I’ve had a large number of people contacting me and asking me about 2007 condo stats for Miami Beach and South Beach condos. I plan to do the 2007 statistics this week and post most of them by this weekend.

I plan to analyze each Miami Beach condo’s stats separately, and group them by neighborhood as well. I also plan to give the numbers as they are, WITHOUT SPIN.

There has been a lot of talk about the Case Schiller home price index of late. This index seems to be the most “respected” index lately, probably because the numbers are the worst for South Florida.

According to a widely followed national home price index released Wednesday, prices of homes in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties fell 12.4 percent in October from last year. The Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller index says the South Florida region posted the worst decline of 20 major metropolitan areas it follows.

Here are some interesting reads just to highlight the differences in the numbers:

Miami Herald, Thursday, Dec. 27th

The discrepancies boil down to the very different methods the groups use to calculate their numbers. Each method provides a snapshot — and only a snapshot — in a very diverse real estate scene whose more than 1.2 million properties stretch from upscale waterfront communities and suburbs to inner-city neighborhoods. Analyzing just how bad the market is occupies cocktail chatter and boardroom debates, and these differing data highlight the difficulties of figuring out exactly what is going on.

The Wall Street Examiner, Monday, Dec. 31st

In my reports to subscribers of the Wall Street Examiner Professional Edition Housing and Real Estate Report, I regularly review data from Housingtracker.net, a service that collects the MLS data posted on Realtor.com for 55 of the largest metros in the US. Their data showed that just after Thanksgiving the average of the median listing prices of each of the 55 metros was down 5.5% on the year. As of December 24, that figure had sunk to -6.2%. The monthly price change in November was -1.5%. In December the monthly decline had accelerated to 2.2%. In December, one market showed an increase in price. 6 were unchanged. 48 were lower.

Miami Herald, Wednesday, Jan. 2nd

South Florida’s housing market continued to deflate in November, with prices down, sales plunging, and buyers scarce and frugal, according to numbers released by the Florida Association of Realtors Monday.

This article has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was interesting.

About Kevin Tomlinson