The Florida Retail Federation has come out against proposed casino resorts in Florida, arguing that retailers would lose sales growth in areas where the new casinos would exist, according to the South Florida Business Journal. The organization’s board, whose members include Walmart, Disney and the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock International, said casino resorts tend to “cannibalize” existing activity, according to research. “Florida has a healthy and vibrant retail economy that is driven by residents and visitors alike,” said Retail Federation President and CEO Rick McAllister. “We don’t believe new resort casinos will help our state’s retail economy grow.”
Wynwood has been picking up steam lately in its process of rejuvination. In the past two months it picked up two hip coffee houses, Panther Coffee, located at 2390 NW second ave, and Lester’s, located at 2519 NW 2nd Ave. Most people from Midtown or Edgewater can check them out during the highly popular Wynwood Art Walks but it will likely take some time before business is booming at these locations but eventually it will if the owners have the patience.
One recent important development in the area is that the new Charlie’s Angels TV series will set up home-base right in the heart of Wynwood. We already have seen some movies such as The Rock of Love being shot there as well as many other artistic endeavors but the fact that there will be a running TV show the caliber of Charlies Angels will have a much bigger impact on the local economy. If anything, the chance to spot some hot celeb’s at these coffee houses might bring some more attention to these currently low-key establishments.
The residential areas immediately around the NW 2nd Ave epicenter of Wynwood are still in bad shape and I have not seen much construction activity that would indicate immediate change is on the horizon. However, I can see that this continue improvement of this unique retail strip can create the type of fascinating embryo that will attract residential developers immediately next to it and then spread onward. The buzz is still going strong.
There has not been much commercial real estate activity on the selling side. I believe because many real estate owners are either underwater on their mortgages and the banks are not moving much to write off commercial loans just yet to allow for significant numbers of short sales, and also because owners see what is happening in the area and would not want to sell at depressed prices if they don’t have to. There is certainly upside potential but anyone that needs to sell now would have to contend with the reality of the market today.
Home remodeling is big these days, even in a sour economy. Or maybe because of it.
The BuildFax Remodeling Index released this week showed that August had the highest amount of remodeling since the index started in 2004, and it was the 22nd consecutive month with an increase.
BuildFax estimates that more than 3.3 million home remodeling projects in the U.S. will be completed this year. The company, based in Texas, says it tracks construction records on millions of properties from cities and counties nationwide.
“As mortgage rates hit record lows, it is apparent that millions of Americans are refinancing their homes and using some of their new monthly savings to reinvest in their homes with remodeling projects,” Joe Emison, a vice president at BuildFax, said in a statement.
Presumably, remodeling also is popular in places such as South Florida where people can’t sell their homes because their mortgages are “underwater.”
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What if the 30-year mortgage rate fell below 4% and few people cared?
We may not have to wonder much longer. The average 30-year mortgage dropped to 3.94% for the week ending Wednesday, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly rate survey released on Thursday.
Reflecting both tight credit standards and anemic demand, applications for mortgages actually fell last week, according to a separate report from the Mortgage Bankers Association on Wednesday. The MBA said overall mortgage application volume was down by a seasonally adjusted 4.3% from the prior week.
Many borrowers can’t refinance today because they don’t have enough equity or they can’t qualify under lending standards that are far tougher than when they initially obtained their mortgages.
Rates also haven’t fallen as much as might be expected, given recent drops in banks’ borrowing costs, because banks are short-staffed. To manage volumes, they’ll sometimes raise the spreads between their borrowing costs and the rates that are offered to consumers.
Refinance applications were down by 5.2% from the prior week, while home-purchase apps were down by 0.8%, according to the MBA.
More troubling for the housing market is the fact that home-purchase applications were down 12% from one year ago—a signal that worries about the economy and potential home price declines are keeping borrowers on the fence, even though mortgage rates have probably never been this low.
Freddie Mac says the rates are the lowest since its survey began in 1971, and academic research suggests that rates for 30-year mortgages were as low as 4%—but not any lower—under a loan program for war veterans in the mid-1940s. Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, spoke to the problem facing policy makers’ inability to help consumers benefit from low rates in a speech last week in Sweden. Falling home prices “have disrupted the transmission of monetary policy,” he said, resulting in “a situation where the availability of credit is more important in many cases than the cost of credit.”
Low rates could give more urgency to a recent push by the White House to fix an administration effort that allows homeowners to refinance their mortgages if they owe more than their loans are worth. The program is open to borrowers with loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“Clearly getting more money into the hands of homeowners who would spend it could help to fuel GDP growth,” said Mr. Rosengren.
Miami’s first new condo high-rise since the housing bust is set to begin construction next spring, developer Newgard Development Group announced Monday.
Called Brickell House, the $170 million project is part of a new wave of condo towers planned for downtown Miami, which saw development grind to a halt after the building frenzy that lasted from 2003 to 2008.
“Almost all of the [outstanding] inventory that we had has been absorbed in the last 18 months,” said Harvey Hernandez, managing partner and chairman of Newgard Group. “It could not be a better moment for us to launch a project.”
The 46-story tower is slated to have 374 residences, ranging from one bedrooms to penthouses. Specs include a rooftop sky deck, pool on the 46th floor and an automated robotic parking garage.
Buyers in large part will be charged with paying for the construction of the glossy tower under a financing model that will require purchasers to pay 70 percent of the asking price before construction is completed. That financing model — which is also being used for new condos recently pitched by Related Group — is more common in Latin America, where Brickell House will be heavily marketed. Prices start around $200,000.
“Let’s be realistic. The majority of buyers in Miami come from outside of the country,” Hernandez said. “Our buyers here, nobody has 70 percent. Nobody can afford that.”
Hernandez said he believes the housing market will have substantially rebounded by the time the project opens, with strong international demand and a more vibrant downtown.
Peter Zalewski, of Bal Harbour-based CondoVultures, said he’s not so sure. He said sales of new downtown condos have begun to slow down, and supply is set to increase dramatically as a slew of new projects begins to come online.
“There are too many [projects] that are suddenly all popping up at the same time,” he said. “At least from a promotional perspective, it’s starting to look like 2005 and 2006 again.”
Additionally, a condo tower called Villa Magna is approved to open on a nearby plot with more direct water views than the land-locked Brickell House site, potentially providing stiff competition.
While the Miami real estate estate is nowhere near the levels of the boom years, some experts say Miami-Dade County home prices could rise. “You can see that our monthly closings and sales are inching up,” said Patrick O’Connell, a senior vice president of new business development at EWM, speaking at a real estate luncheon last week in Coral Gables. “All the numbers are going in the right direct now, and that’s what we want to see.” Jack Levine, chairman of the board of the Miami Association of Realtors, said the only real hangup was the continued struggle for financing. “The buyers are coming in here and they want to buy, and the pricing is great.”
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The Chophouse Miami Bisro & Lounge will go under the knife, after being purchased by chef Jacques Van Staden. The project, which will involve the addition of a sushi bar and a cigar-friendly outdoor patio, is slated for completion by Thanksgiving. “When the opportunity arose for me to take it over and remake it as my own, I couldn’t resist,” he said. The restaurant is located at 300 South Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami.
Construction will begin on a $170 million, 46-story, 374-unit condominium in Miami come next spring, the Miami Herald reported, marking the first new high-rise condo since the housing bust.
Developed by Newgard Development Group at 1300 Brickell Bay Drive, the tower, called Brickell House, is slated to include a rooftop sky deck, a pool on the 46th floor and an automated parking garage. Newgard said it’s a good time to begin construction as much of the firm’s inventory has been absorbed over the last 18 months.
Newgard will depend on prospective buyers to finance construction. Purchasers will need to pay 70 percent of the asking price before construction is completed. It’s a model that is typical of Latin American construction, which is appropriate for the development that Newgard plans to market to foreign buers.
“Let’s be realistic. The majority of buyers in Miami come from outside of the country,” said Newgard Chairman Harvey Hernandez. “Our buyers here, nobody has 70 percent. Nobody can afford that.”
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