Real estate economist Ken Johnson, a real estate expert, said on the Anti-Social podcast last week that, yes, indeed the condo market is taking a hit right now but is not in crisis as some have said.
The condo market in Miami is one of the most volatile in the country, said Johnson, a professor at Florida Atlantic University. “Condos are the canary in the coal mine for Miami,” he said. “What condos do, that kind of leads to the rest of the housing market.”
Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate brokerage firm, reported Florida’s condo market is faltering because of increasing intensity of natural disasters pushing up property insurance costs and HOA fees soaring in wake of the 2021 Surfside condo collapse.
“(It’s) definitely hurting the number of transactions that we’re seeing. I believe this is probably being driven mostly if not exclusively by, again, these assessments. It’s not the insurance, it’s not the interest rates right now,” Johnson said.
Johnson, though, is hardly playing Chicken Little, saying the market is just going through its usual cyclical ups and downs – and Miami’s market is unique with a lot of foreign investment and residents that are not just part time but might visit only two or three times a year.
“If I’m a buyer, there’s probably going to be some good buys in the near-term future,” he said. “”The condo market will be more super-sensitive to pricing than single family.”
Johnson also talks on Anti-Social about that single-family home market – newsflash Generation Z, your anxiety about ever owning a home is no different than generations before you, he says.
Anti-Social also dives into lurid comments caught on tape by the lead detective in the Oscar Olea case, as well as, what the next step may be for the Village in regulating e-bikes and electric scooters.
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