Month after month, data comes out affirming the rising demand for rental units, and like the wider world of real estate, fresh and unusual details often accompanies it.
A recent Wall Street Journal piece on the rent/homeownership dichotomy has presented a most interesting example – currently, there are more houses for rent than there are apartment buildings.

February prices in the Miami real estate market increased 0.6 percent from January and 0.8 percent from February 2011, according to the latest Case-Shiller.
Nationally, the two major price indices of the Case-Shiller, the 10- and 20-City Composites, showed annual declines of 3.6 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, which brought the indices to new post-bubble lows. The declines, though, were less than in January, when the indices fell 4.1 percent and 3.9 percent from the year before.

One Sotheby’s International Realty has expanded its franchise and joined forces with Lorusso Realty Inc., to open a new office in Miami’s financial district.

Palm Beach County brokers are lowering prices of their high-end real estate properties by $2 million or more in order to get them sold before the summer.

With over 20 years of real estate experience, including the past two years at the International Sales Group (ISG), Sandra Dominguez was named manager of ISGWest, ISG’s newest office. Dominiguez was responsible for selling over $50 million in luxury condos during her first year with ISG.

Two surprising market trends emerged this month: market optimism is down for the first time since September, and multigenerational living is on the rise.
Many families have begun to turn two homes into one by bringing elderly family members into the homes of adult children, or adult children and their families are moving in with grandparents.

Founder of Sigurdsson Schechter Luxury Real Estate, Bragi Sigurdsson, recently joined One Sotheby’s International Realty, one of South Florida’s most luxurious real estate firms. Sigurdsson will be working out of One Sotheby’s new South of Fifth office in Miami Beach as a broker associate.

Clear Capital, a California research firm, says that South Florida’s housing market will continue to improve during 2012 as home prices will rise six percent throughout the rest of the year.
According to their research, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties will rank in the 10 highest performing large metro markets in the entire country.

Pending home sales in Miami-Dade for February increased 14 percent from January and 29 percent year-over-year to 3,695 units, according to the latest data from the Miami Association of Realtors (MAR).
Specifically, single-family homes ruled the month, increasing by 49 percent year-over-year, though condominiums were still up an impressive 17 percent from last year.

The Sun-Sentinel is reporting that the average price for homes in Broward County grew to $180,000 in February, which is a six percent increase from last year. Home sales went from 909 to 913.
In Palm Beach County, the average in February was $190,000, which went down 10 percent from February 2011, according to the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. Home sales went up seven percent, from 772 to 824.