October 2021 Summary, Commentary, & Wrap Up!
Fourth Quarter 2021 has gotten off to a strong start! The latest numbers are showing that home sales were UP substantially and housing starts were lower than expected. I posted to LinkedIn an article and made mention that greater demand, historically low MLS inventories, and fewer home starts will act as a buoy for home pricing; I am not saying prices will go up further I am perceiving that higher prices are being resisted by Buyers, but I do expect current price levels in all markets to remain at or about where they are now for the foreseeable future, that is barring any legislative lunacy the incumbent party might pass, such as this:
A recent Tweet from @MIABeachBroker
(A LOT more on market trends at the end of the article where I link to a number of articles that demonstrate a very clear trend(s) in the Miami Real Estate market)
In brokerage news, at the beginning of the month, we sent out our October magazine mailing of American Lifestyle, courtesy of Christopher Lazaro, Licensed Real Estate Broker, featuring great seasonal reads, recipes, travel tips, and more! He is actively seeking feedback on this monthly mailing, so please be sure to let us know!
Additional work went into the Miami Beach Brokers® Official Website and CRM including the addition of new features for calculating driving distance on the map, the implementation of a social media procurement service, blog updates. and the system became ready to begin adding additional agents to the platform! We are always interested in getting feedback, especially any negative feedback on our website at MiamiBeachBrokers.com! PLEASE let us know if something is not working correctly or if you have any ideas for improvements!
This October, Miami Beach Brokers® welcomed its newest licensed real estate agent, Camilla Orozco, into the company and onto the platform! Ms. Orozco is originally from Colombia and is fluent in both English & Spanish. Her website can be found at https://CamillaOrozco.MiamiBeachBrokers.com and will be working with her own clientele as well as assisting the company with some of the lead overflow coming from around the country and the world!
Also, this month, we welcomed a seasoned professional & Florida Licensed Real Estate Sales Associate, Naika Cook, whose license was originally with Metro International Investments, our sister real estate brokerage focused on off-market residential & commercial real estate, into the Miami Beach Brokers® team and onto the new system based on kvCORE. Naika is fluent in both English and Creole. Her website can be found at https://NaikaCook.MiamiBeachBrokers.com.
In October 2021 real estate market news:
September home sales surged to an 8-month high, while September home starts fell across the boards and even August’s number was revised further down. As I indicate in my LinkedIn post below, Fear Of Missing Out (on low-interest rates) is only exacerbating real estate shortages, record low MLS inventories, and helping buoy home prices at their elevated levels.
In Florida, we are also seeing a lot of demand from people who are fleeing the Marxism/Communism of the North and the West, and the Governors-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. There is a divide in this country and it is NOT according to party lines, it is a divide in ideology and in what is acceptable government policy, even during a pandemic, on what a Constitutional Republic’s government can do, and what it cannot do.
In just the past year, Florida has seen, according to the US Census, more than 500,000 people move into the State! Both Florida and Texas top the list and this trend is not new; as policies in certain states have skewed further and further to the Left over the past 10 years, more and more people have been moving out of the states: it is being called The Great Migration.
It is not just a flight to different states however, The Brookings Institute wrote an informative article on the flight from Urban to Suburban & Rural areas as a result of the 2020 Pandemic. The COVID-19 event has forevermore changed society and in many ways has had people reevaluate their priorities and living & lifestyle preferences. Endless research, literature, opinions, and other pontifications about the past two years will be getting public attention and publishing for decades to come.
As a result of this migration, especially to Southeast Florida, and specifically Miami, according to Real Deal Magazine, the authoritative trade magazine for the real estate industry, Miami has overtaken Los Angeles as the 2nd most expensive city in the United States to live in.
However, despite Miami’s proximity to New York City on the list, inflation would really have to see an epic uptick before becoming as expensive to live in as New York City. Here is an article that clearly demonstrates the differences in living expenses (between living in New York City and Miami) in current dollar terms and its bottom line is that a person making $50,000 per year in Miami would need to make over $76,000 to have any chance of maintaining the same standard of living.
Broker Note: Just reading that paragraph above makes me so happy that I am living on the Miami Beaches and specializing in the Miami Beach Real Estate markets. I am originally from the suburbs of New York City and tried the corporate commuter lifestyle for years, I don’t miss it at all, especially now that winter is approaching. I recall mornings getting up at 4:30 am so I could be on a train by 6:30 am, or mornings where I had to drive into Manhattan or Brooklyn having to scrape ice off of my windshield while standing in high winds with freezing rain dampening the very start of my day and putting a chill in my body that would last the entire day. That was 20 years ago before I changed my life by moving to Southeast Florida!
As the last business day of October begins I bid you all a happy Halloween weekend! I will be spending it with my beautiful little girl, Aryel, who recently got her first home! I shared the post below on Social Media but I am memorializing it here on this blog. Have a happy & safe weekend! On to November and let the Holiday Season begin!
