The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point.
The reduction is not as substantial as some hoped, and it had already been priced into mortgage rates by the time the announcement was made last week.
The remaining market foe is inflation. “That’s what’s causing the stickiness around long-term rates,” said Robert Palmer, founder and CEO of LPT Realty, a Florida brokerage firm.
Still, a drop is good news.
“Rates are still better than they have been. I think the hope was we were going to see a sharp drop happening. We didn’t get that,” Palmer said. “We’re going to need much more clear inflation data to drive down rates to the level that most consumers want.”
Overall, the rate cut will bring more buyers to the market. But first-time home buyers will just face more competition in a market that has a very limited supply of affordable homes.
Ana Bozovic, market analyst and broker-owner of Analytics Miami, wrote in her newsletter that wealth migration remains the driving force behind the real estate market’s success.
“Even with [Fed chairman Jerome] Powell acknowledging inflation concerns, the likely trajectory is continued rate cuts. That means more liquidity, more buyers, and more momentum flowing directly into Miami real estate,” she wrote.
Real estate brokers tell me that even though mortgage rates aren’t and won’t be close to the high 2 percent and low 3 percent range seen just a few years ago, they do expect this cut to have a psychological effect.
Top agents are also ready to pounce on ultra-wealthy buyers keeping an eye on whether Zohran Mamdani wins in New York in November.
The interest rate cuts, “they’re going to help us even more,” top broker Dora Puig says. “And then let’s watch what happens in New York with the mayoral campaign.”
What we’re thinking about: Who bought the non-waterfront house at 2301 North Bay Road? My money is on Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner, who own the waterfront mansion across the street. The deal set a record for dry sales in Miami Beach. Send me a note at [email protected].
CLOSING TIME
Residential: Nina and Pieter Taselaar sold a single-family home on a Palm Beach street that leads to the ocean to a trust for $29.5 million. Pieter Taselaar is the founder of Greenwich, Connecticut-based Lucerne Capital Management. The 8,300-square-foot home at 158 Dunbar Road includes six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, two half-bathrooms and a pool.
Commercial: Blackstone paid nearly $300 million for the 352-room East Miami hotel at 788 Brickell Plaza in Miami. Honolulu, Hawaii-based Trinity Investments and New York-based Certares sold the Brickell property.
— Research by Mary Diduch
NEW TO THE MARKET The 2.3-acre oceanfront estate at 820 South Ocean Boulevard in Manalapan hit the market for $134 million. Billionaire Randal J. Kirk has been linked to the ownership of the property, the Palm Beach Daily News reported. The nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion, with a nearly 28,000-square-foot main house, a separate guest house and security house, was developed in 2007. It’s on the market with Premier Estate Properties’ Margit Brandt. The property includes 215 feet of ocean frontage, two pools, a tennis court and a six-car garage.
A thing we’ve learned:
Gen Z loves Florida, or at least that’s where the jobs are. The Sunshine State and Texas have become top states for recent college graduates, according to a JLL study cited by Fortune. Five cities in the two states, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, Miami/South Florida and Orlando, are now among the top 20 U.S. talent hubs for recent grads.
Elsewhere in Florida
- The medical examiner ruled that a man in his 30s died from blunt impact injuries after riding the new Stardust Racers roller coaster at Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe. The death was ruled an accident, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
- A federal judge dismissed Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo and former City Attorney Victoria Méndez from a lawsuit brought by Little Havana developers Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who claimed city officials, led by Carollo, conspired to drive them out of business, according to the Miami Herald. The ruling leaves the city of Miami and city manager Art Noriega as the remaining defendants, with Noriega’s motion to dismiss still pending.
Related Group and 13th Floor Investments plan to replace a 285-unit apartment complex in Aventura with two waterfront condo towers with 409 units, pending city approval, the South Florida Business Journal reports.
