No one knows how many units speculators bought. But as early as 2004, McCabe and Lew Goodkin of Miami-based Goodkin Consulting warned that up to 70 percent of the condos rising in Miami were being snapped up by people who didn't plan to hold on to them, much less live in them.

That was evident from the hordes who camped overnight, fought over lottery numbers, even paid homeless men $20 and a pack of cigarettes to hold their places in long lines, all for the chance to put 20 percent deposits on condos that existed only in brochures. The frenzy for some projects was so fevered that some developers raised their prices hourly.

"It was a nightmare. Lines around the corner. People screaming into phones. I would look at them, and think, 'You don't know what you're doing,' " said Mark Zilbert, president of Zilbert Realty Group.

Many told a similar story: They had a friend who made $100,000 flipping a new condo, and they planned to ride the same wave of escalating prices. All they had to do was put down $60,000 on a $300,000 pre-construction unit and resell it when the value climbed to $400,000 -- before the building opened, and before closing and mortgage payments, maintenance fees, insurance and taxes kicked in.

That meant anyone could risk $60,000 and pocket $100,000 without actually buying anything.

Some investors were experienced players like Barry Beschel of Aventura. After the dot-com stock-market crash in 2000, he said he had no trouble persuading his buddies to park their money in Miami's sizzling condo market.

"All my guys in New York were like, 'Yeah, flipping condos in Miami.' It was a sexy commodity, and it was fun to make money," Beschel said.

Read it all; it makes one think of the Dutch tulip craze.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • * Economics, Politics • Economy

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