Luxury condos in Greater Downtown Miami sold for about $3.3 million on average in the first quarter, but the average price dropped in May to just over $2 million, suggesting opportunities for buyers.
The 36.3 percent price difference between the average closed price and the current listing price is a snapshot of pre-pandemic and current buyer and seller expectations in Greater Downtown Miami, according to Peter Zalewski, principal at Condo Vultures Realty and a bulk investor, who compiled the data.
The spread suggests that the luxury condo market is “dead in the water,” Zalewski said. In a TRD webinar last month, he warned that condo pricing will fall.
The MLS statistics he referred to cover Miami’s Brickell, downtown, Arts & Entertainment District and Edgewater. The figures compare closed sales in the first three months of the year to inventory and asking prices as of May 11. They do not include new development sales.
There were 593 active listings of luxury condos priced at $1 million and up, and nearly 85 months of supply, or seven years, as of early May. In the first quarter, 21 luxury deals closed, according to the data.
Some sellers may be pulling listings from the market amid the pandemic, or holding off on listing their luxury condos.
Zalewski said that though the first quarter data includes closings from March, when Covid-19 began to impact the market, it will give the best indication of how the market was performing prior to the pandemic.
“The first quarter of 2020 was effectively the peak of winter buying season,” he said. In addition, Miami hosted Super Bowl LIV in February, bringing wealthy buyers down to South Florida.
Residential sales throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties rose in the first quarter, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.
Though the average price of active listings of luxury condos fell compared to sale prices in the first quarter, the reverse occurred for the entire Greater Downtown Miami market, including sales and listings at all prices.
The average asking price of condos as of May 11 was $772,050, but the average closing price in the first three months of 2020 was $524,375. That marks a nearly 43 percent spread between the two.
The overall market also has a supply problem, Zalewski’s report shows. With 3,447 units on the market and 147 closed sales in the first quarter, there are about two years of supply of condos in Greater Downtown Miami.