Villa Valencia was recently featured in The City Beautiful article “A Seller’s Market”. Touching upon the rising costs of housing in Coral Gables given the demand.
From the article:
If you’re looking to live in Coral Gables these days, be prepared to search for housing. Inventory is so scarce for single-family homes, condos, and even rental apartments that prices are at record highs with seekers sometimes paying above the asking price – even as interest rates rise and the stock market drops.
Ask Carole Smith, vice president of Compass Real Estate, who’s long specialized in residential sales in the City Beautiful. “We have the least inventory I’ve seen in 27 years,” she said in Spring 2022. “We have one month’s supply of single-family homes. A healthy market should have at least six months’ supply, and I’ve seen times in the Gables when we’ve had a 12- to 18-month supply.”
Little wonder that when Gables houses come on the market, lines often form to see them. In 2021, Smith recalls 120 cars pulling up for an open house at a luxury home. “We were so stacked up, you couldn’t find parking,” she says. Even in Spring 2022, as the stock market dipped, she had 70 people filing through a house on Majorca Ave. The home ended up selling for $350,000 more than the original asking price.
Specialists cite many reasons for the housing scarcity: more people moving from higher-tax states to South Florida for lower taxes and warm weather, little undeveloped land in the area, limits on building height in the city a permitting process considered slower and more deliberate than in other cities, plus resistance by some Gables residents to tall multi-family buildings in their neighborhoods.
That means low inventory is likely to remain an issue at least for several more years – until a spate of new projects can be approved and built, real estate leaders say. Here’s a look at some of the trends in the Gables housing market.
Buyers Remodeling or Tearing Down Older Homes
With inventory scarce, buyers often can’t find the exact single-family house they seek. One solution: buy what’s available and then either remodel or tear down the house and build anew.
Tere Shelton-Bernace, a principal at Shelton and Stewart Realtors estate, says she sold a waterfront property in Gables Estates last year for some $14 million to a couple from California, who’s tearing down the existing house and investing at least $7 million to build the South Florida home of their dreams. “I don’t even think we ever went inside the house on the lot,” says Shelton Bernace. “It was all about the land and location.”
Indeed, so many people are renovating older houses that the improvements are boosting home prices. Some residents add extra bedrooms, new kitchens, spa bathrooms, or even pools and extra patios. “Of course, buyers will pay a premium for those homes remodeled or rebuilt,” says Shelton-Bernace.
Luxury Condos Rising In The Urban Core
With land limited for single-family houses, condos are becoming a popular choice in recent years, especially luxury ones for empty-nesters, retirees, and second-home owners. Buyers like the convenience of locking up their residences while they travel and no longer needing to tend to lawns and pools.
Debuting this year: Villa Valencia, a 13-story luxury condo building. Units have sold for prices starting around $1.8 million, or more than $1,100 per square foot, says Rishi Kapoor, CEO of Coral Gables-based developer Location Ventures.
As of June, more than 90 percent of Villa Valencia’s units were sold, about three-quarters to locals and the rest to out-of-towners moving from high-tax states, including New York. “Many are paying cash. They’re coming from larger homes and more expensive markets,” says Kapoor.
CORAL GABLES MOST LUXURIOUS ADDRESSÂ
Rediscover the possibilities of privacy, convenience, and luxury in the heart of Downtown Coral Gables at Villa Valencia. Contact us today to learn more about our 3 remaining residences available. Email or call us at [email protected] | 786.833.9141 to experience everything that Villa Valencia has to offer.
