MIAMI – Aug. 18, 2016 – The markets hardest hit by the real estate downturn have been registering the sharpest increases in home prices for more than a year.
A decade after becoming the epicenter of the crash, Miami's property market is seeing the highest price jumps since 2006 – the peak of its last housing boom.
Several critical factors are separating this property rise in South Florida from the last one, however. Condominium buyers are putting up bigger deposits, for example – generally 50 percent of the purchase price, compared to 10 percent to 20 percent deposits during the last buildup.
Banks are also beginning to fund more projects in South Florida, but they're asking developers for a larger financial stake, typically a substantial level of pre-construction sales.
"People are calling this another boom in Miami, but this is different," says Gil Dezer, president of Dezer Development, which is developing the Residences by Armani/Casa project in Miami's Sunny Isles Beach in partnership with Related Group. "Today's buyers have learned from the last boom – and so have developers."
It's not just Miami. The same higher-price trend can be seen in Las Vegas and in parts of Arizona and California. In Phoenix, one of the U.S. cities hit hardest by the real estate crash, home values have risen 29 percent from their previous low point.
Source: Washington Post (DC) (08/18/16) McMullen, Troy
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Areas hit hard by downturn now see highest gains