Miami Real Estate Report

"Miami is different than most other cities in the US, in that there is an international clientele for real estate and luxury homes. Moreover, Miami real estate is undervalued when compared to cities like Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Las Vegas, as well as some of our Northeast cities, like Boston and New York, Stamford, and Greenwich.

There is a problem, however. Miami Beach homes for sale are still listed far too high for a significant number of sales to take place. Sellers are still more or less oblivious of the value of their homes in this market, and are still listing their properties well above market value. This is especially true of luxury homes being listed in the Miami area.

Miami prices citywide were 17.5 per cent lower in December than a year earlier

The problem in Miami is just part of Florida's boom and bust cycle. Whole towns sprung up over the last few years and many have gone bust just as quickly often leaving half-built homes abandoned (for a great photo series on this check out this piece on Rotunda Sands in Mental Floss). At this point, practically the entire state of Florida is in some sort of foreclosure crisis making it easy pickings for those from across the country and around the world looking for a real estate deal. Both homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth and developers forced to sell condos at cost or in some cases for even less than it cost to build them are ready to accept all sorts of offers.

Would-be home buyers become renters

Like thousands of others, the Marcelluses are participating in the new South Florida ''housing market'' -- the rental market. The number of units rented in Miami-Dade and Broward counties between August and January shot up more than 40 percent over the year before, while home sales sank more than 40 percent. Giant brokerage EWM in January had 600 homes listed for sale but more than three times that many for rent.

During the boom, people rented because they couldn't afford to buy, and many of them still can't. Now, uncertainty over falling prices has made potential buyers like the Marcelluses even more gun-shy about jumping in.

Real Estate In South Florida

"Real estate became very liquid especially in the condo market. People would buy pre-construction pricing and that's before the building was out of the ground, and then they would sell the contract while the building was being constructed and for huge gain sometimes 200% gains," said Glen Daniels of Foreclosure.com.

"People had so much money in this community, in the South Florida community, because they were making so much money from nothing in buying and selling real estate. Wealth was appearing that they were able to drive the consumer market place throughout South Florida," said Genet.