June 2021
Foreign purchasers have long comprised a large share of home buyers in South Florida. But this year, they are being outnumbered by California and Northeast U.S. transplants, who viewed the pandemic as a catalyst to relocate from their dense urban areas and high-tax states. The result? Record-low inventory levels of single-family homes in South Florida, leading naturally to cutthroat rivalry for larger, three-bedroom condominiums.
Unfortunately for would-be buyers of condominiums big enough for a family and work-from-home set-up, the trend since the end of the Great Recession has been to build smaller, not larger, condominium homes. According to Edgardo Defortuna, president and CEO of Fortune Real Estate Group, South Florida condo developers focused on building smaller units priced under $1 million, and aimed at Latin American investors buying units to rent them out.