South Florida was devastated—there is no other word for it—by the housing meltdown. Fortunes were lost. Savings were decimated. Retirements were ruined. Families were crippled. And lives were destroyed.
In fact, as of May 2010, more than half of the homeowners in Greater Fort Lauderdale—54 percent—owed more on their homes than their homes were worth; in other words, more than half were “under water” on their houses. That same month, some experts came out with an estimate that it would take South Florida some 15 to 20 years for home prices to reach the same levels they were at in 2006.
In the spring of 2010, median prices for existing homes were still falling in Broward County. But for the first time, some experts were seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Broward County’s median price at that time was $186,700, down 13 percent from a year ago, but up slightly from a few months earlier, according to a report by the Florida Realtors Association. And many observers were predicting the end of significant price declines. Just a couple of months earlier, Broward had reported a 6 percent increase in sales over the same period a year earlier.
There was one segment of the Broward County housing market, however, that was actually growing in the spring of 2010. The existing condominium market—especially waterfront condos—was especially hot. Sales were 40 percent higher than the same period a year earlier—although the median price of $71,500 was 17 percent below that of February 2009. Nearly every condo in South Florida lost value in the past four years, with some tumbling 50 percent or more. But waterfront properties have held up better than most. While virtually no buildings have been spared, values in high-end condos hugging the coast have been the most resilient, analysts said, because of the inherent lure of the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.
Overview
Waterfront land is, obviously, finite. There’s just so much of it to go around. And when it’s all built up, there’s nowhere else to build. That bodes well if you’re a homeowner now in a waterfront area. Because, sure as shootin’, when the land for new waterfront condos runs out, the condos already there are going to really appreciate in value. And if you’re not yet a homeowner there—but you’re thinking abut becoming one—now may be the time to act. Waterfront prices won’t remain deflated forever.
Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the periphery of downtown were actually less damaged than the Miami and West Palm Beach core areas during the downturn. Condo units in Miami and West Palm Beach were overbuilt during the crazy speculation of the early 2000s. In Fort Lauderdale, though, city commissioners were more restrained in their approach to downtown development, fearing the effects of overdevelopment. As a result, they didn’t rubber stamp every developer’s request that came along. Accordingly, Fort Lauderdale’s downtown didn’t suffer as much as the other two cities’ downtowns.
“Held up better than most” is not the same thing as “held up,” however. The median price for existing condos in Broward in March 2010 was $73,600—a 66 percent drop from the February 2006 peak of $216,800.