Florida’s luxury residential real estate market has been breaking records with properties selling for never-before-seen prices. However, the overall slowdown in sales has resulted in more price cuts and longer closing times.
Miami Beach is one city where price reductions or discounts are becoming more prevalent, with nearly all $5 million-and-up sales trading at a discount off the asking price. The slowdown in home sales has created a divide between older homes in need of repairs and new or renovated properties, with new …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Kathleen Corradi, a city education official, will take the long-promised job: “You’ll be seeing a lot of me, and a lot less rats.”
So far, the new czar already announced she would be taking dead-aim at what even the mayor himself called a “simple thing” that rodent-concerned residents say the city ignores: trash bins.
“Fighting rats starts with fighting litter, garbage and food waste,” Corradi said. “Every anti-rat initiative starts with making sure food related waste gets into bin that rats can’t.”
(source: patch.com, …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Those anticipating a downward correction in the Manhattan retail market will have to wait for another quarter.
According to a report by CBRE, ground-floor retail availability decreased across 16 of Manhattan’s shopping corridors in the first quarter of 2023, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of a drop in availability. The average asking rent increased to $638 per square foot, a rise of 3.7% from Q4 2022 and 8% YoY, with this being the third straight quarter of asking rents increasing. The aggregate of …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
March was a hot month across the city
The monthly contract activity stood at 1,164 in March, down 22% compared to last year, up 2.2% from the 1138 historical average for the month of March, and 39% more deals closed than in February. Newly built or newly converted apartments across the city saw a 25% increase in deals compared to pre-pandemic averages for the month. The largest contract to close in March was a $66.5 million sale for two penthouse apartments at Naftali Group’s The Bellemont …
by Riccardo Ravasini Miami developer Harvey Hernandez faced a tough market competition with out-of-state high-rise builders for land deals in the city last year. However, the sellers’ attitude towards development sites has significantly changed, and they are now willing to negotiate 5 to 10 percent price discounts and better terms. Land prices in Miami’s urban core fell after the second quarter of last year due to a dwindling inventory of suitable sites for condominium and multifamily developments and rising interest rates, pushing land …
by Riccardo Ravasini