It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) A Tale of Two Cities

When Mr. Dickens wrote this, I very much doubt he was thinking 150 years in the future – or indeed about the property market in Florida, but if I was a believer in that sort of thing, I could have called his words prophetic.

2007 saw record prices in some segments of the market. This waterfront teardown in the Harbor Beach neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, for instance, sold for a record breaking $8,500,000 back in April. The property sits on a 33,000 sqft, point lot facing the Intracoastal and includes 400ft of fully equipped dock space, and is beside one of the deepest canals, allowing access by all but the largest megayachts. Interestingly though, it doesn’t appear to have been torn down yet.

But Florida also saw one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, along with knock down prices on all but the highest level real estate, with as much as 50% being wiped off the value of some condominium developments.

Many of the most recent sales have been through auction houses and it is fair to say this has been mostly mid-priced ($150,000 - $400,000 range).

Now the acid test for luxury real estate in Florida. Thanks to slow sales and a glut of property, both the auction house Sotheby’s and Coldwell banker are taking the unusual step of arranging a luxury property auction.

More than $200 million worth of property will hit the auction block in Florida on March 28th and we will see just how robust the luxury property market is in Florida.

Some of the properties have been previously listed for as much as $23 million.

Although the price for this property, 1 Isla Bahia – Harbor Beach is actually listed as previously $22,999,999, which I seem unable to not find funny. I don’t think that ploy works quite the same as it does when you are attempting to keep the price under five bucks at $4.99

Now Only $22,999,999 Save $1 !!!!!!!!!!!!

The auctioneers website is here, and they have 4 pages of listings, with luxury properties from Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Palm Beach county, and other areas.

Along with the rest of the luxury real estate world, we wil be extremely interested to see the prices realized.