Read about the absolutely absurd $50 Million penthouse that's going atop the new Mansions at Acqualina, the building itself breaks ground. Yes, construction has begun and the Russian oligarch-loving Mansions are going skyward, baby.

The place has an amenities list as long as the zeros on its price tags. Beyond the fully-furnished units with $100,000 closets, and other accoutrements, the building has a private movie theater, grand salon with breakfast bar, a Rolls Royce "house car" for residents' use, a cigar lounge with private humidors, a wine cellar and tasting lounge, game room with golf simulator, children's playroom, hammam, hydrotherapy spa, gym, and oceanfront infinity pool. The pool will have hot tubs, cabanas, a fire pit, a couple of waterfalls, attendants to get you towels and rub your back and that sort of thing, a dog walk (like a mini dog park probably) and oceanfront dining on the weekends.

The Surf Club, that old bastion of Miami Beach WASP-ishness (your Editor took Cotillion lessons there when he was a little pipsqueak of a kid) will be sold to a Turkish conglomerate for $116 million. The Surf Club's storied history is peppered with many great names of the twentieth century, including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, General MacArthur, Elizabeth Taylor, and Winston Churchill (he painted watercolors in his cabana). No word yet on what the Turks will do with the place, but the Club's historic designation and the strict 12 story height limiting the Town of Surfside will require a level of gentlemanly restraint. We're dreaming of an oceanfront hookah lounge, perhaps just off the Grand Ballroom, or maybe even a set of Turkish Baths in convenient proximity to the cabana colony.

The town of Bal Harbour orbits meteorically around their marquee shopping mall, Bal Harbour Shops, with its collection of obscenely luxurious stores. And the Shops are doing, economically, pretty damn well. It's one of the most successful (perhaps THE most successful) malls in the country. (Where's a retail market analyst when you need one. Damn girl)

Miami's Little Odessa, err we mean Sunny Isles Beach, that land of pale-white Russian oligarchs in too-small bathing suits and too-expensive beachfront condos, is affirming its Russian identity with the first of hopefully many new civic structures and community centers, because what's a super-wealthy ethnic neighborhood without its slew of self-affirming public structures? The new Sunny Isles Russian Jewish Community Center, at 488 Sunny Isles Boulevard, designed by Shapiro Associates, will go in front of the SIB commission next month for approval

Miami condo prices jump 28 percent

The median sales price for condominiums in Miami-Dade County rose 28 percent in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, according to a report from the Miami Association of Realtors. The median sales price for single-family homes rose 4 percent in the same period. “Limited supply of single-family homes and condominiums is resulting in robust price appreciation, reflecting the demand that persists for Miami real estate,” said Martha Pomares, the 2012 chairman of the board of the Miami Association of Realtors. Sales also rose in the same period, with a 4 percent increase in single-family home sales and a one percent lift for condos. Total housing inventory for Miami-Dade County fell by 28 percent in the second quarter.

Canyon Ranch Miami Beach sells out eight penthouses — in two hours

Canyon Ranch

Miami Beach’s Canyon Ranch Living released eight penthouse units for sale this month — and they sold within two hours, according to Serge Kay. “Buyers were asking about the residences even before we offered them,” he said. The buyers paid an average price exceeding $1,000 per square foot. The quick sale was a result of a preexisting waiting list “When we formally notified them, they quickly signed contracts.” The sales totaled $7 million.

In search of a new home in South Beach?

Alex Rodriguez's 20,000 square foot home in Miami.

CAPTION

New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez placed his 20,000 square-foot Miami home on the market for a cool $38 million.

He bought the waterfront property in 2010 for $24 million when he was dating Cameron Diaz. Construction was just completed 11 months ago. Not a bad investment.

The two-story home comes with a panoramic view of the bay and the Miami skyline. Oh, and let's not forget the nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, home theater, heated pool, rooftop deck, gym, steam room, batting cage and elevator.

It's unclear if A-Rod ever lived there, He spends most of the year living in his $6 million New York City condo.

The value of homes in Bal Harbour rose more than any municipality in Miami-Dade County in the last year, according to data from Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia. Garcia’s data showed that the total values of homes in the area rose 35 percent in the last calendar year.

What’s driving the growth? It’s largely the new St. Regis Bal Harbour development, which officially opened in January and has seen almost $630 million in sales to date, highlighted by the $24.6 million purchase of a combination of five units at the property by a foreign buyer.

“The St. Regis has really brought up property values,” said Serge Kay of Keller Williams, who deals extensively in Bal Harbour’s condo market. “Now that it’s finished, that its restaurants are open, right across from the Bal Harbour shops, it’s brought up property values substantially.”

Closings having been averaging between $1,200 and $1,500 per square foot at the property.

New York-based Jacky Teplitzky, who recently expanded her brokerage to Miami, compared the impact to that of the Time Warner Center in New York’s Columbus Circle neighborhood. “After Time Warner was built, all the values in the circle went up tremendously,” she said. “Now it’s almost like a separate neighborhood. So I look at Bal Harbour the same way.”

But while the St. Regis is the face of Bal Harbour’s boom, it’s not alone. The last year has seen several high-profile deals across the real estate sector in Bal Harbour, which is located just above Surfside on Miami Beach’s barrier island.

In June, the Bal Harbour Club sold for $225 million to Argentina-based Consultatio, which is currently developing the new Oceana condominium project in Key Biscayne. Buyers are already looking to sign up for first choice on the luxury units to be developed on the property, according to Serge Kay. “One is the lack of supply — obviously there’s only so much oceanfront in South Florida. And the other factor has been the South American buyers — these aren’t New Yorkers or Americans — in all these buildings.”

Sunny Isles Beach is a 40-block stretch from the town of Golden Beach boundary south to Haulover Beach Park, Biscayne Bay east to the Atlantic Ocean. Sunny Isles Beach is divided up into three neighborhoods separated by causeways: North, Central, and South

As Sunny Isles Beach developers forge ahead with plans for at least six new condo towers, more than 400 new condo units remain unsold from the last South Florida boom-and-bust cycle in the barrier city in Northeast Miami-Dade County as of June 30, 2012.

It is important to note there are various stages to a residential real estate transaction in South Florida.

A transaction begins when a property is made available for sale and ends when a title is conveyed from one party to another party as a result of the recording of a deed with the local government.

As part of the process, a property typically goes under contract and into a due diligence phase by which a deal can be canceled.

Developers sold nearly 70 new units for more than $39 million in Sunny Isles Beach between April and June of 2012, and in the process reduced the unsold boom-era inventory to six percent of the more than 6,300 units created since 2003 in this market, according to an analysis of Miami-Dade County records.

At the second quarter of 2012 sales pace, the Sunny Isles Beach could be sold out by the end of 2013 just as the newly proposed condo towers - such as the 400 Sunny Isles, Chateau Beach, Mansions at Acqualina, Porsche Design Tower, Regalia - are slated to be completed, according to an analysis of Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser Office records.

"Developers right now are focused acquiring developable land, launching presales, and ultimately constructing the next generation of new condo towers in Sunny Isles Beach," . "Developers are being driven by their hunch that the unsold condos in Sunny Isles Beach from the most recent South Florida real estate crash should be absorbed within the next 18 months. The unknown is how currency, economic, and political situations abroad could impact the significant number of foreign buyers flooding the South Florida market looking for value and a safe haven for their investment dollars."

Foreign investors of all stripes have been a major force in the U.S. housing market over the last year, but Chinese buyers, taking advantage of recession-priced real estate, better job opportunities and looking to get their children into prestigious American schools, are now the fastest growing demographic of foreign buyers. According to Businessweek, Chinese buyers, who often have no credit or access to financing, are paying all cash for homes that on average cost $400,000 — nearly twice the average cost of a U.S. home. Of the $82.5 billion invested into U.S. housing by non-U.S. buyers in the year period ending on March 2012, the Chinese accounted for 11 percent, most of which was concentrated in New York, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California.

“There is an increasing number of wealthy Chinese who are buying in the U.S. to diversify their portfolio,” said Jed Smith, a National Association of Realtors economist. “Even with the rally in recent months, homes here still look very good from an investment point of view.”