The slowing economies of emerging markets, such as China and Brazil, threaten to forestall the growing recovery of Miami’s high-end real estate market. Given that a major factor of the recent recovery has been thanks to investments from wealthy foreigners from South America and China, suffering stock prices and undervalued currencies could lead to a falloff of high-value purchases from these foreign real estate investors. It is projected that Miami could lose a devastating share of high-end condo sales thanks to the economic downturn in Brazil.

Brazilians currently hold a 12 percent share of Miami’s overall real estate sales and makeup much more of the high-end market. Two-thirds of those buyers purchased condos or apartments priced at over $200,000. The market predicted to receive the brunt of the potential slowdown is the luxury condo market with individual units typically selling for between half a million and $3 million. The Biscayne Corridor could be especially hard hit since 60 to 75 percent of buyers in this market are Brazilian.

However, the so called “ultra-luxury” market, could actually benefit from the South American troubles, since the super wealthy in those countries tend to buy assets in the U.S.