Thread: U.S. Housing

^ Still a long way to go:

U.S. Home Prices May Be Lost for a Generation:

John F. Wasik


Commentary by John F. Wasik


May 4 (Bloomberg) -- We might be looking at a lost generation for U.S. home values.
Far too many analysts are calling a bottom to the housing market after home prices in 20 metropolitan areas declined at a slower pace in February, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index.

Don’t be blinded by the glint of optimism in headlines about rising consumer confidence and slowing price declines. Demographic and market realities tell a more sobering story.

You won’t see a widespread housing rebound in an economy in which 600,000 jobs a month are lost and foreclosures ravage the most overleveraged areas. These are just the visible barriers to a recovery.

Mortgage lending has also been an unusually tightfisted process of late. Lenders are demanding a 20 percent deposit for home purchases, and want impeccable credit ratings. About 45 percent of U.S. banks surveyed by the Federal Reserve said they had “tightened their lending standards on prime mortgages.” I suspect that number is much higher.

Then there’s the reality that the market is glutted with homes. A record 19 million homes stood empty at the end of 2008.
What you can’t see in the most recent housing numbers is the least-visible driver of home prices today:

demographics. Baby Boomers

The baby-boomer generation, the largest in American history, will be buying fewer single-family homes.
The U.S. is experiencing a 40-year generational peak in consumer spending, one that will lead to “the first and last Depression of our lifetimes,” author Harry Dent predicts in his book “The Great Depression Ahead” (Free Press, 2008).

Link & Entire: U.S. Home Prices May Be Lost for a Generation: John F. Wasik - Bloomberg.com

The next mortgage meltdown is on schedule for 2010 and 2011:

This is worth watching:

"Alt-A." This is what the above 60 Minutes segment is focusing. Below, is an article written by someone who got hit on the Alt-A mortgage. Ironically....he's a NY TIMES economic reporter that reported on....the mortgage industry, among other things:

My Personal Credit Crisis

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: May 14, 2009

If there was anybody who should have avoided the mortgage catastrophe, it was I. As an economics reporter for The New York Times, I have been the paper’s chief eyes and ears on the Federal Reserve for the past six years. I watched Alan Greenspan and his successor, Ben S. Bernanke, at close range. I wrote several early-warning articles in 2004 about the spike in go-go mortgages. Before that, I had a hand in covering the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Russia meltdown in 1998 and the dot-com collapse in 2000. I know a lot about the curveballs that the economy can throw at us.

But in 2004, I joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages. Nobody duped or hypnotized me. Like so many others — borrowers, lenders and the Wall Street dealmakers behind them — I just thought I could beat the odds. We all had our reasons. The brokers and dealmakers were scoring huge commissions. Ordinary homebuyers were stretching to get into first houses, or bigger houses, or better neighborhoods. Some were greedy, some were desperate and some were deceived.

As for me, I had two utterly compelling reasons for taking the plunge: the money was there, and I was in love. It was August 2004, just as the mortgage party was getting really good. I was 48 years old and eager to start a new chapter in my life with Patricia Barreiro, who was then my fiancée.

Patty was brainy, regal, sexy, fiery and eclectic. She was one of my closest friends when we were both students at an American high school in Argentina. Back then, we would talk together about politics and books at a coffee shop every day after school. We were not romantic in those days and went our separate ways after high school. But each of us would go through bruising two-decade-long marriages, and we felt that sweet spark of remembrance and renewal upon meeting again in middle age.

After a one-year bicoastal courtship, Patty was about to move from her home in Los Angeles to Washington. We would need a home with enough space for her two youngest children, as well as for my own teenage boys on the weekends. I had assumed we would start by renting a house or an apartment, but it quickly became clear that it was almost easier to borrow a half-million dollars and buy something.

Patty discovered a small but stately brick home in a leafy, kid-filled neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md. We sent in an offer of $460,000 and one day later got our answer: the sellers accepted. I felt both amazed and exhilarated, convinced that the stars had aligned for us. I loved the house as soon as I saw it. It was one block from a school and a park. My boys would be within a 15-minute drive, and it would be easy for them to come over and stay whenever they wanted.

The only problem was money. Having separated from my wife of 21 years, who had physical custody of our sons, I was handing over $4,000 a month in alimony and child-support payments. That left me with take-home pay of $2,777, barely enough to make ends meet in a one-bedroom rental apartment. Patty had yet to even look for a job. At any other time in history, the idea of someone like me borrowing more than $400,000 would have seemed insane.

But this was unlike any other time in history. My real estate agent gave me the number of Bob Andrews, a loan officer at American Home Mortgage Corporation. Bob wasn’t related to me, and I had never heard of his company. “Bob can be very helpful,” my agent explained. “He specializes in unusual situations.”

Bob returned my call right away. “How big a mortgage do you think you’ll need?” he asked.

“My situation is a little complicated,” I warned. I told him about my child support and alimony payments and said I was banking on Patty to earn enough money to keep us afloat. Bob cut me off. “I specialize in challenges,” he said confidently.

As I quickly found out, American Home Mortgage had become one of the fastest-growing mortgage lenders in the country. One of its specialties was serving people just like me: borrowers with good credit scores who wanted to stretch their finances far beyond what our incomes could justify. In industry jargon, we were “Alt-A” customers, and we usually paid slightly higher rates for the privilege of concealing our financial weaknesses.

I thought I knew a lot about go-go mortgages. I had already written several articles about the explosive growth of liar’s loans, no-money-down loans, interest-only loans and other even more exotic mortgages. I had interviewed people with very modest incomes who had taken out big loans. Yet for all that, I was stunned at how much money people were willing to throw at me.

Bob called back the next morning. “Your credit scores are almost perfect,” he said happily. “Based on your income, you can qualify for a mortgage of about $500,000

The last mini-paragraph:

stomers to get a direct response. The delays seemed to be getting longer. I was actually beginning to feel sorry for Chase. It seemed to be so flooded with defaulting borrowers that it didn’t have time to foreclose on my house. Eight months after my last payment to the bank, I am still waiting for the ax to fall.

But he will lose his house.




Complete article and additional pages here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/ma...re-t.html?_r=1

Here is an article on the the "third wave." Apparently, we are in the middle of the 3rd wave of foreclosures.

This article discusses that those with good credit are now foreclosing on their homes because of job losses. (Note, that the Alt-A and Option Arms mortgages will reset next year, meaning a big spike in foreclosures next year in 2010).

Advertise on NYTimes.com
Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosure

Craig Lassig for The New York Times
Rick and Christine Sellman of Woodbury, Minn., fell behind on their mortgage after he was laid off and her business closed.

By PETER S. GOODMAN and JACK HEALY
Published: May 24, 2009


As job losses rise, growing numbers of American homeowners with once solid credit are falling behind on their mortgages, amplifying a wave of foreclosures.

In the latest phase of the nation’s real estate disaster, the locus of trouble has shifted from subprime loans — those extended to home buyers with troubled credit — to the far more numerous prime loans issued to those with decent financial histories.

With many economists anticipating that the unemployment rate will rise into the double digits from its current 8.9 percent, foreclosures are expected to accelerate. That could exacerbate bank losses, adding pressure to the financial system and the broader economy.

“We’re about to have a big problem,” said Morris A. Davis, a real estate expert at the University of Wisconsin. “Foreclosures were bad last year? It’s going to get worse.”

Economists refer to the current surge of foreclosures as the third wave, distinct from the initial spike when speculators gave up property because of plunging real estate prices, and the secondary shock, when borrowers’ introductory interest rates expired and were reset higher.

“We’re right in the middle of this third wave, and it’s intensifying,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “That loss of jobs and loss of overtime hours and being forced from a full-time to part-time job is resulting in defaults. They’re coast to coast.”

Link & Entire: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/bu...e.html?_r=1&hp

Addendum: Those with prime credit are the new wave of those behind on their morgagtes due to lay-offs & unemployment, and also those that get jobs after losing them are taking massive pay cuts.

Next year in 2010 you will see it getting very, very, ugly:

Regular folks with good credit will lose their homes and all of th equity in it.

For most people - this means losing everything. And they'll exhaust their savings before losing their home.

Borrowers with good credit fuel foreclosures in 1Q

The mortgage crisis is spreading and hitting new heights: Borrowers with good credit now make up the largest share of foreclosures as job losses and pay cuts exact their toll.
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE
AP Real Estate Writer

NEW YORK — The mortgage crisis is spreading and hitting new heights: Borrowers with good credit now make up the largest share of foreclosures as job losses and pay cuts exact their toll.

A record 12 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were behind on their payments in the first quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. And the trend is predicted to continue until the end of next year, about six months after unemployment is expected to peak.


The genesis of the recession - risky adjustable-rate loans made to borrowers with bad credit - remains a significant factor in foreclosures. Today, almost half of all subprime ARMs are past due or in foreclosure. In Florida, New Jersey and New York the number is above 55 percent.


When those borrowers started defaulting in droves in late 2006, it forced dozens of lenders out of business and sparked a credit crisis in the summer of 2007.


Businesses nationwide couldn't get short-term loans to finance new orders or even cover their payrolls. Economic production began shrinking at the end of 2007 in what has become the longest recession in the United States since World War II.
The impact has now filtered out, consuming homeowners who until recently had a good track record of paying their bills on time. Nearly 6 percent of these prime borrowers with fixed-rate mortgages were past due or in foreclosure, nearly doubling in the last year.


"These (borrowers) are the best of the best out there," said real estate analyst Mike Larson with Weiss Research in Jupiter, Fla. "Clearly, borrowers far and wide are getting hit by this."


The worst of the trouble continues to be focused in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, which accounted for 46 percent of new foreclosures in the country and reported the worst delinquency and foreclosure rates on prime fixed-rate loans. The four have suffered massive job cuts in the housing industry. There were no signs of improvement.


But experts expect the pain to spread throughout the country as job losses mount. MBA's chief economist Jay Brinkmann estimates the unemployment rate will top out in mid-2010 and foreclosures to abate about six months afterward.


The number of newly laid off people requesting jobless benefits fell last week, the government said Thursday, but the number of people receiving unemployment benefits reached 6.78 million in mid-May, the highest on record.


The continuing rise in unemployment, which economists say could reach double digits, means more trouble for the ailing financial system and the economy. Lower incomes and lost jobs are the No. 1 reason people lose their homes through foreclosure. Higher unemployment also means people have less money to spend on basic necessities, let alone luxuries.


And borrowers without jobs are harder for lenders to help with loan modifications.
Nadine Harris in Bakersfield, Calif., is hoping to modify her 30-year fixed-rate mortgage under President Barack Obama's loan modification and refinancing program introduced earlier this year.


The 55-year-old was laid off two years ago by Sears after working there 34 years. Harris found another job, but she makes $20,000 less a year. The $925 she takes home every two weeks doesn't cover her $1,522 mortgage and other living expenses. She's used all her savings to stay current on her payments, but next month the reserves will run dry.


"I'll have to scrimp to make up the payment in June," she said.
Jodi Woodsmith, a housing counselor at Self-Help Enterprises in Visalia, Calif., said in the last eight weeks she's seen more and more homeowners with similar stories walk through her door.

"Those who had savings, they've exhausted their savings hoping they could ride it out," she said.

Link & Entire: Real Estate | Borrowers with good credit fuel foreclosures in 1Q | Seattle Times Newspaper

Hey New York, Here Comes The Housing Bust

Jun. 15, 2009

Important question for New York City: With the housing market kinda-maybe-sorta stabilizing in the rest of the country, will the Big Apple avoid a monster crash, or will it get its comeuppance several quarters late?

It's not like NYC hasn't been hit yet, but the widespread phenomenon of underwater homeowners and foreclosures hasn't been seen or felt quite so acutely in the city that birthed the financial crisis.

Signs suggest the dam will burst.

Reuters: ...the number of sales in new developments dropped a whopping 71 percent in April from a year earlier as condo developers enmeshed in complicated financing arrangements have been slow to slash prices even as the market corrected all around them, Kim said.

But if prices on these new condo towers do not fall to match the rest of the market and stay empty as a result, then it could eventually trigger foreclosures of entire properties, forcing much bigger price cuts as lenders seek to reduce their liability.

"If you have a property not priced at market, is it going to sell? Something has to give," said Jonathan Miller, author of real estate broker Prudential Douglas Elliman's market reports.

This seems to be a pretty widespread thing in New York: denial.

more

http://www.businessinsider.com/hey-n...ng-bust-2009-6

Originally Posted by beazalbob69

Originally Posted by Spin

^ If that womans rental property had tenants, presuambly they were paying, but the house was being foreclosed on. How does that happen?, rental income should cover the mortage payment? No?

Originally Posted by Milkman

More news. More momentum downward....no bottom yet.

And this on a day when this real estate index rose 7.6%
....end of Q1 hedge fund manipulation

This is happening to me right now. Owner hasnt paid mortage since January. I have been paying rent every month. Where is it going? Now I decided to leave and they threaten legal action for the rest of the years rent because I signed a new lease in Febuary. Nobody told me anything until I got copies of the forclosure papers a couple of week ago. People like this make me sick. I have no rights as a renter. When the bank takes the house back my lease is gone along with my security deposit, But I cant leave and break the lease now. What a bunch of bullshit!

Sorry to hear this BeazalBob.

On the youtube I posted here in the "Lost Vegas" thread, after the owner of a house went into active and official foreclosure, the Constable (a police officer) goes to the house, knocks on the door, and says: "you have 2 hours to remove your belongings."

Terrible situation. No warning. None. It shouldn't be this way at all. After the belongings are in the drive way or on the sidewalk, all of the locks are changed by the police officer and yellow "do not enter" tape is put up.

This must be happening all over.

But not letting you break a lease sounds dodgy. Have you consulted some with legal knowledge about this?

Best of luck, and keep us posted.

Here is the next wave, as described on 60 Minutes last month.

Note the light yellow and 2010 and 2011. Around May/June of next year in June 2010, we're going to see people in $400,000+ houses, go into foreclosure.

^ a continuation of the above, but this is about the foreclosures to the the higher rates of unemployment. Next wave will begin in 8 months, in Feb/March of 2010.

Here is an article out today, June 23, 2009. The mortgage forclosures are now spreading. At first it was California, Nevada, and Florida that were the worst areas (and they still are) but now it's hitting places like Boise Idaho, and Hawaii.

Remember, in 2010 & 2011, the next big wave of foreclosure will hit people with good credit, high incomes and high FICO scores. It's called Option Arm and Alt-A. These coming waves of foreclosures are based on mathematical models.

Lost jobs forcing more out of homes
June 23, 2009.

Unlike the foreclosure wave that began in 2007 and was driven by risky subprime loans, the latest increases are the result of the recession, which brought a sharp rise in unemployment across the country.


BIGGEST INCREASES


WASHINGTON — The nation's foreclosure crisis — once largely confined to only a few corners of the country — is spreading to new areas as the economy teeters. The foreclosure rates in 40 of the nation's counties that have the most households have already doubled from last year, a USA TODAY analysis of data from the listing firm RealtyTrac shows.

Most were in areas far removed from the avalanche of bad mortgages and lost homes that have hammered the U.S. housing market. Among the new areas: Boise and Green Bay, Wis.

"The ripple effect is just broadening out to cover a lot more places," says Susan Wachter, who studies real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Unlike the foreclosure wave that began in 2007 and was driven by risky subprime loans, the latest increases are the result of the recession, which brought a sharp rise in unemployment across the country, Wachter and others say.

"What we're seeing now are people who are being impacted by the slowdown," says Deputy Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ron Sims.

Nationwide, RealtyTrac says the number of default notices, auctions and repossessions was nearly 18% higher last month than in May 2008, though it dropped slightly from April.

That growth is most pronounced in areas far from the crisis' epicenter. The 40 counties where foreclosures increased most rapidly are scattered from Hawaii to tiny York, S.C. Rates there have not reached the proportions seen in hard-hit states such as California or Florida; around Green Bay, for example, RealtyTrac recorded a monthly average of one foreclosure action — which includes default notices, auctions and repossessions — for every 458 homes, compared with one foreclosure for every 178 homes around Los Angeles.

Because of high unemployment, homeowners and buyers aren't seeing a quick end to the crisis, says Dan Rowe, a real estate broker in Boise. The number of foreclosure actions there has more than doubled this year to an average of more than 770 a month, from 350 last year, according to RealtyTrac. The foreclosure rate there now rivals Los Angeles'.

USA TODAY examined foreclosure filings through April in the 500 counties that have the most households. President Obama in March said his administration would spend up to $75 billion to help borrowers struggling with expensive mortgages or debts that exceed the value of their homes.

The administration concedes that will do little for those at risk of losing their homes because of the recession. "When people don't have any income," Sims says, "then it becomes really, really tough."

Link: Lost jobs forcing more out of homes - USATODAY.com

Originally Posted by beazalbob69

This is happening to me right now. Owner hasnt paid mortage since January. I have been paying rent every month....

Same feelings as Milkie. Sorry to hear this. For sure, get some legal advice or call the bank that holds the mortgage.

Well I moved out even after the jackass who hasnt paid his mortgage for 6 months said he wouldnt let me out of the lease.

I couldnt stay there knowing he was just taking my money and stealing it from the mortgage company.

My wife and I got lucky, Her boss at the resturant is moving back to Thailand with her American husband and they needed somebody to take care of their house! I will be paying the same for rent as before but getting a really nice house with many Thai plants and trees around the yard. We can stay there as long as we want and can buy it later if we want to do that!

The woman from the management company that I paid my rent to said I prolly dont have anything to worry about as the guy who wouldnt let me break the lease has his own legal problems to take care of.

So I hope it all works out.

P.S. was a hard weekend moving to the new place Florida had some record breaking temps for June but we are all moved in now.

Rolling Stone magazine has a very interesting piece of Goldman Sachs this month, here

Here is more evidence of the growing "Prime" mortgage decline and fall, from the Wall St. Journal. The prime mortgages, once again, are the mortgages held by people with good credit. Unemployment and declining hours and wages, are causing the new wave of the Housing Bust to begin.


This new wave of Housing Bust will last for 2 full years: 2010 and 2011.

Quote:
Fannie Sees Jump in Overdue Home Loans

By JAMES R. HAGERTY
June 29, 2009

Fannie Mae reported a steep increase in the percentage of home mortgages with overdue payments.
The government-backed mortgage investor said in a monthly summary released Monday that 3.42% of the single-family mortgages it owns or guarantees were 90 days or more delinquent in April, up from 3.15% a month before.

Fannie's main rival, Freddie Mac, reported last week that its single-family delinquency rate for May was 2.62%, up from 2.44% in April.

Fannie and Freddie are the main providers of funding for U.S. home mortgages. Although the two companies bought many of the riskier types of home loans in recent years, their main business is in prime mortgages. More prime borrowers have been falling behind as they lose jobs or their incomes fall.

Richard DeKaser, an independent economist in Washington, D.C., blamed the continuing rise in loan delinquencies on the spike in job losses and on what her termed the "evaporation" of home equity amid falling home prices, leaving many borrowers without a cushion when they lose their jobs.

Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass., said recent delinquencies are "mostly driven by job losses." He expects unemployment to peak in mid-2010 at about 10.3%, up from 9.4% in May.

Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said delinquencies probably won't start to decline before the second half of next year. Prime loans now are the biggest source of growth in foreclosure starts. Much of the subprime problem has already washed through the system because very few new subprime loans have been made since early 2007. "You've essentially burned through the worst of them," Mr. Brinkmann said.

Link: Fannie Sees Jump in Overdue Home Loans - WSJ.com

26% can afford to pay the mortgage, but are just walking away.

Many underwater homeowners are deliberately walking away from mortgages

July 12, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- Would you, under any circumstances, default on your home mortgage, even if you could afford to make the monthly payments?

That's a trickier question than you might assume, according to new research from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.


The study found that 26% of the record numbers of home mortgage defaults across the country are "strategic" -- that is, calculated economic decisions to bail out of loans by owners who actually have the money to make the payments but can't handle the negative equity they're carrying caused by local property value declines.

Link & Entire: Many underwater homeowners are deliberately walking away from mortgages - Los Angeles Times

A record 1.53 million properties were in the foreclosure process -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- during the first six months of 2009. That was 9% more than the previous six months and 15% more than the same period of 2008, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac.

There were a total of 1.91 million filings resulting in 1 out of every 84 U.S. properties receiving at least filing in the first half of the year. Banks repossessed 386,800 properties.

"What this means is, despite the intensity of the efforts on the part of government and lenders we don't have a handle on foreclosures yet," said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.

And, in a bad sign for a housing recovery, there was no recorded improvement in June, the last month of the cycle. More than 336,000 homes reported foreclosure filings, the fourth straight 300,000-plus month. Filings were up 33% over last June and nearly 5% compared with May.


Don’t Buy A House,……..yet

Commercial mortgages at U.S. banks have been failing at the fastest rate in nearly 20 years, the Wall Street Journal said, citing its own analysis.

Losses on loans used to finance commercial spaces would possibly reach about $30 billion by the end of 2009 at the current rate, the article said.

link: AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: Commercial real estate shows more trouble

The banks have now got money to lend due to the stimulus packages and so now new home starts are rising again. But the banks balance sheets only stay in the black as long as the value of all the repossessed homes they now own stays up. Makes you wonder if the banks really want to flog off all these vacant home assets to the highest bidder, or are they sitting on them to control supply and thus keep the value of their assets up?

Professor or Real Estate give some current statistics. Percentage of home in foreclosure and how if you have 20% down, you'll get a mortgage loan, 10%, with a good credit you can find one somewhere, and less than 10% you won't. Returning back to the old norm.

He says the bottom has not been reached.

While home prices are still falling, the figures released Monday were another sign the housing market is finally bouncing back. Earlier this month, the government reported that new home construction rose to the highest level since last fall. And data out last week showed home resales rose almost 4 percent in June, the third straight monthly increase.

Snip

June's results were the strongest sales pace since November 2008 and exceeded the forecasts of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who expected a pace of 360,000 units. The last time sales rose so dramatically was in December 2000.

Snip

But it will still be a while before homebuilders turn into an engine for the economic recovery. Construction levels are still weak because builders still have too many unsold homes sitting vacant.

Good news,………but, I would still be wary

Originally Posted by S Landreth

While home prices are still falling

Interesting how the market works isn't it? Over priced homes no one could really afford will naturally fall to a balanced market price. Expect they will fall further before the reach the "right" price and folks start to buy.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

But it will still be a while before homebuilders turn into an engine for the economic recovery.

Agree. Still an over supply of existing homes for sale. Still a few million to be sold before demand exceeds supply.

More news:

California's default rate soars to 9.5%


Delinquencies in June are up sharply from a year ago, when 6% of borrowers were behind on their loans.[/color]
By Peter Y. Hong
July 31, 2009
About 1 in 10 Californians with a home loan is now in default, and there's growing evidence that the mortgage meltdown is spreading to commercial real estate.

The home mortgage delinquency rate -- the percentage of borrowers who have missed several payments and are in the first stage of foreclosure -- climbed in June to 9.5% in California and 9.9% in Los Angeles County, according to First American CoreLogic.

Link & Entire: California's default rate soars to 9.5% - Los Angeles Times

Although the US Housing situation still looks bleak to me, there are some bright spots.

Confidence seems to be returning, as well as a rising tide of money from outside the country, positive signs for both the high-end housing market, and the real estate market in general. Demand fed by foreign money has always been a critical piece of the real estate puzzle in South Florida.


"We're on our way out of the worst [of the economic downturn]'' said Manny Mesa, a Doral-based trial lawyer who is hunting for a bigger home for his wife and four children.


(Snip)


Banks' appetite for jumbo loans -- defined as more than $423,750 in South Florida -- had all but evaporated as lenders hunkered down to weather the storm.


“They are marketing, inviting us to their offices to meet with them to tell us what they can do,'' said Tere Bernacé, a broker specializing in waterfront properties in Coral Gables and a former banker with Barclays Capital. “They say they are trying to increase their profile again in our market.''


(Snip)


Ross, who has specialized in high-end real estate for 25 years, said typically the ultra-luxury sector takes less of a hit in real estate downturns and is usually the first to recover.


Luxury prices have held up significantly better in the current slump than the market as a whole, according to Coral Gables-based real estate analyst David Dabby.


For homes selling for more than $1 million, the price per square foot has fallen about 14 percent in Miami-Dade and 20 percent in Broward from the 2006 peak.

That compares to a 50 percent decline in the market as a whole, Dabby said.

Link: http://www.miamiherald.com/251/story/1167851.html