DOTTIE HERMAN'S SOUTH FLORIDA

In the 1940s, when the writer Damon Runyon was vacationing in Miami Beach, he wrote to a friend in Hollywood saying that if you visit South Florida you’re liable to get “sand in your shoes.” Once you get sand in your shoes, Runyon wrote, you’ll never want to leave.

Seventy-five years later, South Florida is just as irresistible. The Palm Beaches, Broward, and Miami-Dade are predicted to be one of the top fi ve most desired metro destinations for primary homebuyers in the nation in 2014. Places that were once regarded as only winter resorts have become year-round communities. South Florida is no longer just a mecca for a sunny retirement—although it remains one of the most popular retirement destinations in America. The average age in Miami Beach is 37, in Palm Beach it’s 36, so don’t let anybody tell you that Florida is for old folks.

Today’s South Florida is about lifestyle, white-sand beaches, and lush landscapes. It’s about the legendary elegance of Palm Beach and Boca Raton, the sleek glamour of Miami Beach and South Beach, and the relaxed atmosphere of Fort Lauderdale. It’s about raising a family. In every community there are new schools, libraries, museums, and art centers. Palm Beach County alone has over 40,000 cultural events a year.

It’s no wonder that Florida has made one of the most remarkable real estate turnarounds in the country. Considering that just a year ago it was No. 1 in foreclosures in the nation, the news is as heartening as the figures are remarkable. In Palm Beach County, median prices rose 10 percent in the past year. Our Douglas Elliman offi ces in Palm Beach reported the number of sales in the third quarter of 2013 skyrocketed by a mind-boggling 56.4 percent. The market is so strong that the biggest problem now is lack of inventory. As prices rose in Palm Beach, more sellers came into the market, yet the growth in sales has far outpaced the inventory, and, ironically, there are only about half as many houses on the market now than there were a year ago.

In Miami Beach, the median sales price increased by an astonishing 23 percent, to the highest level since the recession began in 2008. And higher prices didn’t hamper sales, which increased 18 percent. Rising home prices in Florida have also saved thousands of “underwater” borrowers in Florida, where foreclosure activity was down by 65 percent from the previous year.

What’s spurred this remarkable turnaround? Consumer confi dence. The American dream of owning a home. Low interest rates also helped ignite a national real estate recovery that has in turn fueled the economy and brought more buyers to the market longing to fulfi ll the ideal of hearth and home.

There’s another compelling reason to own South Florida real estate, especially for foreign buyers: the safety of investing in a place that has a reasonable expectation of appreciation. Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., who puts together The Douglas Elliman Report* for us quarterly, says the world’s wealthy elite are pretty much using the area’s real estate as investment currency. He believes that in South Florida, Miami is the safest of all markets, followed by Palm Beach. In the Miami area, 85 to 90 percent of new buyers are foreign, coming from all over the world, including Great Britain, Germany, and Latin America.

I always say that at Douglas Elliman, we go where our customers want to live. So, in the past two years, we’ve opened offi ces in Miami Beach, Aventura, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach. We’ve put together a superior team of agents with local expertise in each of these communities to serve one of the most exciting and active real estate markets in the country.


* The Douglas Elliman Report is recognized as the industry standard in reporting on the state of the residential real estate market. The report includes an extensive suite of tools that help readers objectively identify and measure market trends, and provides comprehensive analysis and historical context for current trends and data. For more information, visit Elliman.com.

Dottie Herman is the president of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, with offices across New York City, Long Island, the Hamptons, and South Florida.