South Florida Inventory Picture Improving

The inventory of existing apartments and townhouses on the market in the tri-county South Florida region has dropped 23% to below 40,000, according to CondoVultures, a Bal Harbour-based consulting firm. The current inventory of condo and townhouse units in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties is now at the lowest level in the last 18 months. In May 2009, some 52,000 such units were on the market in South Florida. "The inventory is depleting for a variety of reasons, ranging from more investors and second-home buyers purchasing units at prices they think are deeply discounted to primary users taking advantage of the government incentives related to real estate," says Peter Zalewski, a principal in the firm. The inventory does not reflect new units that developers are privately marketing. But the wild card in the mix, says Zalewski, is whether a flood of owners will rush to put their units on the market once they think the market is stabilizing.