S & J Journal

Price appreciation, low mortgage rates, and declining inventories in 2013 together contributed to more bidding wars. Take a look at our Sunday, December 29, 2013 Miami Herald Neighbors page for a market outlook...

Florida Realtors gives clear reasoning on the pros and cons of renting versus buying real estate... read the article .

In Coral Gables, home sales slowed down slightly in the last few months, while i nventory climbed in September after a steady four-year downward clip from 650 homes on the MLX in 2009 to 260 homes in May of 2013. Now we are up to 273 single-family homes for sale but this has just inched up since June.    Although   Florida Realtors  reported that U.S. home prices are rising but at a slower pace than months before, we see the same thing in the Gables.   We do not foresee prices dropping. They have only fallen once (in 2007-2008) since I started selling real estate in the early 1970's. What we do predict is that buyers will begin to be more particular and not rush so much to get into a bidding war where multiple offers come in the first week on well-priced new listings.  The number of days listings are on the market will increase a bit.  We are going to be shifting from a very strong seller's market to a less st...

Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Index reported home prices rose the most since February 2006.  Read more in the Florida Realtors article. In Coral Gables, this figure is even higher as inventory decreases.   101 homes were listed for sale in the Gables in August 2013. That is down 1.9% compared to the previous month and 8.2% lower than the same time last year. The Average Sold Price per Square Footage in August 2013 for the Gables was $297. It is up 0.3% compared to July 2013 and 11.8% higher than last year.   Jeannett

Looking back four years provides an interesting overview on the inventory drop in Coral Gables. See our latest Miami Herald ad showing these statistics. Come see our new listing at 630 Majorca, Coral Gables , this Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m.

1421 Ancona Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33146 Sip your morning coffee on the quaint front porch of this Colonial 3 bedroom/3.5 bath home with Family room, library and playroom. Extensively renovated and expanded in 2006 with high-end finishes and architectural details. Kitchen is equipped with restaurant grade appliances, butcher block counters and wood cabinetry. Fireplace, hardwood floors, crown molding, Plantation shutters, cherry wood built-ins, surround sound. Impact windows and doors. North of Miller Drive between Alhambra and San Amaro. Firm price. 1-car garage. 10,500’ lot with room for a pool. See more about this listing. Feel free to call us 305-975-8158.

We are down to just 239 homes for sale on the MLX in all of Coral Gables ranging in price from roughly $349,000 for a darling 1 bedroom/1 bath Old Spanish with 879 adj.sq.ft. on a 5,000 foot lot on Tangier Street in north Gables, to a $25,000,000 mansion in Tahiti Beach that has 10 bedrooms/10 baths and 21,000+ adj.sq.ft. on a 62,000 foot waterfront property with its own beach.  Of the 239 homes for sale, 6 are under $400,000, 98 are under $1M, and ten are at $10,000,000 or higher.    

Over the past 20 years, the average interest rate has been between 6% and 7%. We have had record low interest rates in the past two years and they are heading up again. Jumbo loan mortgage rates have recently risen to 4.5% and are continuing to climb. The time to buy is now to get the best investment. The average sale price of a home in the past three months in Coral Gables is about $1M.   This is what your payments would look like if you purchased a $1M home at today’s rates (based on 20% down/$800,000 loan) and if those increase. Contact our friends at Home Financing Center at 305-777-1100 for additional details.

As Seen in The Miami Herald : "Jeannett Slesnick, a broker-owner at Slesnick & Jochem LLP in Coral Gables, said the top challenge in the current market is the dearth of inventory amid rising demand. “It’s red hot. Red, red hot,’’ she said.  Slesnick recently listed a 3/2 old Spanish in north Gables that needed extensive work ... and got multiple offers on it almost immediately. It sold for over asking price." R ead the full article.

Florida Realtors reported yesterday that U.S. home prices “jumped in February by the largest amount in 7 years, evidence that the housing recovery strengthened ahead of the all-important spring-buying season.” The real estate data research company CoreLogic reported that home prices rose 10.2% in February compared to the same time last year. For 12 months straight, prices have been steadily climbing. (Coral Gables has also seen a steady increase in home prices in the past year. Several reasons were cited for the increase in prices: more sales of previously owned homes and a very low inventory of homes for sale. The cities with the largest home price increases were Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Riverside, Calif. Although home values remain low, down 26% since April of 2006, consumer confidence is being fueled by higher home prices - enticing buyers to act quickly on a purchase before prices rise further and making homeowners feel the...

We are down to 239 houses in the Gables...two weeks ago we had 249.  Tell all your friends to buy now. See all listings.

Read the article from Miami Today where Ron Shuffield is quoted as well as Mike Pappas. However, we are seeing an uptick again in the Gables and I think it will continue through February... Click link to see article: http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/121108/story1.shtml

Approaching housing boom... We have been saying that housing prices in the Gables have been creeping upward, a good sign of a recovering market. Now Florida Realtors reports that economists predict a new national housing boom by 2015, with prices rising by 5% to 7.5% per year and home construction by 20% per year.   Florida Realtors Article

2845 Granada Sold in 2 Days " The service and personal attention we received from Slesnick and Jochem, LLP was exceptional. Jeannett and Ginger are truly a high-caliber, high-energy team. Their knowledge of the local real estate market and their brilliant advertising approach helped us in selling our home. They recommended changes we should make to enhance the appeal to a buyer. We implemented every suggestion even though there was expense involved. We are very happy we did. Our home sold almost immediately for a price higher than we ever expected. This is not our first experience utilizing the expertise of Jeannett Slesnick and GingerJochem. They helped sell our previous home and find the home we just recently sold. In each case the results were outstanding." --written by Frank Ackermann and Julie Stroh

On the MLX, there are only 250 homes for sale in Coral Gables and just 97 of these are under $1M. Nationally... • The median single-family home price as of June is $190,100, according to the National Association of Realtors. The high was $230,900 in July 2006. • The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate is 3.59%, according to Freddie Mac, slightly above the all-time low of 3.49% last month. • The average cost to close on a mortgage fell 7% over the past year, according to Bankrate.com. Check back with us often.

As of last week... Inventory of Single Family Homes in Coral Gables is down to 271. Freddie Mac said about record low 30-year mortgage loan rates:  30-year rate fell last week from 3.53% to 3.49%. It was just over 4.5% one year ago.

-- Inventory in this sought-after neighborhood is down to 252 active listings on the MLS, so do not delay in purchasing your next property. --

We are definitely seeing a change. Over the past few years, the REO’s (bank-owned properties) listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) have typically been about 10% of the total inventory of stable neighborhoods. Contrary to what we read in the papers about this shadow inventory of distressed properties, we have not really seen it materialize in the better-selling areas of Miami-Dade County. What we are finding is that as the inventory of regular-priced single family homes has declined, so has the inventory of REO’s. Where are they going? It is our theory that many of these properties are not even making it to the MLS, but are being bought by people who are in the pipeline (such as bankers, appraisers and realtors). Currently, there are 5,280 single family homes for sale in Miami-Dade and of these 304 are REO’s, that’s 5.8%. In the Gables, there are only 277 single family homes for sale and of that 2 are REO’s, that’s 0.7%. For investors and first-time homebuyers who are lookin...

Listen to Jeannett Slesnick and Ginger Jochem on the Coral Gables Real Estate Today Radio Show on 880 AM The Biz every Wednesday from 1 to 1:30 p.m. This past week, Jeannett and Ginger gave a glimpse of the cost of real estate around the world. The price per square foot in some of the world’s biggest cities will amaze you. See how Miami compares below… LOWEST WORLDWIDE Santiago, CHILE $160/sq.ft. LOWEST USA Houston, TX $54/sq.ft. MEDIAN WORLDWIDE Athens, GREECE $890/sq.ft. MEDIAN USA Chicago, IL $158/sq.ft. (Miami, FL ranks nearby at $178/sq.ft. Coral Gables’ price per square foot is $371) HIGHEST WORLDWIDE Paris, FRANCE $3,287/sq.ft. HIGHEST USA New York, NY $1,068/sq.ft. Prices in U.S. Dollars. Figures based on 2011 MLX data and Credit Sesame Blog.