Boom of condo crash loudest in Miami

Orlando Sentinal ^ | August 27, 2007 | Maya Bell

[Rb ver. 2.0]

MIAMI - The champagne-popping days are over for Natalie and David Luongo, who banked enough money flipping a South Florida condo three years ago to stage a $100,000 wedding.

Now the couple are spending restless nights wrestling with the question that looms like a guillotine: Should they walk away from the $117,000 deposit they plunked down on another investment condo in the ritzy Miami-Dade enclave of Bal Harbour?

[Rb ver. 2.0]

"Multiple construction cranes fill the skyline off Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami, where the nation's most glutted condo market can be found. Orlando has 4,440 condos listed for sale; Miami has 23,000. (SUSAN STOCKER/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL / August 7, 2007)"

[dfwgator]

[NonValueAdded]

opportunity knocks ... get ‘em before the sea rises and global warming sets them on fire.

[kittymyrib]

Explain to me why struggling middle class tax payers are supposed to bail out these spoiled speculators and their bankers.

[2banana]

Owners of a gourmet shop, the transplanted New Yorkers poured their life savings into deposits on four condos they had planned to flip for a quick profit.

...

But they were forced to close on a condo in Boynton Beach, where they now live, and they face the prospect of losing nearly $200,000

And these are the FOOLS that the liberal candidates are now trying to pander to with a government bailout...

[LIConFem]

Because the spoiled speculators and their bankers have generally have more money to buy politicians than middle class taxpayers.

[org.whodat]

Explain to me why struggling middle class tax payers are supposed to bail out these spoiled speculators and their bankers.

I hope they lose their ass and wind up living in a 69 VW bus.

[Perdogg]

Perdogg in Miami??? hmmm......might be a good idea; warm weather, latin women..;)

[dfwgator]

Sounds like a lot of potential bargains out there for some nice condos.

[Greg F]

I’d laugh harder at the $100,000 wedding by the condo flippers in Miami if I didn’t own a condo in S. Florida! That said, it’s a fixed rate mortgage, I’m living there more cheaply than I could rent, and the condo still retains a good 3000% return in 7 years against the downpayment . . . so . . . I will laugh. Har Har.

[1Old Pro]

Explain to me why struggling middle class tax payers are supposed to bail out these spoiled speculators and their bankers.

We didn't share their profit so we shouldn't share their loss.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Sweet irony when the city buys unfinished condo hi-rises at a song to turn into public housing in the midst of the other half million dollar private condos.

[keepitreal]

This is what happens when you take your investment advice from the guy sitting next to you at a bar. “Jump in! I made a ton of dough.”

[Babu]

I’ve been following the stories of the Condo Collapse going on in S. Florida, and it is an incredible story. Here in Arizona, both homes and condos have slipped in value only in the low single digits, so we have been more fortunate than S. FL ...

[LetsRok]

You did share their profit. They paid capital gains taxes on the profit. Wait until you (the govt) gets the bill when they write off their loss on next years return.

[Biggs of Michigan]

I do believe my give a damn is busted.....

[Southack]

"Just how many other speculators face the same dilemma in the nation's most glutted condo market will become clear during the next two years. That is when 25,000 new condo units, most of them rising in or near Miami's downtown, will flood an area already saturated with 23,000 condos listed for sale."

Wow!

[Leisler]

It is always, thank God, this way. I’ve read about every financial period in American History from the greedy, debt ridden colony settlers that waded ashore, Ohio canal stocks, Washington was a land speculator, and on and on. Boom and bust. It works better than anyplace in the world. Those condo buildings have taxes every year and will have to be sold and they will be sold at market prices at the time they are sold. Sounds fine to me.

[lilylangtree]

That’s a real response. I like it.

[Sender]

I find it amazing that they continue to build expensive high-rises, openly admitting that there is no need for them. Who is paying for all this unnecessary construction anyway, speculators? Haven’t they gotten the memo?