Realtors and developers have been saying for months that Fort Lauderdale is coming into its own as a rival of Miami’s booming real estate market. Now, One Sotheby’s International Realty has released a mid-year report that backs up those claims.
The report shows that the city, and especially its upscale neighborhood East Las Olas, has experienced a big bump in prices per square foot.
Daniel de la Vega, president of One Sotheby’s International Realty
“One of the most exciting markets that we’re seeing a very favorable trend in right now is East Fort Lauderdale, and really Broward County as a whole,” One Sotheby’s President Daniel de la Vega told The Real Deal. “If you look at the waterfront condo market in Las Olas, it’s up 23 percent year-to-date.”
The price per square foot of condos in that neighborhood grew from $442 to $574, up 23 percent from the prior year. Fort Lauderdale’s condo market as a whole also experienced a 7 percent bump for the average price per square foot of a unit during the first half of this year, from $512 to $550.
That could be explained by all the new construction that has launched sales in the area. Projects like Cymbrinas Cay and Adagio on the Bay both finished this year, and condo-hotels built less than 10 years ago like the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale have brought averages up as they reach completion.
On the single-family home side of the market, nearly 10 percent, or 193 homes, of Broward County’s 1,966 home sales so far this year were represented by luxury properties priced between $1 million and $5 million.
Again in Las Olas, prices for single-family homes have risen more than 10 percent year-over-year. Average prices per square foot are now at $437 and $595 for dry lots and waterfront, respectively.
The rest of the county fared similarly, with neighborhoods like Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Hillsboro Beach and Southwest Ranches seeing double digit growth in prices per square foot for waterfront single-family homes. Western markets such as Weston, Plantation and Sunrise stayed about the same, seeing a less than a 7 percent increase year-0ver-year.
“Prices are very favorable still in Fort Lauderdale,” de la Vega told TRD. “It’s the same beach, it’s the same developers, it’s the same finishes at a fraction of the price.”