New rules curb closing surprises - Miami Real Estate 800-819-5466

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McLEAN, Va. – Jan. 19, 2010 – Buying a home should be a joyful experience, but all too often, the mortgage settlement process leaves consumers confused, angry and paying more than they anticipated.

The reason? Closing costs and fees that are significantly higher than the lender’s original estimates. Borrowers find themselves faced with two unappealing choices: Pony up or walk away and start searching for another house.

Now, after years of wrestling with different factions of the mortgage industry, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has adopted rules designed to prevent last-minute closing surprises. The rules, which took effect Jan. 1, will reduce closing shocks and save homebuyers money, says Timothy Dwyer, CEO of Entitle Direct Group, a title insurance company. In addition, he says, “You’ll be better informed and educated.”

The biggest change involves the good faith estimate, the form lenders give consumers when they apply for a mortgage. The good faith estimate isn’t new, but in the past, the document wasn’t particularly helpful to consumers, says Sylvia Alayon, vice president of operations at the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center. What has changed:

Consistency. Lenders are now required to use a uniform three-page document when they give prospective borrowers a good faith estimate, says Vicki Bott, deputy assistant secretary for single-family housing at HUD.

Lenders also are required to provide the document within 72 hours after prospective borrowers apply for a loan.

This will allow consumers to figure out a loan’s total cost, including fees, and compare loan offers on an apples-to-apples basis, Bott says. “We encourage consumers to shop for the best rates and fees, and not just the best rate,” she says.

Transparency. Many borrowers who bought homes during the housing boom later discovered that their loans contained hidden bombs that made their mortgages unaffordable. The new good faith estimate requires lenders to disclose features that could drive up costs. For example, the document requires lenders to disclose whether your interest rate will rise – as would be the case with an adjustable-rate mortgage – and if so, by how much. Lenders will also be asked whether the loan includes balloon payments or imposes penalties for paying the loan off early.

“All of these are really important questions,” says Helene Raynaud, vice president of housing for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. “It will be able to raise red flags for consumers.”

Trade-offs. Some lenders offer borrowers a lower interest rate in exchange for higher upfront costs -- or vice versa. A new table in the good faith estimate (see box) helps borrowers compare how different interest rates and settlement charges will affect monthly payments.

Reliability. Lenders are required by law to give mortgage applicants a copy of their settlement costs, known as a HUD-1, at least one day before closing. In the past, though, many borrowers discovered that the costs shown on the HUD-1 bore little connection to those provided in the good faith estimate.

The new rules will make it much more difficult for lenders to depart from their good faith estimates, Bott says. The new HUD-1 includes a line-by-line comparison to the good faith estimate, making it easy to identify any change in costs.

Lenders are prohibited from increasing costs they control, such as origination and processing fees. Fees for third-party services, such as appraisals and title insurance, can increase no more than 10% from those provided in the good faith estimate, as long as the borrowers use providers selected by the lender. The limit doesn’t apply if borrowers select their own third-party providers.

Other costs that aren’t subject to the 10% limit include the initial deposit for the borrower’s escrow account, daily interest charges and homeowner’s insurance.

HUD has published a guide for homebuyers, Shopping for Your Home Loan: HUD’s Settlement Cost Booklet. You can find it at www.hud.gov

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Outlook for 2009 Miami Real Estate: It’s a buyer’s market !

Miami Real Estate - Now's the time to buy.

What’s the outlook for 2009? Florida Realtors® agree that it’s a buyer’s market! With lower prices and strong pent-up demand, Florida homes are highly attractive – especially to first-time and move-up buyers. Meanwhile, vacation residences continue to be warm-weather bargains to U.S. and international buyers.

Outlook for 2009: It’s a buyer’s market!
“We expect first-time homebuyers will be the largest segment next year,” says Ed Forman, president Watson Realty Corp., Jacksonville. “That includes a high percentage of single women buying their first property.”

The same pricing dynamics benefit working-age families in their 30s and 40s who may be moving into a starter home or looking for a move-up with more space for children, according to Mike Pappas, president and CEO, The Keyes Company, Miami. “For these buyers in particular, lower pricing is making Florida homes very attractive,” he says.

In many Florida markets, affluent buyers are picking up luxury properties as primary residences or second-homes – a trend likely to continue. “The high end of the Florida market has held up quite well,” says Brad Hunter, director, South Florida region, MetroStudy in Boca Raton.

International buyers remain an important component of the state’s market, especially in coastal areas like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Naples and Sarasota, as well as Orlando/Kissimmee. Florida Association of Realtors research studies show buyers from Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, South America and Europe generate more than 15 percent of residential transactions.

On the other hand, the traditional flow of retiree buyers to Florida remains uncertain in the year ahead. Slower economic conditions in the Northeast and Midwest – two prime feeder markets for Florida – may make it harder for retirees with modest incomes to make the big move to Florida. Many retirees are also faced with less purchasing power due to declines in their investment portfolio and may opt to stay put. However, the number of Baby Boomers reaching age 65 continues to increase and many of these prospective buyers will be considering Florida when the nation’s economic condition improves.

Market watch perspectives
If the opportunities for great value and investment potential are presented, will buyers hop the fence and buy? Experts weigh in.

Use these Web sites to get local stats and build your own market watch for prospective buyers and sellers.

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Feds: Chinese drywall reports still inconclusive. Miami Real Estate

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WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – Federal studies released Thursday cannot yet definitively link imported Chinese drywall to health problems or corrosion of pipes and wires that thousands of U.S. homeowners have been reporting for nearly a year.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is leading the multi-agency investigation, said it needs to further study the matter before it can consider a recall, ban or other solutions to help affected homeowners. Additional results from ongoing studies were due to be released next month.

“The expansive investigation and scientific work that has been done and continues to be carried out is all aimed at providing answers and solutions,” Lori Saltzman, a director in the CPSC’s Office of Hazard Identification and Reduction, said Thursday. “No connections have been made yet.”

Saltzman said the agency, which has so far spent $3.5 million on the studies, has received nearly 1,900 homeowner complaints during one of its largest consumer product investigations in U.S. history.

“We understand this problem has literally driven people from their homes,” she said.

Homeowners, however, were frustrated by a lack of answers.

“So many of us have been really waiting on these results released today to offer us encouragement, but in fact, we’re quite disappointed,” said Holly Krulik, of Parkland, Florida, about 45 miles north of Miami.

Krulik and her husband, Doug, along with their two young children, moved in with her parents about six months ago because she says the Chinese wallboard in their home was making them sick and ruining the house.

“We’re hanging on by a thread here. When is help going to arrive?” said Krulik, who will soon join hundreds of others who have filed lawsuits.

Thousands of homeowners like the Kruliks who bought new houses built with the potentially defective materials are finding their lives in limbo as the lawsuits against builders, contractors, suppliers and manufacturers wind through the courts.

During the height of the U.S. housing boom, with building materials in short supply, American construction companies imported millions of pounds (kilograms) of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap. An Associated Press analysis of shipping records found that more than 500 million pounds (226 million kilograms) of Chinese gypsum board was imported between 2004 and 2008 – enough to have built tens of thousands of homes.

They are heavily concentrated in the Southeast, especially Florida and areas of Louisiana and Mississippi hit hard by Hurricane Katrina.

The defective materials have since been found by state and federal agencies to emit “volatile sulfur compounds.” Officials have also found traces of strontium sulfide, which can produce a rotten-egg odor, along with organic compounds not found in American-made drywall. Homeowners complain the fumes are corroding copper pipes, destroying TVs and air conditioners, blackening jewelry and silverware, and making them sick.

And some homeowners are reporting that their insurance companies are dropping or refusing to renew their policies based on the presence of the wallboard in their houses, putting them at risk of foreclosure.

The federal test results released Thursday largely confirmed what prior testing had found. The multiple agencies investigating, including the CPSC, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged the reported health symptoms are consistent with some sort of contamination. But the culprit is unclear.

The Chinese government is assisting with the investigation.

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Florida’s existing home, condo sales up in 2Q 2009

MIAMI, Florida – Sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose 23 percent in second quarter 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the latest housing statistics from the Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR). A total of 43,125 existing homes sold statewide in 2Q 2009; during the same period the year before, a total of 35,008 existing homes sold. It marks the fourth consecutive quarter that Florida has seen higher existing year-to-year home sales, according to FAR.

Sales of existing condominiums statewide in the second quarter rose 29 percent compared to the same time the previous year. This marks the third consecutive quarter for increased statewide sales in both the existing home and condo markets compared to year-ago levels.

Statewide sales activity in 2Q 2009 also increased over 1Q 2009’s sales figure in both the existing home and existing condo markets, FAR records show. For 2Q 2009, statewide sales of existing homes rose 37.2 percent over the 1Q 2009 figure; existing condo sales statewide in 2Q 2009 increased 45.3 percent over the 1Q 2009 level.

“In spite of the challenges with the economy, most people – 83 percent – still believe that buying a home is a good financial decision, according to a recent survey from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR),” says 2009 FAR President Cynthia Shelton, CCIM, CRE, a broker and director of investment sales with Colliers Arnold in Orlando. (CCIM stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member and CRE is the Counselor of Real Estate designation). “Many homebuyers are realizing that this is the time to buy – with a good selection of housing inventory, affordable pricing and low mortgage rates.

“In fact, three-fourths of those responding to the 2009 National Housing Pulse Survey said they think now is a good time to purchase a home, a number that has increased steadily the past two years,” she says. “However, providing solid financing options for homebuyers is key to returning stability to the housing market, and buyers also need programs that help with downpayment and closing costs. That’s why the federal $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit and other programs enabling eligible buyers to access that tax credit for downpayment or closing costs are so important – programs like the Florida Homebuyer Opportunity Program.”

MIAMI, Florida –

Sixteen of Florida’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) reported increased sales of existing homes in the second quarter compared to the same three-month period a year earlier, while 12 MSAs showed gains in condo sales.

The statewide existing-home median sales price was $143,600 in the second quarter; a year earlier, it was $203,200 for a decrease of 29 percent. The 2Q 2009 statewide existing-home median sales price was 1.8 percent higher than 1Q’s statewide existing-home median sales price of $141,000. According to industry analysts with the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half for less.

In the year-to-year quarterly comparison for condo sales, 14,742 units sold statewide for the quarter compared to 11,459 in 2Q 2008 for a 29 percent increase. The statewide existing-condo median sales price was $111,100 for the three-month period; in 2Q 2008, it was $179,800 for a decrease of 38 percent. The 2Q 2009 statewide existing-condo median sales price was almost 1 percent higher 1Q’s statewide existing-condo median sales price of $110,100.

Continuing low mortgage rates remain another favorable influence on the housing sector. According to Freddie Mac, the national commitment rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.03 percent in 2Q 2009; one year earlier, it averaged 6.09 percent.

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You didn’t really lose in Miami's housing free fall / Miami Real Estate 305-929-DEAN

Miami, Florida – Stan Smith has some news for longtime homeowners having a pity party over falling house prices in South Florida: New research shows that current home values are just about where they would have been if the real-estate bubble had never inflated and burst.

A long-term view of the market reveals that, even though prices rose and fell dramatically in recent years, they appear to have settled back into historic patterns, according to an analysis by Smith, a University of Central Florida finance professor.

“Most homeowners are within 6 percent of where they would have been had there not been a bubble. The people who have been here since before 2005, they should not have been hurt,” Smith said, though he added: “... A lot of people did buy in 2005 and 2006, and obviously they have been hurt significantly.”

For about a quarter-century, starting in the late 1970s, home prices in Metropolitan Orlando increased 4.7 percent a year on average, according to Smith’s analysis of data from a federal housing-price index. Then the bubble emerged, with prices rising 20 percent in 2005 and 32 percent the following year. Homeowners were elated about their fast-growing equity – at least until the bubble burst in mid-2007.

The sharp drop in prices since then – 22 percent from the 2007 high – may have left the impression that the bursting bubble set back even long-term homeowners for many years to come. Yet prices now are about where you would have expected them to be had the dramatic rise and fall never occurred.

Steve Shapiro, who is trying to sell his Lake Mary home, hadn’t really thought about it before but said it makes sense that the price he is asking for his home of 10 years tracks the area’s long-term pricing trends.

“I think I’m about where it should be with the price,” said the retiree, who has listed his house for $269,000 with Exit Realty Central agent Julie Elrod-Boyd – the same agent who helped him buy it in 1999 for $161,000. He estimated the house would have sold for more than $300,000 about 18 months ago, so the price has retreated 10 percent since then.

“It was nice to think it was worth so much a year and a half ago, but I felt like it was a little inflated,” he said. “All the homes were.”

Volusia County Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath has obtained results similar to Smith’s in his county.

Gilreath recently plotted home prices from 1996 to the present and concluded they are not far below where they would have been without the bubble. The mid-point, or median, for home prices in Volusia in May was $124,900 – down about $20,000 from where they would have been if they had continued on their long-range trajectory rather than inflating and deflating in recent years, he said.

A year ago, the median in Volusia was about $50,000 above the historic trend line, he said; two years ago, it was flying about $100,000 above that line.

Gilreath said his analysis was not as thorough as Smith’s research at UCF, but both indicate the residential market is not likely to decline much further.

“The point that the charts are telling us is that we’re close to where we think the bottom is going to be,” he said. “The question is: When is it going to turn around? I have evidence that it is turning around here [in Volusia].”

Smith said prices in the region may continue to fall but are less likely to do so now that they are so near the long-term trend line – a “positive indicator” for coming months.

Les Simmonds, president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, said people generally measure their home’s current value against what it was worth a year ago – a short-term view of the market.” I feel strongly that, had we not had this bubble, that the median price of the properties would be a little better than they are now, because of the way they’ve been pushed down [in the post-bubble market] by ... [distressed] properties,” he said.

“I said to my wife last week that, when the market was really high, if we had sold then, we could have made four times what we paid for the house.” The problem, he added, is that most of the people who sold at the peak usually then bought near the top of the market. Shapiro said that, once he sells his Lake Mary house, he is ready to retire to a log cabin in north Georgia and forget about the whims of the real-estate market for a while.

The only thing that will rise and fall on his cabin, he said, will be the runners on his front-porch rocking chair.

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When will Miami Real Estate prices bottom out ?

Miami Real Estate Deals – Housing prices will hit bottom in the fourth quarter of 2009, predicts Moody’s Economy.com in a new report.

“Despite the darkening national economic outlook and the weak conditions in the housing market, some positive signs give hope that a bottom in the housing market is coming into view,” the report says.

On average, home prices will decline 36 percent from the peak in the first quarter of 2006, the report says.

By the end of the housing downturn, nearly 62 percent of the nation’s 381 metropolitan areas will have experienced double-digit-percent declines in house prices, peak-to-trough, says the report.

The declines will exceed 20 percent in about 100 metro areas, according to the report, and the recovery will be “lackluster.”

“A number of uncertainties in both the housing and economic outlooks remain, and the risks tilt to the downside,” says Moody’s Economy.com Chief Economist, Mark Zandi.

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Fla. picks 6 firms to offer coverage to uninsured

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – United Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida were among six insurers picked by the state Thursday to provide no-frills health insurance plans for nearly 4 million Floridians now without coverage.

The insurance products will be offered to residents who have been without insurance for at least six months and will become available for purchase in early 2009.

The program is the result of a bill signed into law in May by Gov. Charlie Crist that lets insurance companies offer scaled-back health plans without all the usually required coverages, which could provide some protection for as little as $150 a month.

It was a top priority for the Republican governor who said it would take away a lot of worry for those who can afford the new, albeit nominal coverage.

“We now are moving closer to seeing this low-cost health insurance option become a reality for Florida consumers who do not currently have health insurance,” Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said Thursday.

The program, known as “Cover Florida,” will be open to uninsured people between the ages of 19 and 64 and is aimed at preventive and basic care. Children and the elderly are generally eligible for other government programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and the state’s KidCare subsidized insurance program for children.

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United and Blue Cross Blue Shield will provide coverage statewide.

Florida Health Care Plan was selected to provide benefits in Volusia and Flagler counties, while JMH Health Plan, Total Health Choice and Medical Health Plan of Florida were chosen to offer plans for the uninsured in Broward and Miami-Dade.

The newly approved carriers will offer consumers at least two plans, one with catastrophic and hospital coverage, and one without.

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Vulture funds may lift real-estate market in South Florida 305-936-2489

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MIAMI – For about a year, so-called vulture funds have circled South Florida’s besieged real-estate market, waiting for enough carnage to force deep discounts on large blocks of unsold condominiums. Some think last week’s meltdown on Wall Street may herald the arrival of that moment.

As many as 100 investment funds are shopping for South Florida real estate, hoping to buy extremely low during the current crisis. Their main target: condominium towers where developers and their lenders can’t sell enough units to pay off the loans used to build them.

“The bottom fishers, if you will, have been standing around the sidelines,” said Victor Lopez, a former Hyatt development executive now assembling commercial deals. ‘A lot of people out there are saying: ‘This is our time to get in.’”

If he’s right, it would be one of the clearest signs yet that South Florida’s beleaguered real-estate market had bottomed, bringing the region closer to a recovery. If vulture investors are buying, the view goes, it’s safer for others to start buying as well.

The funds come to the table with cash, but also a catch: a demand that the developers and banks accept a deep discount, typically between 40 and 50 cents on the dollar.

Despite all the attention these funds receive in the media and in real-estate circles, only one or two significant bulk condo deals have actually closed, according to several people involved in the market.

“Literally, a day doesn’t go by that I don’t get a call from potential investors,” said Ramiro Ortiz, president of Coral Gables-based BankUnited Financial. “The problem is that the price is 50 cents on the dollar. I’ve got enough clarity to know that’s not what I want to do.”

Real-estate analyst Michael Cannon sees the fund industry overstating the crisis facing developers and their lenders. So far, he is seeing enough condo buyers closing on their units to let most developers pay off their construction loans as well as some of the secondary loans needed to build the projects.

“Nobody is panicking,” Cannon said. “It’s not there.”

But after concluding the most dangerous week for the U.S. financial system since the Great Depression, fund managers think they are left with more leverage.

“Two very large hedge funds called me yesterday. Literally, they’re flying into Miami,” said Gregory Rumpel, a hotel broker at Jones Lang LaSalle, the day after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. “These guys are saying, ‘Well, that’s probably the shock to the market – with Lehman and all the other jitters out there – we need to see some stuff released.’”

Vulture in lipstick

One senior lending executive at a major South Florida bank that wanted to keep anonymous said his staff so far has refused offers from the so-called vulture funds. But he predicts that resistance won’t last much longer.

“The market conditions don’t seem to be improving. At some point, you’ve got to cut and run,” said the executive, who spoke on the condition that his name not be published. “That vulture is starting to look a little bit like it has some lipstick on it.”

Some think Wall Street’s grim news will prove a wake-up call to the fund managers themselves, prompting them to decide that the debacle has climaxed and that it’s time to deal.

“When you talk to most of these vulture-type investors, they all say they want to buy when there’s blood on the streets,” said Peter Zalewski, a partner at Condo Vultures, which brokers sales of distressed condominium towers. “This is really the sign they’ve been looking for.”

Turning point

An actual turning point wouldn’t reveal itself for months as the complicated deals, involving dozens of condominiums, get finalized.

“We’ve been active in this market for almost two years now,” said Matthew Martinez, whose Coral Gables firm, Pangea Select, is helping funds shop for South Florida real estate. “We’ve made about 32 offers. And we’re closing on the first one as we speak.”

Fluctuating currency markets add to the urgency for many of the funds with investment dollars from overseas. “Israel’s here in a big way,” said Adam Greenberg, managing director of BayBridge Real Estate Group, which is representing about a dozen funds.

Peter Wells wants to spend about $600 million in investor dollars and borrowed money on Miami-area real estate, but so far, he can’t find a motivated seller. He’s a partner in Condo Capital Solutions, a Denver-based fund that is looking for bulk deals in Florida and Arizona.

“We’re starting to see a few deals that are starting to make sense,” he said. Banks “are now starting to get a little bit more realistic.”


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Related Group and Starwood Join Forces To Create New Property In Bal Harbour 800-819-5466

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Starwood and The Related Group Form a Joint Venture
to Develop a New Build St. Regis Resort & Residences
on the Existing Site of the Sheraton Bal Harbour. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) and The Related Group of Florida announce that they have signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture to develop a new build St. Regis Resort & Residences in South Florida's most exclusive enclave, Bal Harbour. The St. Regis Resort & Residences, Bal Harbour, to be built on the existing site of the Sheraton Bal Harbour, will be located on the white, pristine sands of the Atlantic Ocean directly across the street from the legendary Bal Harbour Shops. The renowned Lucien Lagrange Architects has been selected for the project. The proposed transaction is subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements and other approvals and customary closing conditions.
"Related's innovative development expertise in project conceptualization, mixed-use development, and sales and marketing of upscale residential projects in the South Florida market is a perfect complement to Starwood's ultra-luxury brand, loyal customer base and its existing untapped real estate holdings," said Steven Heyer, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. "We expect that this relationship will allow us to maximize the unrealized potential of our land assets while enhancing the strength of Starwood's presence in this affluent market."

"We see a huge potential in developing the St. Regis Resort & Residences, Bal Harbour as a preeminent address for first-class luxury living in Miami," said Jorge M. Perez, chairman, The Related Group of Florida. "The powerful combination of the St. Regis brand, the distinguished reputation of Lucien Lagrange Architects', and Related's integrated development approach will make the St. Regis Resort & Residences, Bal Harbour a spectacular new addition to the seaside Bal Harbour village."

Only a select few of the world's luxury hotels merit the St. Regis name, offering unprecedented excellence in standards of hospitality and elegance. The St. Regis Resort & Residences, Bal Harbour will feature an array of sumptuous amenities, including the brand's signature butler service, renowned concierge service, a world-class spa and a signature restaurant.

The Bal Harbour Shops, ranked "the number one shopping center in the U.S." by Women's Wear Daily and home to 100 flagship stores including Hermes, Gucci, Prada, Dolce and Gabbana, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. The Bal Harbour Shops also offer their patrons services such as valet parking, personal shoppers, as well as an array of first-rate fine dining options.

The Sheraton Bal Harbour will plan promotional activities throughout the year prior to its anticipated closing in June 2006 to celebrate the hotel's 50 year fabled history. "We anticipate that thousands of guests who have stayed with us over these past 50 years will want to come back and stay with us one last time," said the Resort's Managing Director, Hans B. Altenhoff. "This will be an exciting year for our property; not only will we commemorate our 50th anniversary but we will also provide our guest the opportunity to own their dream home on the beach they have enjoyed all these years." The Sheraton Bal Harbour's 50 year anniversary celebration which kicks off this spring, will incorporate promotions with the luxury brand emporiums located at the Bal Harbour Shops via an exclusive "Passport to Bal Harbour" offering available only at www.sheraton.com.

The Related Group of Florida has 25 years of residential development and construction experience of condominiums and urban mixed-use properties, primarily in Florida. Some of Related's landmark projects in South Florida include the Icon, Murano, Murano Grande, Portofino Towers and Oceans I, II and III. The company works closely with its New York affiliate to acquire commercial and residential real estate throughout the US. Related's marketing partnership with RCRS (Related Cervera Realty Services) will offer years of selling expertise in the luxury South Florida real estate market.

Lucien Lagrange Architects has roots in both the innovative architectural legacy of Chicago and the classic design heritage of Mr. Lagrange's native France. The dichotomy results in a firm that is uniquely creative yet sensitive to a timeless aesthetic. In a relatively short time, Lagrange has made a significant mark on the Chicago skyline. Its projects - new buildings and comprehensive renovations - are prominent both in the Loop and on the Near North Side. One of the latest is the new 67-story Park Tower hotel and luxury condominium development on North Michigan Avenue.

Local architect, Sieger Suarez, has been selected as the architect of record and has long been unrivaled as South Florida's leading architectural firm specializing in luxury residential high-rise design. Taft Bradshaw, the original landscape designer for the Village of Bal Harbour and the Bal Harbour Shops, has been chosen as the landscape architect.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 750 properties in more than 80 countries and 110,000 employees at its owned and managed properties.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities regulations.

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NAR: Pending home sales indicate market stabilization - Miami Real Estate

Miami Real Estate / Miami Realtor

WASHINGTON – Pending home sales are hovering in a narrow range, another indication that a stabilization is occurring in the housing sector, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).


The Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in October, slipped 1.7 percent to a reading of 107.2 and is 13.2 percent lower than October 2005. The index had trended up from a cyclical low of 105.6 in July, and a decline from year-ago levels is narrowing. In September, the index was 13.6 percent below a year earlier, while in August the decline was 14.0 percent.


David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, says a fairly steady pace of home sales can be expected for the next two months. “It’s important to focus on where the housing market is now – it appears to be stabilizing, and comparisons with an unsustainable boom mask the fact that home sales remain historically high – they’ll stay that way through 2007,” he says. “In addition, a temporary correction in prices distracts from the fact that it is primarily the number of home sales that affects the economy, and the number for this year will be the third highest on record.”


The index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed and the transaction has not closed, but the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.

Miami Real Estate

An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, the first year to be examined and the first of five consecutive record years for existing-home sales. There is a closer relationship between annual changes in the index and year-ago changes in sales performance than with month-to-month comparisons.


Regionally, the PHSI in the Midwest slipped 0.6 percent in October to 95.8 and was 15.4 percent below a year ago. The index in the South declined 1.7 percent to 122.9 and was 9.3 percent below October 2005. In the Northeast, the index eased 2.1 percent in October to 88.0 and was 13.5 percent lower than a year earlier. The index in the West fell 2.7 percent to 109.5 and was 17.4 percent below October 2005.

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