The South Florida housing market has been in quicksand so long that we almost forgot there might be a rock bottom. So let's try to look at the bright side of this report from Denver, in which Greater Fort Lauderdale is singled out as the "riskiest" housing market of the 50 (fifty!) that were studied. Umm, hello from Ground Zero?Somehow it makes it worse to read how Denver's real estate market is looking up. This is supposed to be a national crisis, damn it! Misery loves company, and we can't fig
It's this way for Chinese drywall.A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this story about homeowners who are searching for who's to blame for the Chinese drywall that's wrecking their homes. In the article, I referenced this deal being offered by South Florida-based Lennar home builder, which has agreed to fix homes if homeowners won't later sue. Lennar, it seems, wasn't very happy about that part of the deal going public.The company's Los Angeles-based media-relations person, Glenn Bunting, wrote me th
Flickr User: random dudeIt's one of those obvious but still necessary tasks: Now that the Florida housing market has been revealed as one giant scam, someone had to document exactly how it happened. So that after we all get buried by debt, Pompeii-style, some future archeologists can piece together our culture, then display it in a museum so that fourth-graders on a field trip can have the wisdom that came with our failure.So, thanks, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, for taking a whole year to sift thro
Photo by C. StilesTao Sawgrass in Sunrise is owned by Corus.Behind some of the area's biggest condo ghost towers -- Tao Sawgrass in Sunrise and Trump International Hotel & Tower in Fort Lauderdale -- lies one very cash-strapped bank. Chicago-based Corus Bank has become a poster child for the condo meltdown, because it lent money to at least 16 South Florida condo projects before the real estate bubble burst. Now that condos aren't selling, developers can't repay their construction loans,
Photo by C.StilesCityPlace South Tower is now in foreclosure.Miami-based real estate giant The Related Group has struggled to weather the housing bust, watching its massive Icon Brickell condo project on Biscayne Bay sit largely empty, while its CityPlace South Tower in West Palm Beach goes into "friendly foreclosure." But that hasn't stopped Related's thirst to keep building. According to the Palm Beach Post, Related Companies is one of five development teams now vying to build a hotel to se
Photo by C.StilesWith CityPlace South Tower in foreclosure, what is Related thinking?You have to hand it to the Related Group. No matter how bad the economy gets or how many ghost towers dot the skyline, the Miami real estate giant keeps looking for ways to make a buck. Here's the current philosophy: We can't pay our own bills. But hey, let's buy more stuff and hope for the best!According to the Wall Street Journal, Related Companies of New York is now trying to buy the assets of a bank that
