Miami Real Estate Magazine — October 2026 (Vol. 1, Issue 4)

Miami Real Estate Magazine · Volume I, Issue IV · October 2026
By Rabia Mohad ep Roig, Beachfront Realty

In This Issue, in Brief

• Pinecrest Gardens: the 1936 Parrot Jungle garden that the Village of Pinecrest bought in 2002 and kept, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
• South Florida market, August 2026: single-family medians rose in Miami-Dade ($680,000), Broward ($650,000) and Palm Beach ($650,000) while total sales slipped in all three counties.
• Mortgage rates crossed 7%: the 30-year fixed averaged 7.28% on October 1, 2026, according to Freddie Mac.
• Luxury: Palm Beach County broke its record for $10-million home sales in eight months.
• Pinecrest landmarks: Berta and Terje by Thomas Dambo, Xavier Cortada's Seahorse Society, Sergio's and Wayside Market.

Volume I  |  Issue IV    October 2026

The Village That Kept Its Trees

Pinecrest · Market Intelligence · South Florida Living

Rabia Roig

A Note from Rabia

What Stays

Last month I asked you about the Coral Gables detail you always pass and never stop for. I'm keeping that question open. Write back, and I'll share the best answers in a future issue.

This month I went looking for my own answer somewhere else.

Pinecrest sits right on US-1. Most of us know it from the car window: hedges, a canopy, and behind them, nothing we can see.

So I stopped. I walked into a garden that used to be a parrot attraction, met a turtle that looked like it had been left in the sun a little too long, and finished at a fruit stand that has been making the same milkshake since 1948.

It's a strange month to write about patience. Mortgage rates crossed 7% for the first time since early 2025, and that number will start a lot of conversations this fall.

That is exactly why I wanted Pinecrest. Some places are built to move fast. This one was built to stay.

The numbers come first, as always. Then the trees.

Market Pulse

The Market in One Minute

The short version, before the trees.

August was the month the streaks broke. Total home sales slipped year over year in all three counties. In Miami-Dade and Broward, that ended eleven straight months of gains.

Prices did not follow. Single-family medians rose in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, and the top of the market kept setting records.

Meanwhile, the 30-year mortgage rate climbed past 7%.

Fewer sales. Higher prices. Costlier money. Three facts that rarely sit comfortably in the same sentence.

• $680,000: Miami-Dade single-family median (▲ 3.8%)
• $650,000: Broward single-family median (▲ 4.0%)
• $650,000: Palm Beach single-family median (▲ 3.2%)
• 7.28%: 30-year fixed, Oct. 1 (Freddie Mac)

Sources: MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld, August 2026 statistics; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey®.

Market Pulse — Miami-Dade

Fewer Listings, Firmer Prices

Miami-Dade sold 1,769 homes in August, 1.1% fewer than a year ago. What it didn't do was get cheaper. The single-family median rose to $680,000, active listings fell 12.1%, and the county's 194 sales above $10 million this year already pass all of 2025.

• $680,000: Single-family median (▲ 3.8%)
• $408,000: Condo median (▼ 0.5%)
• 15,825: Active listings (▼ 12.1%)
• 37.8%: Cash sales (35.6% a year ago)

Top: August 2026 indicators. Bottom: hot markets, Q2 2026, ranked by months of supply.

Source and graphics: MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld, MIAMI MLS and BeachesMLS, released September 16, 2026.

Market Pulse — Broward

More at the Top

Broward's total sales fell 4.5% to 1,899. The million-dollar tier went the other way: 255 sales, up 22.6%. The single-family median reached $650,000.

• $650,000: Single-family median (▲ 4.0%)
• $257,500: Condo median (▲ 4.0%)
• 255: $1M+ sales (▲ 22.6%)
• 35.9%: Cash sales (37.1% a year ago)

Top: August 2026 indicators. Bottom: hot markets, Q2 2026, ranked by months of supply.

Source and graphics: MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld, MIAMI MLS and BeachesMLS, released September 16, 2026.

Market Pulse — Palm Beach

A Record in Eight Months

Palm Beach County closed 170 sales above $10 million by the end of August, one more than its previous full-year record. Total sales came to 1,877. Supply stays tight: 3.5 months for single-family homes, a seller's market.

• $650,000: Single-family median (▲ 3.2%)
• $300,000: Condo median (▲ 5.3%)
• 10,115: Active listings (▼ 20.1%)
• 48.1%: Cash sales (45.5% a year ago)

Top: August 2026 indicators. Bottom: hot markets, Q2 2026, ranked by months of supply.

Source and graphics: MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld, MIAMI MLS and BeachesMLS, released September 16, 2026.

Hurricane Season & Insurance

The Last Stretch

Rates are one cost. Insurance is the other one buyers ask about first.

Hurricane season officially ends on November 30. October still counts, and the questions don't change with the calendar: how old is the roof, which flood zone is the house in, and when can the inspection happen.

For buyers, the insurance quote belongs early in the process, not after the offer. For owners, this is a good month to find the wind-mitigation report and check when the policy renews.

I'm not an insurance agent, and every policy is different. A licensed agent can quote your home. I can help you know what to ask.

Rabia's tip. Ask the seller for the roof permit date and the four-point inspection before you fall in love with the kitchen. Insurers will ask about both.

Interest Rates

Seven, Again

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.28% on October 1, up from 7.03% a week earlier. A year ago it was 6.34%. The 15-year averaged 6.60%.

WHAT IT MEANS

On a $500,000 loan, principal and interest come to about $3,421 a month at 7.28%. At last year's 6.34%, the same loan was about $3,108.

That's roughly $313 more every month, before taxes and insurance. Real money, and worth planning for.

Before you decide. These are national averages, not offers. Your own rate depends on your credit, your down payment and the loan. Talk to a lender before you decide anything.

Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey®, October 1, 2026. Payment figures are illustrations of principal and interest only.

A Note on Patience

The Rate Is Not the House

Every time rates jump, the same thing happens. People stop talking about houses and start talking about numbers.

That makes sense. A payment is real money, every month, for years.

But a rate is the price of borrowing in a particular week. A house is the place you will wake up in long after that week is forgotten.

One can change someday, if the market allows. The other can't be swapped for a better street.

Parrot Jungle's founder rented twenty acres for twenty-five dollars a year. Nobody remembers the rent. They remember the trees he chose to keep.

What i've learned. Run the numbers with a lender. Then walk the street at night. Each tells you something the other can't.

Coffee with Rabia

I think the hardest thing to sell in South Florida right now isn't a house. It's the idea of waiting for the right one.

There's a moment on Pinecrest's side streets, just off US-1, when the traffic noise drops away behind the hedges. You don't notice it happening. You notice that it has happened.

That's the feeling I keep trying to describe to buyers who are in a hurry. Some neighborhoods sell you speed. Others sell you the moment the noise stops.

— Rabia

Development Watch

The Village's To-Do List

Not every project in Pinecrest comes with a sales gallery. Most of what is moving here is public: parks, a garden nursery, a pocket of waterfront.

Gary Matzner Park

A 3.76-acre site at Kendall Drive and 67th Avenue, planned by the Village as a new neighborhood park.

Veterans Wayside Park

Improvements on Pinecrest Parkway, part of the Village's list of park projects.

Pinecrest Gardens Nursery

A renovation of the Gardens' nursery, behind the scenes of the place most residents already love.

Looking to 2027

The Village's strategic plan includes a waterfront pocket park on 67th Avenue at Snapper Creek and construction of Aleyda Mas Park.

Why it matters. In a village built around trees, most of what's new is more green space. That tells you what the Village thinks its residents want.

Source: Village of Pinecrest.

Neighborhood Spotlight

Pinecrest

The Village That Kept Its Trees

Neighborhood Spotlight · I

Arrival

In 1936, a man who sold feed in Homestead rented twenty acres of hammock for twenty-five dollars a year.
He wanted birds that flew free.
Parrot Jungle eventually moved to Watson Island.
The trees stayed.
And the place became something else.
Much later, the trolls arrived.

Neighborhood Spotlight · II

What the Trees Kept

Parrot Jungle drew visitors for decades.
Churchill came.
In 2002, the village bought the land.
It did not pave it.
The paths still wind beneath the same canopy,
past a lake where swans now do the posing.
In 2011, the whole place was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A garden with paperwork, then.
But mostly a garden.

Trees don't stay on their own.
Someone keeps them.

Neighborhood Spotlight · III

The Residents

Berta and Terje by Thomas Dambo, 2019.

In 2019, the Danish artist Thomas Dambo came to the Gardens
and built two giants
from reclaimed wood and recycled materials.
A sister and a brother. Berta and Terje.
In the old stories, trolls turn to stone at sunrise.
Dambo's are made of what we throw away,
which is its own kind of folklore:
our discards, sitting up, looking back at us.
I don't know if they are still there.
Trolls keep their own calendar.

I can't promise the turtle either.
I can only say that one afternoon, there it was,
pale as a peach, sunning on the rock
as if it held the deed.

Neighborhood Spotlight · IV

Small Promises

Seahorse Society, Xavier Cortada.

On a wooden wall, seahorses painted by Xavier Cortada,
each one carrying a pledge.
I will pick up trash, even if it isn't mine.
I will plant native trees in my community.
I will compost at home.
The idea was simple. Choose one, and mean it.

Further on, the path turns to mosaic.
Silver trees lean over it, dressed as olives, as if they had seen older countries.
Behind them, yellow umbrellas.
For a moment, it could be the south of somewhere else.

Neighborhood Spotlight · V

For the Smallest Residents

Then the sound of children,
which in Pinecrest arrives mostly with water.
A red mushroom that rains.
A flower that sprays sideways, sunlight caught in it.
Beyond the splash pad, a pink house with an arched door,
set on a floor of purple:
the only architecture children approve without an inspection.

Outside the gate, the canopy keeps going.
It just starts belonging to people.

Neighborhood Spotlight · VI

The Streets

Leave the Gardens and the village explains itself.
In the 1950s and '60s, ranch houses went up on acre lots,
and the landscaping was given room to grow.
That choice still shapes everything:
the hedges, the long driveways,
the quiet you notice the moment you turn off US-1.
Pinecrest incorporated as a village on March 12, 1996.
The word fits.
It still behaves like one.

Rabia's Notebook

I stood by the water longer than I meant to, waiting for the pale turtle to move. It didn't. I left first. I think it considered that a win.

Neighborhood Spotlight · VII

After Dark

After dark, Sergio's.
The name glows red above the awning.
Below it, a string of small lights,
empty chairs on the patio,
a wine barrel by the door,
a young olive tree in an urn.
The bright part of the evening was inside.
Outside, nothing asked for attention.
Here, that counts as a feature.

Neighborhood Spotlight · VIII

Before You Go

Wayside Market has stood by the road since 1948,
down the street from where the parrots used to be.
The sign says it is home of the famous strawberry shake.
I am not one to argue with a sign that old.

Luxury Watch

The Ten-Million-Dollar Year

Palm Beach County needed only eight months to break its record for $10-million home sales. Miami-Dade, with 194 by the end of August, has already passed its 2025 total of 170.

Somewhere this year, a buyer paid more for one house than Franz Scherr would have paid for his twenty acres in four hundred thousand years.

The rent was twenty-five dollars a year. I did the math.

Luxury isn't new to this coast. Only the zeros are.

Source: MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld, August 2026 statistics.

Did You Know?

Five Things You May Not Know About Pinecrest

— Inside the village, South Dixie Highway has a second name: Pinecrest Parkway.

— Some of the paths at Pinecrest Gardens are mosaics made from broken and cut brick.

— When Parrot Jungle moved to Watson Island, the original 1936 garden stayed behind and became Pinecrest Gardens.

— Alongside the tropical hammock, the Gardens keep dry succulent gardens, with cactus and agave.

— The Gardens are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Parrot Jungle Historic District.

Sources: Village of Pinecrest, Pinecrest Gardens, National Park Service.

South Florida Book Club

This Month

Book

The Everglades: River of Grass, by Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Published in 1947, a year before Wayside Market opened its stand. Read it, and "keep" starts to sound like a verb that takes work.

Restaurant

Sergio's, on South Dixie Highway. Cuban classics, a patio that waits without hurry, and the kind of menu where everyone at the table orders something different and nobody is wrong.

A Question for Next Month

What is the one thing in your neighborhood that has refused to change, and that you would fight to keep?

Market Snapshot

October 2026 at a Glance

August 2026 figures, the latest released.

• 7.28%: 30-year fixed (Oct. 1, 2026)
• 6.60%: 15-year fixed (Oct. 1, 2026)
• $429,100: U.S. median price (▲ 1.6%)
• $415,000: Florida single-family median (▲ 1.2%)

Sources: MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld; National Association of REALTORS® and Florida Realtors®, as reported by MIAMI REALTORS®; Freddie Mac PMMS®.

Until Next Month

I keep thinking about the seahorse pledges at Pinecrest Gardens. One of them said: I will pick up trash, even if it isn't mine.

It's a small promise. It's also most of what a neighborhood is.

Somebody, a long time ago, decided the trees were worth keeping. Everybody since has been looking after that decision.

I don't know who chose that card. I hope they meant it.

Until next month.
— Rabia

Next Month — November 2026

Inside the Next Issue

Next month we go a little further south, to a place I've been saving.

I'll say only this: it has water on one side, and a story most people drive right past.

RABIA ROIG

BEACHFRONT REALTY · AHWD · e-PRO · CIPS · CAM CERTIFIED

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Thank you for reading, sharing, asking thoughtful questions, and trusting me as your resource. South Florida continues to evolve — and navigating it well requires perspective, patience, and good information.

With appreciation and warmth,

Let's Stay in Touch

As we head into fall, it's a great time to pause, refocus, and realign your goals. South Florida remains full of movement and opportunity — especially in specific neighborhoods and property types that continue to outperform.

Need a personalized market update or a home valuation? I'll gladly prepare one for you — just ask!

LinkedIn · Facebook · Instagram · Website · 305-484-4367 · onshorerealty@gmail.com

Rabia Mohad Ep Roig

I SPEAK ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH & ARABIC

As a Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS), I collaborate with real estate professionals worldwide — from North, Central, and South America to the Caribbean, Europe (including France, Spain, Italy), the Middle East (notably Dubai), Asia (notably India), and Africa (especially Morocco and Nigeria). This network lets me help clients navigate cross-border investments with trusted local experts, ensuring seamless transactions and valuable insights across global markets. Whether you're considering Miami as a new investment or a second home abroad, I have the network to make it a reality.