Like a piñata, bursting condo bubble will spill forth goodies [South Florida]
Even Cassandra must have thought once or twice about pie in the sky.
As Miami’s unofficial prophet of doom during a condo bubble that is no longer in dispute, I wrote column after column counseling caution rather than unbridled euphoria but claiming that even a bust would leave behind beneficial change.
Now the slide has become reality, Miami’s condo-construction wave is about to end, and completed units will soon hit the closing table. I’m no longer in the minority talking bubbles — but on the plus side, I’m also not alone in seeing value in the bubble.
Daniel Gross, in his new book, “Pop! Why Bubbles are Great for the Economy,” suggests, “the excess capacity in real estate will be marked down and sold (some of it at catastrophic losses) but not torn down. Some developers in South Florida might go bankrupt, but their half-finished condo towers will be completed and turned into hotels or office buildings or dormitories for rich kids at the University of Miami.”