Caribbean

What is actually in the building

The Caribbean is one condominium occupying two addresses. The county files 3737 and 3739 Collins Avenue under a single declaration, and returns 109 folios across the two. 104 are homes — 68 in the South building and 36 in the North. Of the remaining five, four are cabanas of 474 to 505 sq ft and one is a reference folio carrying no dwelling; all five are excluded from every residential figure here.

If you check one address and find 68 homes, you have found part of the building. The undivided ownership shares across all 109 folios sum to the whole, which is how I know the record is now complete.

The homes run from 673 sq ft to 3,911 sq ft, median 1,621, and the mix is 16 one-bedrooms, 68 two-bedrooms, 16 three-bedrooms and four four-bedrooms. Four floorplates carry most of the South building — 16 homes each at 1,421, 1,621, 1,837 and 2,326 sq ft — while the smallest homes, five at 673 sq ft and five at 982, are all in the North.

For 2026 the county assesses the homes between $398,197 and $12,039,530, median $2,135,325 (county roll as pulled 23 September 2026). That 30-fold spread is not an artifact. It is the two buildings.

Why a comparable from the wrong building is out by more than half

This is the most useful thing on the page.

The South building has cleared more than twice the North’s price per square foot over the last four years, and the county assesses it at more than two and a half times. There is no overlap at all between the two bands: the cheapest South sale in four years, at $1,724 per square foot, is above the dearest North sale, at $1,118.

So a per-foot figure quoted for “The Caribbean” without naming the building is close to meaningless, and any building-level average — including the ones a portal will show you — sits in a gap where no home actually trades. Ask which address before you use any number about this condominium, including the ones on this page.

Two honest limits. The North building has recorded only three qualified sales in four years: $823 per square foot in March 2023, $1,118 in May 2026 and $840 in June 2026. Its level is thinly evidenced and I would not defend $840 as a precise figure. And part of the gap is simply size and bedroom count: the North is one- and two-bedroom homes, the South is two- to four-bedroom. What the record cannot tell me is how much of the remainder is view, floor or condition, because the county records transactions, not reasons.

The price record

Read that table with the section above in mind. It combines both buildings, so the year-to-year movement partly reflects which building happened to sell. 2025’s $2,221 is five South sales and no North ones; 2026’s $1,724 includes two North sales, at $1,118 and $840. No four-year change is published and the building carries a dash in my Miami Condo Index, because the first year of the window has only three qualified sales, below the five my rule requires at both ends.

Across the four-year window the condominium cleared a median $1,838 per square foot in a band from $823 to $2,450, at a median price of $3,375,000 on 15 sales. That band is wide because it spans two buildings, and it is the honest one to quote.

The record price is $13,433,000, paid on 17 February 2021 for a 3,911 sq ft penthouse — $3,435 per square foot, the highest per-foot figure the condominium has recorded. That deed conveyed a cabana along with the home, so a small part of the price bought something other than the apartment, and the per-foot figure is very slightly overstated as a result.

Against 104 homes, 15 sales in four years works out at about one home in 28 a year — slower than the median building in my index, which turns over one home in 23.

The ownership record here is strong. The county shows 97 resales and only seven of them at a loss, 7.2%, against a median of 20.7% across the buildings where I have at least five resales to measure, at a median gain of 58.4%.

The reason is when it sold. Eighty-nine of the building’s 199 recorded qualified sales fall in 2009 and 2010, at the bottom of the market. Of the 58 resales by those original buyers, 1.7% lost money, at a median gain of 95.8%. Of the 21 who held on until 2021 or later, not one lost money, and the median gain was 125.0%. The best single outcome on the record is a 1,617 sq ft home bought for $1,031,700 in January 2010 and sold for $3,312,500 in October 2014 — up 221.1%.

The people who bought after 2010 have done well but not nearly as well: 35 resales, a 14.3% loss rate and a median gain of 31.4%. And the worst outcome on the whole record belongs to a buyer who came in before the sell-out — $1,300,000 in December 2008, sold for $975,000 in April 2011, down 25.0%. Thirty-one folios recorded a sale in 2009–10 and have never sold again, so those outcomes are untested.

Who this building suits, and who it does not

It suits a buyer who knows which of the two buildings they want and prices accordingly. The North is the way into this condominium at well under half the per-foot cost; the South is the larger, higher-priced product. Both are the same association and the same land.

It suits a buyer taking a long view. Every outstanding result on this record ran a decade or more, and the median owner who held from the 2009–10 sell-out into the 2020s more than doubled their money.

It suits badly anyone who needs to sell quickly. Fifteen qualified sales in four years across 104 homes is one home in 28 a year, and the North building has produced three sales in that entire period.

It suits badly a buyer relying on any automated valuation. A tool that averages across both buildings will produce a number that describes neither, and one that finds only the South — which is what happens if you search a single address — will overstate a North home by more than double.

If you are selling here, name your building first and price from its own band. In the South that is $1,724 to $2,450 per square foot across 12 sales, with the strongest evidence in 2025: $2,450, $2,382 and $2,221. In the North it is three sales, $823, $840 and $1,118, and you should expect a buyer to say that is thin. The honest counter is the ownership record, not the per-foot figure. What no seller in either building should do is quote the $3,435 per square foot from February 2021: it is a penthouse, it is five years old, and the deed included a cabana.

Interested in selling at The Caribbean?

Learn more about selling your condo at The Caribbean with Josh Stein.

I'M READY