New condo sales in Greater Downtown Miami slowed by 53 percent in the 2011 on a year-over-year basis compared to 2010 as developer inventory decreased and the average price increased by 21 percent as of Dec. 31, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

Buyers purchased nearly 1,750 new units for a combined $800 million between January and December of 2011 to reduce the number of unsold units controlled by the original developers to eight percent of the nearly 22,250 condos created in Greater Downtown Miami during the South Florida real estate boom, according to a new report based on an analysis of Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser data.

The remaining unsold developer units are situated in two dozen of the more than 80 condo projects that were created in a 60-block stretch comprised of the Brickell Avenue Area, Downtown Miami, and the Biscayne Boulevard Corridor during the real estate boom that began in 2003, according to an analysis based on the Condo Vultures® Official Condo Buyers Guide To Miami™.

"Buyers are acquiring an average of nearly 150 developer condos per month for $368 per square foot in Greater Downtown Miami," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "The transaction velocity remains strong in early 2012 even though the average developer sales price has increased from less than $300 per square foot in 2009 and $305 per square foot in 2010. The unanswered question is whether buyers - especially international investors with foreign currencies that have weakened against the U.S. dollar in recent months - will continue to acquire unsold developer units at the same pace as prices increase and the selection decreases in Greater Downtown Miami."

CondoVultures.com is scheduled to profile new unit sales by project in the fourth quarter of 2011 in the seven largest coastal condo markets in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

Beginning the week of Jan. 16, the Condo Vultures® Market Intelligence Report™ plans to publish a seven-part weekly series analyzing new condo sales trends in Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island.

At the current sales pace, the Greater Downtown Miami condo market could be sold out by the first quarter of 2013.

A year ago in December 2010, developers controlled 16 percent - nearly 3,500 units - of the new inventory in Greater Downtown Miami. In December 2009, the number of unsold developer units represented 33 percent - nearly 7,200 units - of the new inventory added to the market during the condo boom, according to the report.

Competition is intensifying in Greater Downtown Miami as bulk owners attempt to resell units at the ICON Brickell, Paramount Bay, and Vizcayne - formerly the Everglades on the Bay - for a premium and a series of recently announced new projects strive to catch the attention of buyers.

At least 10 new towers with more than 3,200 units are proposed for Greater Downtown Miami which has been the epicenter of the South Florida crash, according to the CondoVultures.com Preconstruction Condo Projects list.

Spurred by a strong pool of foreign investors, attractive land prices, and competitive building costs, developers are proposing or already constructing the 23 Biscayne Bay, MyBrickell, Sky Palace at Mary Brickell Village, Brickell Citicentre, the Resorts World Miami, and BrickellHouse in the Greater Downtown Miami market that stretches from the Julia Tuttle Causeway south to the Rickenbacker Causeway, and Interstate 95 east to Biscayne Bay,

Of the more 20,000 developer units created and sold since 2003, about 90 percent of the Greater Downtown Miami condos are owned by investors and second-home buyers as of July 2011, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.

Greater Downtown Miami has the lowest rate of primary users - based on Homestead Exemptions filings - in South Florida's seven largest coastal condo markets east of Interstate 95 in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, according to the report.

The high concentration of investors and second-home buyers with foreign currencies focused on Greater Downtown Miami is contributing to the new found optimism about future development, industry watchers said.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the transaction activity for developer units in Greater Downtown Miami was concentrated in 18 projects, according to the report.

Of the nearly 250 developer units to change ownership in the fourth quarter of 2011, the greatest number of unit transactions occurred at the Axis on Brickell condominium in the Brickell Avenue Area of Greater Downtown Miami.

Nearly 45 developer units at the two-tower condo project were purchased on an individual deal basis for a combined $11.7 million between October and December of 2011, according to the report.

The Infinity at Brickell is the project with the next highest number of developer unit transactions in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Buyers purchased more than 30 units for nearly $10 million at the 52-story tower with more than 450 units near South Miami Avenue in the Brickell Avenue Area, according to the report.

None of the other 16 projects that sold developer units in the fourth quarter of 2011 were able to surpass 30 or more transactions during the same three-month span, according to the report.

Overall, developers unloaded more than 270,000 square feet of salable space for $98.5 in Greater Downtown Miami in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the report.

It is worth noting an additional 1,000 units in Greater Downtown Miami that were previously purchased by bulk buyers are now being actively marketed for resale on an offmarket basis, according to an analysis by the licensed Florida brokerage CVR Realty™.

An additional 900 condos that were built and sold to individual buyers since 2003 are currently on the resale market at a median asking price of nearly $380 per square foot in Greater Downtown Miami as of Jan. 18, 2012, according to Florida Realtors association data.

Between 1963 and 2002, developers constructed 11,500 units in the Greater Downtown Miami market. The boom years of 2003 to 2010 nearly tripled the total inventory to nearly 34,000 units in Greater Downtown Miami.

The overall inventory could have been even greater if not for several proposed projects such as 600 Biscayne, Capital at Brickell, and Infinity at Brickell II being delayed or even canceled during the crash.

It is important to note there are various stages to a residential real estate transaction in South Florida.

A transaction begins when a property is made available for sale and ends when a title is conveyed from one party to another party as a result of the recording of a deed with the local government.

As part of the process, a property typically goes under contract and into a due diligence phase by which a deal can be canceled.

The CondoVultures.com new condo sales report is based on completed transactions where a deed is recorded and taxes paid as a result of the sale.

Condo Vultures® LLC is a real estate consultancy and marketing company based at 1005 Kane Concourse, Suite 205, Bal Harbour, Florida, 33154. You can reach Condo Vultures® LLC at 800-750-0517.

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