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Happy Saturday Highest & Best! Here’s today’s rundown of the real estate week that was:

🚫 The South Florida price-out
🛌 Miami’s corporate crash pads
👜 The condo wears Fendi
🥊 Mike Tyson to Delray

Let’s get to it!

Priced Out of Delray. And Boca. (Naples, too.)

If you’ve been waiting for South Florida’s housing market to “cool off” so you can snag a deal, here’s the hard truth: while prices are easing, they’re still light-years ahead of where they were five years ago— and there’s no rewinding the clock on that affordability.

🏝 Take Boca Raton, for example. Single-family home prices were flat in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to a year earlier, which might sound promising. But today’s prices are 93% higher than they were in late 2019, before pandemic migration sent the real estate market into overdrive, according to new data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman.

🏖 In Delray Beach, home prices actually fell 6.3% in Q4 2024 compared to the previous year. Except they’re still a hefty 79% higher than five years ago. So you’ll be shelling out significantly more than your neighbor who bought pre-pandemic.

💰 And then there’s Miami Beach. Back in 2019, a median-priced home there would’ve cost $1.3 million—a small fortune, sure, but relatively affordable compared to today’s $2.99 million. You now need to be far wealthier (or just really good at crypto) to make it work.

🌀 Even Naples, despite its Gulf Coast hurricane woes and a flood of new listings since 2019, hasn’t backpedaled much. Median home prices there are still 81% higher than five years ago, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said.

The rising number of listings across every South Florida market is helping slow price growth, but price declines will be “modest” so long as new wealth from elsewhere keeps migrating to the state, Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, said in an interview

“Essentially,” Miller said, “pricing in Florida was reset by the pandemic.”

See chart below for a 5-year price comparison:

Median Price of a Single-Family Home, Now vs. Then

⏪ Catch up on recent Highest & Best issues:

• Not Your Grandpa’s Boca, January 11, 2025

• Topping Off, January 6, 2025

• A Dash of Nope, December 21, 2024

• Cash In, Cash Out, December 14, 2024

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Miami’s Corporate Crash Pads 

Lodgerin, a European corporate housing firm with 90,000 apartment listings across the continent, is making its U.S. debut— and it’s starting with Miami.

In one month, about 1,000 furnished Miami listings will hit Lodgerin’s online platform, ready for corporate execs, university students, and anyone else who needs a home in the city for between one to 11 months.

The choice to start in Miami reflects the city’s rapid rise as a hub for corporate relocations and international business, said Oscar Rubio, Lodgerin’s Madrid-based CEO and founder, who himself was in Miami last week (and seven other times last year).

“Four hundred companies from Spain are located here in Miami, they bring in 10 people a year,” Rubio said in an interview. “And that’s just Spain. Imagine Argentina, Colombia. All these companies have positions here in Miami. It’s quite big.”

The need for flexible housing runs the gamut—from local firms bringing employees for extended projects, to schools like Miami University, which are growing their international student programs and need housing that can keep pace, Rubio said.

When Lodgerin’s Miami listings go live next month, they’ll rival the combined scale of all the company’s markets across Spain, Rubio said.

Next on Lodgerin’s U.S. expansion map: New York and Boston.

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The Condo Wears Fendi

What’s the next move for a developer already building condo towers branded by a luxury yacht maker and Armani? Apparently, that’s when you bring out the Fendi.

Vertical Developments unfurled its flair for fancy again this week, this time in Aventura, with the announcement of its latest condo project, Avenia Interiors by Fendi Casa.

The name is a lot, but the details are exclusive: the waterfront project will have only 22 units, and the starting price is $5 million, the developer said.

Homes will be big. They’re three or four bedrooms each, with roughly 3,500 square feet. And Fendi Casa will curate everything inside—from the walk-in closets to the kitchen cabinetry.

The building’s gym, lobby, private library, and rooftop pool deck will also bear Fendi’s design. (Because, of course).

The project, to be built at 20605 NE 34th Ave., will be complete in the first half of 2027, the developer said.

Vertical Developments has a penchant for luxury-themed projects in South Florida. Last year, it announced plans in Fort Lauderdale for Riva Rezidenze, (a condo branded by the Italian yacht maker), and for Armani Casa Residences in Pompano Beach (branded by the Italian fashion house). For condo-buying lovers of fashion magazines, they’re also building a Miami tower branded after Elle.

Mike Tyson Doubles Down on Delray Beach

Boxing champ Mike Tyson snagged a new title last week: two-time homeowner in Delray Beach.

Tyson and his wife paid $13 million for a newly built mansion in the gated community of Tierra del Rey Estates, in a deal that was completed on Jan. 13, the Palm Beach Post reported.

His new property, at 10468 El Caballo Court, sits on 2.7 acres that include a five-bedroom main home, a private bass pond, and an 80-foot pool overlooking a waterfall, according to the sales listing. There’s also an air conditioned barn, a “custom chicken coop,” and fruit trees.

The home was built just last year, and the seller initially sought $19.5 million for the property, according to Zillow.

The purchase marks Tyson and his wife’s second home in Delray Beach — and third in Palm Beach County. The couple, who live in Nevada, purchased a $1.7 million property in Delray’s Antiquers Aerodrome (a community with a private airstrip) in May 2024, the Post reported. Tyson’s wife, Lakiha, also owns a condo in Boca Raton.

That’s it for today!

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