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A tight lending market, slowing economy and smaller retailers scaling back are a few of the reason for the rise in retail vacancy rates and some softness in the price-per-square feet in South Florida.  A detailed article in the Miami Herald's August 11th edition highlights many of the concerns but also discusses some of the strengths.  For example, larger retailers and premium space is still sought after in many areas.

For the whole article and it's details and statistics click HERE.

Record Number of Overseas Visitors Coming to United States - Visitors experience America and bring abundant benefits

Washington -- Despite increasing airfares due to rising fuel prices, record numbers of international travelers are coming to America.

It’s a bargain for people outside the United States to come here. Hotel room rates in New York, for example, are up 11 percent in dollar terms, but only a mere 1.5 percent increase when calculated in euros, according to Bobby Bowers of Smith Travel Research in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

“Once you’re here, in terms of staying in a hotel, it’s cheap,” Bowers said. “Alternatively, for those traveling from the U.K. to Paris, [they] won’t find the value [they would] get by going to places like Orlando [Florida] or [Washington] D.C.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Aug. 7, 2008 – The values of homes, businesses and other properties across Florida declined $153 billion during the last year, and the murky economic picture isn’t expected to improve until sometime in 2009, state officials said.

Total property values dropped an unprecedented 6 percent, double the figure economists had projected last year. The decline would have been worse if not for $55.6 billion spent on new construction, according to data reported by The Miami Herald in its Wednesday editions.  The rest of the story...

FYI:   www.BuscAbogados.com is a new on-line search engine designed to assist Spanish-speaking users finding attorneys in the Miami area.  According to the company, BuscAbogados, the site provides key searches by specialty and sub-specialties and can mix English and Spanish terms in a bilinual format (most attorney search engines do not operate in Spanish).  Currently the site has a database of 7,000 attorneys in Florida, with more than 5,000 in Miam-Dade County.

Here is a great opportunity to learn from expert Robert C Percival in this full day leasing class sponsored by RCA & SIOR.

The latest report by the National Association of REALTORS confirms that the current tightened credit markets have had an impact on the commercial real estate industry.

Investment in commercial real estate during the first four months of 2008 was $48.2 billion, down 69.5 percent from $157.8 billion during the same period in 2007 when the financial and credit markets were running smoother.

Vacancy rates in the office markets, for example, are expected to rise nationally to 13.7 percent in the fourth quarter of this year from 12.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.  While overall vacancy rates in the industrial sector are projected to rise to 9.9 percent in the fourth quarter of this year an increase from 9.4 percent in the same period of 2007

NAR has an excellent chart on License Portability on their website.  It tells you where licensees can practice and under what conditions when consummating a commercial real estate transaction in a particular state.

They categorize states as "Cooperating", "Physical Location States" and "Turf States" depending on the state's flexibility with practitioners from another state.

RAMB Members know Immobel as one of the hottest  exclusive Premium Services provided FREE to every RAMB Member.  Not only is Immobel a 13 language web site, it is also an E-marketing tool, web site with IDX solution, bio/resume in 13 languages, and includes an incredible "Virtual Agent".  As if all that wasn't enough to save RAMB members $798.00 a year...RAMB has rolled out the first in the world, International IDX between Paris, France and RAMB-Miami Listings. 

Follows is an excerpt from Kevin Brass' blog - Raising the Roof:

I had a great time today at the Miami Herald building in Pembroke Pines with Coldwell Banker's Jay Chernoff and Duff Rubin.  I know I learned a great deal from them and enjoyed asking them questions.  As promised I have included my presentation with links to local commercial organizations as well as websites for commercial properties listing services.

Our Senior VP of Member Relations Maureen Levine always does an excellent job with these FREE events.