West Palm Beach

Unsold condos from the last South Florida real estate boom in the downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island markets would take more than five years to sell out at the current sales pace, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

In the first three quarters of 2011, condos in Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island traded at a rate of 10.2 per month, which means the nearly 650 unsold developer units in the area would need more than 60 months to sell out.

The figure does not include the more than 400 units acquired in bulk deals by investment groups that have not yet been resold to individual buyers.

“Nearly 20 percent of the condos created in Downtown West Palm Beach during the South Florida real estate boom remain unsold,” said Peter Zalewski, a principal with Condo Vultures LLC. “Downtown West Palm Beach, which has a limited history of high-rise condo living, has not yet been able to tap into the surge of international buyers with strong foreign currencies who are gobbling up discounted units in the coastal Fort Lauderdale and Miami markets in all-cash transactions.”

“As the unsold inventory shrinks,” Zalewski said, “downtown West Palm Beach could be positioned to attract the buyers who missed out – or were priced out – in the Fort Lauderdale and Miami coastal condo markets to the south.”

Of the more than 3,400 units created during the real estate boom beginning in 2003, 81 percent have been purchased.