Continuum on South Beach
Foreign buyers are supercharging South Florida’s housing recovery, Bloomberg News reported.
In the 10 Florida counties that have seen the largest injection of international money since 2010, property-tax assessments have risen by an average of 4.1 percent – nearly twice as fast as the rest of the state — this year, according to state records reviewed by Bloomberg News.
The foreigner frenzy has boosted demand, pushed prices upward and sparked bidding wars amongst buyers, real estate agents and buyers told Bloomberg News.
Indeed, South Florida home prices in May were up 14 percent year-over-year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller real-estate index. And developers are swooping in to meet that demand, proposing over 20,000 condominiums in more than 150 new buildings in the area.
“It feels like 2003 in South Florida,” Peter Zalewski, owner of Condo Vultures, told Bloomberg News. “Once domestic buyers move back into the marketplace, then the boom is on.” [Bloomberg News] – Hiten Samtani