Take Miami, just a few years ago a symbol of the excesses of the real estate boom. Sales in Miami were up 34.1 percent in September from the same month last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales in other hard-hit areas also rose. Atlanta was up 24.7 percent and Phoenix was up 25.3 percent in September.
According to a separate report by the Miami Association of Realtors released last month, sales in Miami were on pace to hit 29,000 this year, higher than the record set in 2005. That said, prices are nowhere near what they were in those frothier days. While condo prices rose 17 percent in September, they were coming off a very low base; prices for single-family homes continued to fall, down 6 percent to $131,000.
The Richmans see the two condos as investments. They paid cash for them, just as they would have if they had made investments in a brokerage account. (The Miami Association of Realtors said 63 percent of buyers this year paid cash, compared with 30 percent nationwide, according to the national Realtors' report. Most of those buyers, the organization said, were investors.)...
...Another difference from years past is who is buying. It is not the leveraged buyer of the boom but wealthier people who are looking for safe harbors for their money. Their hope is for a 2 or 3 percent return on the properties today that will grow to an 8 or 10 percent return in five to 10 years. Such returns would be very generous - or the sign of another bubble. But buyers believe that vacation homes in crucial markets are priced at the bottom, while investors from abroad see these areas as safe harbors that could drive up their returns.
