This week's South Florida real estate news:

Home prices, sales rise in South Florida
Recovery for South Florida's housing market may arrive more quickly than expected after prices for single-family homes and condos rose for the ninth consecutive month in May, according to data released this week by the Florida Association of Realtors. The median price for a single-family home in Miami-Dade County rose to $194,700, a $17,700 increase from April. The median price for a condo in the same county increased $6,800 from April to $140,300. However, home prices are still down 39 percent from last year, which has spurred sales. Low prices, low interest rates, and the first-time homebuyer tax credit are luring many buyers and investors into the South Florida market. In Miami-Dade, single-family home sales are up 76 percent compared to May of last year and condo sales are up 36 percent. [Miami Herald]

Uneven prospects for Brickell
Hope that renters will fill Brickell's unsold new condos has prompted a surge in leasing activity and bolstered the neighborhood's commercial real estate prospects. Touted as the next hot area of Miami's condo boom, many towers stood unfilled until developers began renting units, and the response has given retail a push as well. New stores continue to open, cutting the vacancy rate by more than 50 percent. In the first quarter of this year, there was 63,000 vacant square feet of retail space in the Brickell corridor, whereas in the first quarter of 2008, there was 142,000 vacant square feet. That's welcome news for area realtors and developers caught in the market implosion of the past 18 months. But not all commercial real estate in the Brickell area is thriving. Retail leasing has improved, but office vacancies are rising. By Rachel Gomez

Shaq attack: sales reports come back
Local brokers say former Miami Heat basketball star Shaquille O’Neal has finally sold his Miami Beach mansion, listed first in 2005 for $35 million. Shaq’s 20,000-square-foot mansion has been an object of fascination and a high-end symbol of the housing crunch ever since. No details on the sale have been released, though it reportedly closed Wednesday. O’Neal reportedly had arranged a November 2007 sale to baseball star Alex Rodriguez for a price between $25 million and $27 million, but deflation took its toll in both sports and real estate and the deal fell through. A November 2008 report put the manse back on the market for $19 million. At the start of this year, another broker listed it for $25 million, and the listing price was dropped in March to $22.5 million. [South Beach Condos Blog]

More short sales on the market, lis pendens filings decline
Thirty-one percent of the residences listed for sale in South Florida as of June 12 were short-sale properties, according to data from real estate consultancy Condo Vultures. There were 83,445 residences listed for sale in early June, 25,814 of which were at some point in the short-sale process. Over the past two months, 18,120 new properties have gone into pre-foreclosure in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. But the number of lis pendens filings in the three counties has actually declined over the last several months, according to the data. [Condo Vultures]

Lennar posts second quarter loss of $125 million
Home builder Lennar posted a loss of $125.2 million, or 76 cents per share, for the second quarter. The Miami-based company's loss was greater than its $120.9 million loss for the same period last year. Lennar sold almost 16 percent fewer houses in the second quarter of this year than in the second quarter of 2008. Company president and CEO Stuart Miller said Lennar doesn't think a housing rebound is coming soon, since unemployment is still rising and foreclosures are increasing. "This, combined with a recent spike in mortgage rates, has made it difficult to predict when the market will turn the corner," Miller said. [Miami Herald]

Skyline lights buck odds
With dozens of high-rise condos in trouble and an urban core that isn't too active after dark, some analysts expected Downtown Miami to look like a ghost town after sunset once the housing bubble burst. About 80 buildings comprised of 23,000 units have come online since 2003, so those predictions seemed reasonable after the 2006 peak. But a new study from Goodkin Consulting/Focus Real Estate Advisors says otherwise. The majority of the residential units completed in Downtown Miami since 2003 are occupied and the closing rate is accelerating despite obstacles to financing. There's still a long way out of the bottom, but the process is moving. "Our research indicates that 62 percent of units in new Downtown Miami buildings are occupied by a combination of owners and renters, defying the perception that the majority of high-rises built in recent years are empty," said Lew Goodkin, founder of Goodkin Consulting. By Jennifer LeClaire

South Florida fraud fighters offer national model
South Florida, where mortgage loan abuses and dubious financing deals earned Broward County's largest city the sobriquet "Fort Frauderdale," is now among the leaders in cleaning up the bubble's bust. The economic-crimes division of the Miami-Dade Police Department served as a model for the National Mortgage Fraud Task Force within the U.S. Justice Department, part of a federal reform package called the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act. The laws give prosecutors and regulators new approaches to fight mortgage fraud and predatory lending. Glenn Theobald, the police department's chief counsel, said that until 2007, mortgage fraud wasn’t even defined by state law. [Huffington Post]

South Florida hotel market improves slightly
South Florida's hotel market improved slightly in May, particularly in Broward County and the Florida Keys, according to new figures from Smith Travel Research. Booking rates stayed similar to last year's in Broward and the Keys. But room revenue dropped 13 percent in those two areas and 24 percent in Miami-Dade County. Room rates in Miami-Dade fell 13 percent in May year-over-year, to $135 per night. In Broward, room rates dropped 10 percent to $105 per night. But May was not significantly worse than April, according to the data, which South Florida tourism professionals see as a positive sign. [Miami Herald]

Pope mansion sells for $22.5 million
The former home of National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope has been sold for $22.45 million, about the same price current owners Peter Lowe and his wife Tamara Lowe paid for it in 2004. The Loews, motivational experts, sold the eight-bedroom house at 1370 S. Ocean Boulevard in Manalapan to Germantown-Seneca Joint Venture. That is a Maryland general partnership, with a post office box address in St. Petersburg, according to public records. [Palm Beach Daily News]

Miami-Dade hoping for more foreclosure relief funding
Miami-Dade County is hoping for another $162 million in federal foreclosure relief funding, following the county's $62 million initial allotment. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program is offering another $1.93 billion in foreclosure aid, and Miami-Dade County hopes to use $162 million of that to issue second mortgages, develop rental buildings on vacant lots and rehabilitate foreclosed homes. But given its history of failing to spend or misspending housing and community development funding, the county has to prove to the federal government that it can manage the Neighborhood Stabilization Program money before it will have a shot at another allocation. [Miami Today]

Crist sinks property insurance bill
Governor Charlie Crist put the kibosh on a contentious property insurance bill, saying it would limit consumer choices and make Florida a more difficult market for insurers. The governor and other critics said this week's veto gives large insurers the power to set rates at any level they wish and will add to the strain of property costs in the state. House Speaker Larry Cretul called the veto a disappointment and said over-regulation of the insurance industry is worse for consumers. [Sun-Sentinel]

Kosar files for bankruptcy
Bernie Kosar, former University of Miami quarterback and star with the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns, has filed for personal bankruptcy, as have a number of his companies, which list his Weston mansion as their address. Kosar said the collapse of the real estate market tanked a Tampa area multi-family development plan. His lawyer, Julianne Frank, said she is seeking a judge’s ruling to consolidate the restructuring of KHOC LLC, BJK LLC and Mantua Land Co. Mantua Land and BJK are land and real estate related businesses, and KHOC is the company for Kosar’s minority interest in the Florida Panthers hockey team, which reportedly is close to being sold for $240 million. [Miami Herald]

Report lists worst condo price drops
Prices have declined in Miami, but none so much as Keystone Towers in North Miami, where unit prices are down 81 percent since peaking in 2007, according to data from CondoReports.com, a market data firm. The worst-hit complexes have had average unit price declines of 75 percent or more, the report said. At Keystone, an owner who bought a 1,000-square-foot unit for $334,000 would have seen a similar unit go for $62,000. The loss in value: $272,000. Adam Cappel, president of CondoReports.com, said only a fraction of 1 percent of the condos surveyed had increased in value from the market peak. [Miami Herald]