Miami Beach is a really unique place.  That’s why I get a tad frustrated with the media for lumping Miami Beach into Greater Miami’s real estate statistics on foreclosures, short sales and shadow inventory. Now there’s new phrase du jour, “double dip.” 

I liken Miami Beach to Manhattan or Beverly Hills.  Manhattan real estate operates on its own from the greater New York area, much the same way that Beverly Hills is its own little market inside the greater Los Angeles area.

I service South Beach and Miami Beach; the majority of my clients are NOT from here.  When they read a Case-Shiller report or news report from Diana Olick of CNBC that says X percent of X is X, and prices are falling and foreclosures are everywhere, I’m the one with the task to sort out the mess and misinformation.  Many of my clients have missed out on properties they wanted desperately to buy, but took the info that was produced en masse for the masses and made their decisions on that.

Just the other day, I had a conversation with a client, a very good client, who wanted to buy a unit at the Bath Club in Miami Beach.  It was a year ago today that we put in our offer for $900K.  My client would NOT go up.  The seller would have taken $1.1M.  It sold right after our offer for just over $1.2M.  It came back on the market about a month ago for, get this, $1.8M.  My client looked at me and said, “Kevin, you should have made me buy it!”

What can I do?  I knew it was a steal.  She knew it was a steal.  But when people smell blood, they want more.  The owner was in foreclosure, and conservatively, today, the property is worth about $1.550M.  Can’t beat those numbers with a stick, Diana!

But I digress. Let’s get to the TRUE picture of distressed real estate in Miami Beach (bank-owned and short sales) and show Case, Shiller and Olick a graph or two or three.

Distressed Real Estate in Miami-Dade County

Distress properties for sale-Miami Dade

The chart above represents all distressed properties in Miami-Dade County, including Miami Beach.  There are 10,219 homes for sale in a distressed state.  There are more than 1,100 of them selling per month, and about 2,300 properties are being pended per month.

Distressed Real Estate in Miami Beach

Now the true picture is revealed.  In ALL of Miami Beach, there are 700 distressed properties on the market for sale, with about 75 of those being sold per month.  Since our season ends in June, the dip in pended sales makes sense.

Distressed Miami Beach Real Estate over $500,000

Distressed Miami Beach properties over $500k

If you break it down even further, approximately 100 of the 700 units in Miami Beach that are in a distressed state are
$500,000 and over—that’s like nothing.

Miami Beach Distressed Real Estate

  • 3,121 active listings in Miami Beach
  • 700 or 22.4 percent are in a distressed state (bank-owned or short sale)
  • 600 of those units are under $500k

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About Kevin Tomlinson