Notable Home Sales in South Florida in 2010

Published by nora | Filed under Celebrity Real Estate, Market Trends, Miscellaneous, Real Estate

Despite the current doldrums in the residential real estate sector in Florida and in all other U.S. states, home sales happen that make people notice because of their sales prices or the circumstances behind the sales.

Here are some of the most notable home sales in Florida in 2010:

Biggest Home Sale in Palm Beach

A seven-bedroom Venetian Mediterranean-style oceanfront mansion was sold by owners Michael and Paola Schulhof for $22.5 million to the Bruce T. Halle 2003 SB Irrevocable Trust just weeks ago. As the Schulhofs bought the mansion in 2008 for $23 million, they took a loss of $500,000. Michael Schulhof is the CEO and founding partner of Global Technology Industries and was a former top executive of Sony Corp. of America.  

The mansion was designed by Tom Kirchoff and built in 2007 by Wittman Building Corp. and former National Enquirer owner Peter Callahan. It has an area of 10,232 square feet, features a loggia that views the ocean, and sits next door to the estate formerly owned by the Kennedys. The sale surpassed the $20.5 selling price for the Isabel Collier Read residence bought by Joel and Darcie Kassowitz in March this year.

Last Madoff Home to Get Sold

The five-bedroom house near the Palm Beach Country Club owned by Ruth Madoff, wife of jailed investment fraudster Bernard Madoff, is set to be sold to a couple from California for about $5 million. The house was initially listed for $8.49 million in September 2009, but was repriced in 2010 down to $6.5 million. It was among Madoff’s properties seized by the federal government to help repay investors who lost huge amounts of money to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The contents of the house are expected to be sold in an auction after the completion of the sale.

Multifamily Purchase by a Seattle-based Investor

The 366-unit Hillsboro Bay Club apartment complex in Broward County’s Coconut Creek including its 21 acres of land was purchased by Seattle-based real estate investor Kennedy Associates for $53.1 million in cash. The seller of the 12-year-old Hillsboro was Laramar Group which has been buying and reselling real estate assets.

According to analysts, the purchase of Hillsboro by an institutional buyer like Kennedy is a vote of confidence in the Broward multifamily market at a time when there are uncertainties in the real estate sector. Broward County’s multifamily occupancy in the fourth quarter is being projected by analysts to grow in the fourth quarter.

Big Price Cuts

Meanwhile, in high-end communities in Naples, Palm Beach and Broward, million-dollar homes are being sold at substantial discounts. In the Naples zip code 34102, homes priced at $2.3 million are being sold with a price reduction of $370,000 while in the Palm Beach zip code 33480, homes priced at $1.2 million are being offered with a price cut of $212,000. Last week, the $1.399-million asking price of a five-bedroom lakefront house in Broward was cut by $104,800.