is a real estate agent with Douglas Elliman. Instead, it is actually on the rise and sitting on a very solid foundation of money, he believes.
Alexander says that the proof of his claims lies in the numbers. Home prices have risen by 21.4% during the third quarter of 2012 and increased by 11.6% over the course of the last 12 months, according to Miami's Downtown Development Authority.
"Miami has made quite the surge in the past six months," says Alexander, who was recently able to sell a property in Indian Creek ? the most expensive home ever to be sold in the area ? at a cost of $47 million. "It's a market, on the high end, driven by foreign buyers, and what's going on abroad is helping Miami's resurgence."
Alexander claims to have witnessed an influx of citizens from Argentina wanting to invest in the real estate market in Miami since the re-election of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in 2011. Russian and Venezuelan purchasers are also looking for investment properties in Miami, with Russians having spent over $1 billion on real estate overseas in 2011. Florida is a particularly popular destination of choice thanks to its private mansions, limited disclosure requirements and warm weather, says Robert Frank of CNBC.
"I think right now we're seeing the luxury market like it's never been before," notes Jill Eber, who is one of the real estate duo The Jills and a veteran of the Miami real estate market for the last quarter of a century. "I've never seen prices like we've seen this past year. We had the record sale in the history of Dade County and in Fort Lauderdale, for $47 million."
