The Law of Demand

1. Investors Snapping Up Downtown Miami Condos

Are the good 'old days of real estate back? It appears so in Downtown Miami.

In recent weeks developers have sold hundreds of condos, in a flurry of activity they haven't seen since the peak of the housing market. Some builders are actually running out of inventory. The first building to sell out, Brickell on the River, happened quietly and quickly selling 120 units in just six weeks time.

"It's pretty impressive when you walk into a sales office and you have 20-30 people waiting to see units. Sounds crazy but it's actually happening now," said Andres Asion of Miami Real Estate Group. Before Asion could deposit the checks, he had sold out the entire building; something developers in this area have not been able to do for the past three years.

So how did Asion do it? Price.

They dropped it roughly a $100 thousand under their closest competition. The final prices were half of what units sold for at the peak of the market.

2. Manhattan Hotels Fill Rooms With Low Rates

Hotels in Manhattan also lost business in the financial crisis. But in April, rooms began filling up, sending the occupancy rate back over 80%. In July, 83.3% of the rooms were filled, a 5.6% decline since last year but still the highest occupancy rate in the nation, preliminary Smith Travel data shows.

But to attract business, Manhattan hotel operators have slashed room rates by nearly one-third since last year, to an average of just under $200 a night. “I know I could come across sounding like the convention bureau, but New York really is a good buy right now,” said John A. Fox, a senior vice president at the New York offices of PKF Consulting, a national research and hotel advisory firm.

MP: For real estate, maybe the three most important factors are now price, price and price?

Originally posted at Carpe Diem.