Miami-area home sales held at 5 year high in September

Miami-area home sales held at a five-year high in September, rising 15 percent from a year earlier as price reductions and super-low mortgage rates helped stoke year-over-year sales gains across the price spectrum. The median sale price fell short of the year-ago level for the 48th consecutive month but the magnitude of the decline – 1.5 percent – was the smallest yet, a real estate information service reported.

Miami Renters Fuel a Boom

When the real estate market collapsed five years ago, this city’s downtown soon became an emblem of the worst excesses of the building boom. Glittering new towers sat mostly vacant.

Those towers are filling up much sooner than some analysts predicted. The new arrivals, mostly renters, are spurring the establishment of restaurants, bars and shops.

Condo sales here began surging after property owners slashed prices about two years ago, sometimes by 50% or more. … Fewer than 4,000 out of the 22,000 new units built since 2003 remain unsold, according to Condo Vultures.