Miami Home Sales Surge in November

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

LA JOLLA, Calif. (DQNews) -- Miami-area homes sold at the fastest pace for a November in five years as lower prices and mortgage rates continued to drive robust demand from investors and vacation-home buyers -- both foreign and domestic. The region's median sale price rose from October but fell short of the year-ago level for the 50th consecutive month, a real estate information service reported.

In November, 7,855 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the metro area encompassing Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties. That was up 5% from the prior month and up 17.5% from a year earlier -- to the highest level for a November since 2006, when 10,369 homes sold, according to San Diego-based DataQuick, which tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

Through November, Miami's housing market was on pace to post the highest annual sales total for any year since the housing boom ended. January-through-November 2011 sales totaled 96,986, the highest since 144,912 homes sold during that 11-month period in 2006.

The market's top and bottom price segments saw the biggest year-over-year sales jumps in November. The number of new and resale houses and condos that sold for less than $100,000 rose 21.2% from a year earlier, compared with a 7.2% annual gain for sales between $200,000 and $600,000 and a 26.9% annual increase for transactions above $800,000. Sales over $950,000 rose 33.1% compared with November 2010. However, only 3.6% of all sales in November were for $800,000 or more.

In the Miami region's multi-million-dollar luxury market, the 60 homes that sold for $2 million or more in November represented a 33.3% gain from October and a 36.4% increase from a year earlier. During the first 11 months of this year, 742 Miami-area homes sold for $2 million or more, up 15.2% from the same period last year and the highest for that 11-month period since 869 homes sold for $2 million or more between January and November 2008. The figures are based on public property records, where either a price or loan amount was available.