Miami Real Estate | Strike when the Iron is Cold

Purchasing property now in Miami is a gamble. You have got to have all the right cards. These include credit, capital, and long term security. Sure, these may sound obvious, but in today's market, home sellers and the banks issuing loans are looking closely at potential investors. Real Estate is still a commodity. People are just taking a higher level of morality and opportunism to it. If you are in the market to buy, be sure to work with a trusted real estate professional. Then, if all the cards are right, you can bet on a big win.

First-time buyers and investors snapped up low-priced properties last month, but their added interest was not enough to boost sales of previously owned homes in the South, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

April's slide was significant because it follows an 8 percent annual drop in March. Low mortgage rates and the economic stimulus package have not been enough to offset job losses and other economic worries.

Meanwhile, discounted foreclosures sales kept pushing down prices in much of the South, where the median sales price slid almost 13 percent to $148,000, the Realtors group said. Nationally, April sales of existing homes declined 4.6 percent year-over-year, without adjusting for seasonal factors, while median sales prices fell more than 15 percent to $170,200.

Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' group chief economist, said most of the sales were lower-priced homes, the entry point for first-time buyers. Rookies made up about 40 percent of the national market, lured by low mortgage rates and an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers that's set to expire Nov. 30.

Still, "high-end home sales remain sluggish" because it is more difficult to get financing, Yun said. Also, the amount of existing homes available for sale rose almost 9 percent from March, representing a 10-month supply at the current sales pace.

April sales increased from last year in just four of 20 the Southern metro areas covered by The Associated Press-Re/Max Housing Report — Washington D.C. and the Florida cities of Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Transactions have increased for three straight months in the four cities, and the market likely has hit bottom in terms of sales there.

Of the 20 cities, median sales prices fell in all but two of them — Tulsa, Okla., and Little Rock, Ark., the AP-Re/Max report showed.

The AP-Re/Max report, released Wednesday, analyzes all home sales recorded by all real estate agents, regardless of company affiliation, in the metropolitan statistical areas.

Throughout the South, low prices mean good deals for buyers and a strategy change for sellers.

"A lot of sellers who weren't absolutely forced to sell have finally come to the realization that prices are indeed down and have brought their prices down to Earth," said Bill Weaver, real estate professor at the University of Central Florida. "Reality is beginning to seep in."

Meanwhile, cash-carrying investors have begun snapping up Florida properties with the goal of renting them out, Weaver said. These investors are different from the wave of speculators who used subprime mortgages to buy homes during the housing boom with the goal of reselling them for a quick profit.

So there you have it, Miami's real estate market is either ripe for opportunity or a place to avoid all together. It just depends with whom you are working and if your capital, credit and security is in order.