Mymiamiblog

I have been worked up most of today from an article I read on the front page of my local newspaper this morning titled “Condo dwellers finding empty buildings“.  The article is a very well written story about downtown Miami and the new condo buildings dotting the downtown skyline.  The problem I have with the article is that we already know the majority of the condominium units in these buildings remain unsold after the original buyers either walked away from the purchases or have been unable to get financing.  (This is something that has been talked about on tv, newspapers, and on the web many times over already.) What this article negates to mention however, is that many of the developers of these buildings are now  renting the vacant units to tenants, and now that prices have come down in most of these same buildings we are actually seeing contracts being signed and closed.  In my office alone I know of at least 14 sales in 3 seperate buildings in the Brickell area of downtown in the past month.

Now for my sense of consternation: How can one article posted on June 11, 2009 say “Downtown Miami condos filling up fast” and just 11 days later print another article saying or implying almost the complete opposite?

We need to understand that some people believe everything that they read.  If you print one thing and a few days later print the complete opposite all you are going to do is create more confusion to an already confusing subject matter. Confused yet???

Yes there are still vacant units, more in some buildings than in others but this is steadily changing.  As people start to move in to the downtown area we will start to see a downtown with vibrancy, and with life after dark not just from 9:00 to 5:00.  Once we see this new life in downtown more people will want to be closer to our urban core turning rented units into owner occupied units, and renters into owners.  This will not happen in a year or two but it will happen, and when it does these first residents will be considered the pioneers and these first buyers will have made a great investment.

I guess that both articles are speaking the truth just depends from which point of view you see it.  ”Is the glass half full, or half empty?”  So why not do an article where you talk about both subjects and where you can talk about what all of this is doing to the downtown area; put it all out there and let us decide which way we want to see things.