Miami has a new vice: bottom-fishing for condo bargains.
Some are searching for investment properties, confident home prices will eventually rebound. In hard-hit Miami-Dade County, condos originally costing as much as $1.4 million at the peak of the market now sell in some cases for $840,000, a 40 percent drop. Farther north, a coming auction at [...]

News of the arrests of three people so far in connection with an alleged Hallandale Beach condo kickback scheme is triggering suspicions among some South Florida owners about the honesty of their condo boards.
Residents who think their boards are doing something illegal have been seeking copies of the condo crimes screening checklist created to [...]

The vacancy rates for South Florida apartments remain much lower than the national average, but there are signs monthly rent increases are starting to ease, according to a report released Wednesday.
Vacancies in Miami-Dade and Broward counties were both at 3.8 percent for the first quarter that ended March 31, according to numbers released Wednesday by [...]

A state senator joined representatives and lawyers for three dozen condominium associations Thursday in accusing the state’s largest private market condo insurer of engaging in an organized plan to deny hurricane claims.
”This is institutionalized bad faith,” said Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach of the insurer, Australia-based QBE Group and its representatives, Florida Intercoastal Underwriters, [...]

Early last year, The Preserve at Longleaf off Wickham Road in Melbourne was a new apartment complex all set to become a top-of-the-line condominium property, with units selling for more than $200,000.
Today, with Brevard County’s condominium market perceived as soft, Longleaf is staying as apartments, with leases starting at $900 a month for a one-bedroom, [...]

For 4,387 condominium associations covered by the state-run insurance company in South Florida, the massive insurance reform bill passed last month won’t provide much relief.
The law rolled homeowners rates on Citizens Property Insurance policies back to their Dec. 31 level and eliminated an increase set for new policies and renewals after Jan. 1. For policyholders [...]

Bluegreen Corp. said it has hired an executive search firm to help it find a president for its resorts division.
The Boca Raton-based timeshare and communities firm said David Gallagher, global managing director of the consumer products practice at Boyden Global Executive Search, is leading the hunt for the right executive.
The position is to report to [...]

It’s been a year and a half since Levenger Co. said it would stop distribution from a 229,000-square-foot facility in Delray Beach, but the property has just sold to another company that has a new zoning code available for it.
Jones Lang LaSalle said RREEF has paid $21.2 million for the office and distribution building at [...]

A tenant in a Florida condominium says she believes she is the victim of religious discrimination because she has been told to remove a mezuzah from her door.
The mezuzah is a small case containing a religious scroll. Laurie Richter, who rents an apartment in The Port in Fort Lauderdale, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel observant [...]

With just five days to go until the Super Bowl, there’s no need to stress about finding a hotel room as there are plenty of options available.
Even Club Med Sandpiper in South Florida wants to get in on the Super Bowl action, despite being a two hour drive from Miami. From Feb. 2-8, the resort [...]

The condo market is tanking, and many projects are being canceled or put on hold nationwide.
Donald Trump’s response? Don’t worry. Be happy.
The real estate mogul says his brand is so strong that it now has the power to defeat poor market conditions, wherever they may be.
As proof, he pointed to his latest Trump Tower in [...]

An offshoot of investment giant TIAA-CREF has cashed in on a plum Boca Raton holding, netting $59.4 million for its One Town Center Road office building and garage.
MetLife Inc.’s Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Co. subsidiary is the buyer.
The roughly 14 acres at One Town Center Road feature 200,858 square feet of office space, a 156,128-square-foot [...]