Category: Real Estate

MIAMI — Miami-Dade’s long-suffering condominium market is staging a rebound. Condo sales rose 11.4% year over year to 1,026 closings in July, according to the MIAMI Association of Realtors, extending a recovery that has been building since the start of the year.

The turnaround follows several years of depressed demand in the wake of the 2021 Surfside collapse, which triggered stricter inspection and reserve requirements that weighed on older buildings. Miami Today reported that condo resales were already up 2.9% year over year early in 2026, with prices beginning to stabilize after the post-Surfside slide.

“The market is stabilizing and beginning a nice rebound,” Wesley Ulloa, a residential board governor with the Miami Association of Realtors, told Miami Today, calling current valuations “a great investment opportunity” relative to recent years.

Entry-Level Demand, High-End Cash

Much of the momentum is coming from the middle of the market. Condo sales between $400,000 and $500,000 surged 12.6% year over year in July, a segment fed partly by first-time buyers priced out of single-family homes, where the county’s median hit $685,000. Per Miami Today, entry-level condo product in the $300,000-to-$600,000 range has been performing especially well as buyers pivot toward condos and townhouses.

Cash remains the market’s backbone. All-cash deals made up 47.5% of Miami-Dade condo closings in July, and Miami Today reported that 82% of sales at $1 million and above are cash transactions — a dynamic that blunts the impact of elevated mortgage rates and adds resilience to the recovery. Luxury demand has been reinforced by relocations from markets including California and Chicago.

Supply is also tightening from elevated levels. Active condo listings fell 11.8% year over year to 11,324 in July, the sixth consecutive monthly decline, according to the association’s data.

Still, the recovery remains a two-speed affair. The county’s median condo price slipped 1.48% year over year to $400,000 in July, and at roughly 12 months of supply, the condo segment remains firmly a buyer’s market — a sharp contrast with the 4.8 months of supply on the single-family side. Older buildings facing special assessments and structural-reserve requirements continue to trade at a discount to newer product.

For buyers, that gap is the opportunity; for sellers in aging towers, it is the challenge. But after years in which condos lagged the broader South Florida market, the direction of travel has changed: sales are rising, inventory is falling, and prices — at least in the segments buyers want most — are ticking back up.

MIAMI — A 31-story tower of intentionally small condominiums is rising in Downtown Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, the latest bet that compact, amenity-rich units can answer the city’s attainability squeeze. Construction has begun on 14 ROC Miami at 125 NE 14th St., with completion targeted for 2028, Miami Today reported.

The project is being developed by 14th Street Miami Investments LLC, managed by veteran Miami developer Russell Galbut, with RSP Architects as design architect. Seawood Builders is serving as general contractor, MAWD is handling interiors, Urban Robot is designing the landscape and Cervera Real Estate is leading sales and marketing.

The tower will hold 283 residences — studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms ranging from roughly 410 to 964 square feet. Every unit comes with a balcony, smart-home technology and contemporary finishes, a formula aimed at buyers squeezed by a county where the median single-family home now sells for $685,000.

Small Units, Big Amenity Deck

What the residences give up in square footage, the building aims to return in shared space. Plans call for more than 25,000 square feet of amenities across three levels, including a rooftop pool with bay views, coworking areas, a fitness center, a chef’s kitchen, a karaoke lounge, a private theater, a game room, meeting facilities and a podcast studio.

“Our vision for 14 ROC was to create an iconic residential tower that embraces the pedestrian” and encourages interaction with the neighborhood, Jorge Cuartas Martinez, an associate at RSP Architects, said of the design.

The location leans into that street-level pitch. The site sits within walking distance of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the planned Underdeck park taking shape beneath the rebuilt I-395 — an area that has drawn a wave of residential investment as Downtown Miami’s cultural corridor fills in.

The project also lands at a moment when compact units make market sense. Condo sales in Miami-Dade rose 11.4% year over year in July, with the $400,000-to-$500,000 segment up 12.6%, as buyers priced out of single-family homes pivot to condos, according to the MIAMI Association of Realtors.

14 ROC joins a broader pre-construction pipeline pushing north along Biscayne Bay. In neighboring Edgewater, HQ Residences — the first residential tower from sbe founder Sam Nazarian’s HQ Hotels & Residences brand, developed in partnership with singer Marc Anthony — is expected to break ground in the third quarter of 2026, with delivery projected for 2029.

If the towers deliver on schedule, the Arts & Entertainment District and Edgewater will add thousands of new residences by decade’s end — most of them smaller, and by Miami standards, closer to attainable.