Less than five months after the August 2013 launch of version 2.0 of CraneSpotters.com, the South Florida preconstruction condo projects website created by real estate analyst and columnist Peter Zalewski of CondoVultures.com has won the "2013 Tech Product Of The Year" award from the Miami Association Of Realtors.

Zalewski - who won the "2011 Market Advisor Of The Year" award from the Miami Association Of Realtors - and his team from CraneSpotters.com are scheduled to be honored at an awards ceremony during the 2014 Miami Realtors Inaugural & Awards banquet scheduled from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm on January 31 at Jungle Island on Watson Island, just east of Greater Downtown Miami.

CraneSpotters.com is an interactive website with a searchable database - that relies on public records and private research - to profile and plot on a 3-D map the nearly 190 proposed condo towers with more than 25,000 units slated to be developed east of Interstate 95 in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

The subscription-based CraneSpotters.com website - that offers free access exclusively to the 31,000 members of the Miami Association Of Realtors under a vendor agreement - has emerged as the official preconstruction condo projects source for South Florida's newest construction boom. 

"We are humbled to win such an important award from the nation's largest local Realtors association, especially in our first year of operation," said Zalewski, a nonpracticing real estate broker with the Downtown Miami based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC and a member of the Corporate Board Of Directors for the Miami Association Of Realtors. "We originally launched version 1.0 of CraneSpotters.com in December 2012 before entering into a vendor relationship with the Miami Association Of Realtors just a few months later. After a forward-looking technological overhaul, we released CraneSpotters.com 2.0 to an extremely receptive crowd yearning for information at the Miami Association Of Realtors' soldout Developer Showcase event in August 2013.

"The key to our success from the beginning has been the drive of our researchers to constantly obtain the most current and complete information on South Florida's preconstruction condo market for the overall benefit of buyers, developers, journalists, lenders, and members of the Miami Association Of Realtors, alike."

In addition to the award-winning CraneSpotters.com website, staying apprised of the increasing number of investment opportunities related to the more than 185 new condo towers proposed for South Florida has gotten easier with the December 2013 launch of a new preconstruction condo projects tour series narrated by Zalewski. 

During the three-hour tours on Saturdays and Sundays, Zalewski provides indepth analysis on the winners and losers in South Florida's hottest preconstruction condo markets of Greater Downtown Miami; Miami Beach / Bal Harbour / Surfside/ Bay Harbor Islands; and Sunny Isles Beach Aventura.

(For tickets and a schedule of upcoming Preconstruction Condo Projects tours, please visit CraneSpotters.eventbrite.com, call 305-865-5859, or send an email to Bus@CraneSpotters.com. Please be sure to also sign up the CraneSpotters.com Bulletin newsletter.)

CondoVultures.com is scheduled to profile condo trends in the fourth quarter of 2013 in the 10 largest coastal markets in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties beginning the week of January 22, 2014.

The Condo Vultures® Market Intelligence Report™ plans to publish a 10-part weekly series that analyzes the markets of Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Bal Harbour / Surfside / Bay Harbor Islands, Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Pompano Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island.

Some seven years after the South Florida real estate crash began in 2007, four new condo projects (in order) - 23 Biscayne Bay, 4001 North Ocean, Apogee Beach, and Bellini Williams Island - have already been completed in the tricounty region and 46 other buildings - Aventura's Echo Aventura (two towers), and Marina Palms Yacht Club & Residences (one tower); Bal Harbour's Oceana Bal Harbour; Fort Lauderdale's Adagio Residences; Greater Downtown Miami's 1100 Millecento Residences, Bay House, Bond At Brickell, Brickell Citycentre (two towers), BrickellHouse, Centro, Habitat II, ICON Bay, MyBrickell, Nine At Mary Brickell Village, SLS Hotel And Residences Brickell projects; Hallandale Beach's Beachwalk; Hollywood's Costa Hollywood (two towers), H3,Positano Beach; Sage Beach (two towers); Key Biscayne's 101 Key Biscayne and Oceana (two towers); Miami's Baltus House in the Morningside area and Grove At Grand Bay (two towers) in Coconut Grove; Miami Beach's 321 Ocean Drive (two towers), Faena House, Glass, Marea South Beach,  One Ocean (two towers), Peloro Miami Beach, and Residences At Miami Beach Edition; and Sunny Isles Beach's 400 Sunny Isles (two towers), Chateau Beach, Jade Signature, Mansions At Acqualina, Porsche Design Tower, and Regalia - are under construction as the post-crash development era gains momentum, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.

The push for new condo construction comes as the boom-era unit inventory is dwindling in South Florida.

Fueled by investors primarily from overseas, about 1,780 new condo units remain unsold from a supply of nearly 49,000 units created since 2003 in South Florida’s seven largest coastal markets of Greater Downtown Miami, South Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood / Hallandale Beach, Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach, Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach, and Downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Island as of September 30, 2013, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.

The total number of unsold new condos does not include any of the more than 8,000 units that were purchased in bulk transactions by investment groups that plan to one day resell the units at a premium, according to the Condo Vultures® Bulk Deals Database™. 

A number of the newly proposed condo units are not expected to be completed until 2014 when the unsold developer inventory from South Florida's last real estate boom and bust is projected to be sold.

It is important to note there are various stages to a residential real estate transaction in South Florida.