The trendy Gansevoort in South Beach will be hitting the auction block soon after defaulting on a $89m loan to Credit Suisse.

The property was renovated by a father and son team and reopened a 334-room hotel in 2007. There are also 259 condos, a rooftop pool, and 63,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants.

A partnership of Armco Capital Inc. and Southwest Properties Ltd. paid $17.9 million in cash for 158 units to Goldman Sachs who had aquired the property in foreclosure. The original developer paid roughly three times that amount for Downtown Dadeland, a seven-tower residential and retail development in Kendall, Florida, about six miles south of downtown Miami.

This exciting commercial and retail development is sure to satisfy residents and condo owners in downtown Miami. Built by Developers Diversified Realty, this project is sure to amaze and wow. Current anchor tenants include a Super Target, Ross, Marshalls, and PetSmart among others.

The site consists of 645,000 square feet of prime retail space on 28 acres, easily accessible to downtown Miami and Miami beach. The shops are nested between I-95 and I-195. Be sure to visit for all your shopping needs the next time you are in Miami!

Yes, it seems like everyone and their mom has jumped on the bandwagon and added some kind of foreclosure page to their website.

And rightfully so, in a recent study 80% of all real estate searches online were for a foreclosure related term or address. ASTOUNDING! So what seperates the good foreclosure pages from the not so good? Well, some are paid and others are not, but at the end of the day they all have pretty much the same information.

Unless you’re closely watching individual properties and plan on making an offer the bank immediately after reposession, chances are you’re going to be watching the mls. And that’s where all these sites get data – the local mls. There is no need to pay for this data anymore. Realtytrac and other sites exist just to extract money from your pocket and sell services you don’t need. Investor reports, tenant services, blah blah. The $49.95 can easily become $200 or more if you aren’t paying attention.

The best way to find great deals on distressed properties is to use a local Realtor that understands the market. Allison Ables in Gainesville has one of the greatest local foreclosure and short sale pages I have seen. She sorts out Gainesville FL bank owned and short sales in an understandable layout. There is even a nifty mortgage calculator!

I’m sure we’ll have some interesting foreclosure pages before this entire saga is over with. Unfortinately, we’re only at the beginning of the foreclosure wave.

Is now the time to buy a condo for your kids in a college town? Probably so – churn has always been higher in college areas making these units more liquid than other places. In addition, if you have more than one child that goes to the same school it may actually be cheaper than living in dorms.

In addition, they’ll love you for it. Two of the most interesting college markets in Florida are UCF area condos in Orlando and Gainesville condos.

In an amazing feat, WCI Communities, a builder of high rise condos and homes primarily in Florida, has emerged from bankruptcy and eliminated $2b in liabilities. Most people know WCI from their gorgeous high rise condos located along Florida’s coasts. They were based in Bonita Springs, Florida, and many of their best buildings are along the southwest coast spanning from Ft Meyers to Naples.

What makes WCI condos so unique are the floorplans that span across the building providing views of the ocean and interior. They were one of the first companies to pioneer direct elevator access to the units. The amenities in their condos were also outstanding and they did tremendous amounts of research on what homeowners wanted out of the buildings.

Maybe now they can put the housing crash and bankruptcy behind them. I am looking forward to new product and inventory!

Despite all the hoo-ha about falling prices inventory and prices on homes in Miami have actually risen in recent months. According to MDA DATAQUICK a total of 7,942 new and resale houses and condos sold in July, up 2.8% from June and up 24.4% from July 2008. While the results mark the fifth straight month of year-over-year increases, it’s the second-lowest number of sales in the region for the month of July - last year’s marked the worst July total - since 1997, when MDA DataQuick began compiling data on the Miami area.

I think Miami home prices and home prices throughout the state of Florida will begin to rise slowly in the coming quarters as inventory becomes completely depleted. Yesterday Senator Reid from Nevada introduced a bill to extend the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit. Prices will not stay depressed for long!