Thanks to the ongoing appetite of international and cash buyers, South Florida’s real estate market was shielded from a national drop-off in sales.

Because those buyers were not eligible for a tax credit, their desire for real estate didn’t taper off after the benefit expired at the end of April, like it did for others who rushed to get in on the deal.

It’s true that in the two months since the tax credit expired, pending sales in Miami-Dade and Broward have fallen 2.6 percent, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches.

But that decrease is relatively mild when compared with the swift drop-off in sales that took place nationally after the federal subsidy expired. The first post-tax-credit pending sales numbers, released Thursday, show a 15.9 percent decrease in pending sales in May, figures from the National Association of Realtors show. Year-over-year, pending sales plunged 30 percent.

In June, potential homebuyers in Miami-Dade County signed 10,366 sales contracts — an increase of 53 percent when compared to the same month last year, but a 1 percent decrease from May, according to figures released Thursday by the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches. In Broward, pending sales were up 28.7 percent since June 2009 but down 2.7 percent for the month to 8,031.

Helen Jeanne Nicastri, a Realtor and president of the Miami-based Master Brokers Forum, said interest from Mexican, Brazilian and European buyers has helped her move luxury properties in recent months.

“That’s what I’m seeing — strong international buyers coming into the marketplace,” said Nicastri, who has a $12.9 million deal pending with an international buyer. “They’re attracted to the U.S. for our prices, as this one of the states in the nation that has been affected most. Our prices are amazing.”

South Florida sales also have managed to hold because of depressed prices, low interest rates and a pool of buyers that includes bulk investors and cash-wielding foreigners, said Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting.

“We have a buyers pool that encompasses all four points on the compass, while many other markets rely only on U.S. buyers,” he said.

The figures were released one day after Congress passed a bill that would give homebuyers an extra three months to close on a home and still qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000. Many buyers who went to contract on homes before the April 30 deadline were unable to close on the purchase before June 30, the original cutoff date for closing. The measure, which President Barack Obama is expected to sign, would extend that cutoff date to Sept. 30, though no new contracts would qualify.

Locally, condominium sales were stronger than single-family homes sales, with large increases year-over-year and slight decreases for the month. In Miami-Dade, 5,876 contracts were signed, up 76.4 percent since May 2009 — but down 0.64 percent since April 2010.

In Broward, the 4,429 pending condo sales in June represent an increase of 56 percent for the year, but a decrease of 2.3 percent for the month.

Though the tax credits are gone, low prices helped keep buyers interested. Condo prices remain far below their peak, with May median sales prices standing at $81,500 in Broward and $126,100 in Miami-Dade, where prices dropped another 10 percent from May 2009.

Single-family home prices are up slightly, rising to $196,700 in Miami-Dade, and $216,400 in Broward in May. Those prices are up 1 percent and 18 percent, respectively, since May 2009.

In Miami-Dade, pending sales of single-family homes increased 31 percent in June from the previous year, to 4,490, but dropped 1.15 percent from May.

In Broward, June pending sales of single-family homes rose 20.6 percent year-over-year, but dropped 2.7 percent month-over-month. Broward buyers signed 3,602 contracts in June, down from 3,719 in May.

Though the month-to-month decreases were less than some market-watchers had feared, the local market is certainly not out of the woods.

A large backlog of foreclosure properties making their way through the system, high unemployment and condo prices that continue to slide all threaten to prolong the road to recovery.

For the past four weeks, the number of homes and condos on the market has been increasing, the first monthly rise in nearly two years, according to analysis by real estate consultancy Condo Vultures.

A continued increase in inventory over the next few weeks could signal a “double dip” in housing prices, said Peter Zalewski, a principal at the Bal Harbour firm.

And the local labor market, which is crucial for demand, continues to struggle in South Florida, with a local unemployment rate significantly higher than the national average.

Miami-Dade’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 12.4 percent in May, while Broward’s rate dropped slightly to 9.8 percent. Nationally, unemployment has hovered around 9.7 percent for the past few months.

They also want to cut ties to the hotel’s management company. Like an increasing number of owners of units in hotel and resort properties, they say their fees are helping subsidize the operations of the hotel.

The owners’ legal fight comes as Soffer and his partner work to restructure the debt on the seven-acre oceanfront property and face claims from contractors who say they still haven’t been paid.

“The unit owners [are] bearing an excessive, inequitable and unconscionable amount of the expenses and liabilities associated with the Fontainebleau III while the hotel, created by the developer, reaps an excessive and unconscionable profit at the expense of the association and its unit owners,” according to the lawsuit against the partners’ Fontainebleau Florida Tower 3 LLC.

The units consist of studios, and one- and two-bedroom suites ranging from 550 square feet to 1,165 square feet. Resales are currently listed in the low $300,000s to about $1 million. Owners in the Fontainebleau III can put their units into the hotel program and rent them out.

Those projects are known as condo hotels, which were popular during the condo boom. Now unhappy owners are increasingly suing the hotel developers and operators.

The Resort at Singer Island Hotel Condo Association recently sued hotel owner and operator Urgo Hotels in West Palm Beach federal court challenging the high maintenance fees that Urgo is collecting from the owners.

A group of owners at the Mayfair Hotel & Spa in Miami are suing developer Ceebraid-Signal, which controls most of the units at the Mayfair and runs the hotel. The owners claim Ceebraid-Signal has imposed excessive fees to pressure owners to sell their units at a discount to Ceebraid-Signal so it could convert the property back to a conventional hotel. That case is pending.

2008 Project
Fontainebleau Florida, an affiliate of Soffer’s Fontainebleau Resorts and owner of the hotel, built the residential 286-unit tower in 2008. It was part of the estimated $1 billion remodeling and expansion of the 54-year-old resort.

The condo association, Fontainebleau III Ocean Club, sued the developer in January. Now, the developer has filed a motion to have the suit dismissed. The case is pending before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Lester Langer.

Fontainebleau Florida said the owners were aware of the property management agreement before they bought their units. The developer also said the hotel-not the unit owners-owns the tower’s balconies, exterior walls, terraces, roof and other disputed structural components. The owners can’t seek compensation for construction defects on hotel property, according to the developer.

Coral Springs attorney Gerard Tuzzio, of Roberts Reynolds Bedard & Tuzzio, represents the developer. He was traveling and could not be reached for comment.

Attorney Helio De La Torre, with Siegfried Rivera Lerner De La Torre & Sobel in Coral Gables, who represents the Fontainebleau III Ocean Club, declined comment.

If the condo association successfully cuts its ties to the hotel, the Fontainebleau would lose a critical source of revenue as it works with lenders to restructure more than $620 million in debt incurred in 2005 when it was remodeled and expanded.

The Fontainebleau re-opened in late 2008 just as financial markets were seizing up and the global recession was taking hold. Although credit markets are showing signs of recovery, large financial deals are still difficult to put together, especially for hospitality properties coping with a soft tourism market.

In September, Soffer and Nakheel stopped making payments to a syndication of lenders led by Bank of America, according to Bloomberg News. Earlier this month, they offered the resort’s lenders a restructuring plan to extend the senior loans maturity by four years to 2016. It is not clear whether the lender accepted the deal.

Soffer didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

Soffer and his construction company, Turnberry Construction in Aventura, face nearly $60 million of claims by contractors who worked on the 1,500-room Miami Beach hotel. Contractors have filed at least 39 lawsuits seeking payment. The contractors include Matrix Construction Group, which seeks $9.4 million; Miami Drywall and Stucco, $4.09 million; and Site Technologies, $2.06 million.

Soffer in Februay lost control of the bankrupt Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino and resort. Lehman Brothers in February sued Soffer and Fontainebleau Resorts to recover $400 million it provided to build the Nevada project. The partially built project was purchased by financier Carl Icahn [http:///news/1602_1602/lasvegas/183616-1.html] for $156 million.

The condominium association’s eight-count lawsuit names Fontainebleau Florida and general contractor Coscan Construction, which built the high-rise. The unit owners want the alleged defects repaired and are seeking damages and undisclosed compensation.

The association claims the developer failed to disclose construction defects to the owners before they closed on their units. It also claims the developer failed to make repairs, a breach of the purchase agreements.

According to the suit, construction defects include cracks in concrete slabs and walls, according to an engineer’s report prepared for the association by M2E LLC in early January. It is not uncommon for condo owners to sue developers over alleged building defects.

After owners in some newly built condos take control of their association from a developer, they hire an engineer to identify structural problems. Many end up suing the developer over the defects.

The Fontainebleau III Ocean owners gained control of the association in January 2009, according to the suit. The owners also want Langer to order the developer to turn over financial records and other documents to the board of directors.

The complaint also seeks to amend the condo’s documents to end the association’s relationship with Soffer’s hotel management company.

“[The condo documents] force the association to be managed by the Fontainebleau Hotel instead of having the ability to select its own management company and is forced to pay management fees over which it has no control,” according to the complaint.