A Miami firm promoting Florida real estate investments was actually running a $135 million Ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged this week.

Gaston Cantens and his wife, Teresita, founders of Royal West Properties, promised investors returns between 9 and 16 percent a year on property in southwest Florida markets like Cape Coral, Port Charlotte and Lehigh Acres. But when the bottom fell out of the market the Cantens began using new investor money to pay off earlier investors, the SEC alleges in its civil complaint.

Huntsville, Alabama and Austin, Texas, lead the list of best U.S. housing markets for investors, according to Housing Predictor.

The site based the assessment on the strength of the regional economy and potential for job growth.

While sales of existing homes dropped 17 percent nationwide in December, sales in Florida surged at the end of the year.

Overall, Florida sales rose more than 4 percent from November to December, a sharp contrast to the national drop-off. The 14,630 sales in Florida in December were a 33 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Of course, comparing December 2009 to a year earlier is similar to saying New Orleans was a lot better a year after Hurricane Katrina. But normal levels of activity—actual sales—is definitely good news for Florida, the most popular spot in the U.S. for international buyers.

Headlines from the world of property:

Dubai: Older Offices Have a Vacant Look

New buildings are gobbling up tenants, leaving older buildings to struggle. From the National.

New York: Priciest Condo Takes a Tumble

Price of condo in Philippe Starck building drops $7 million. From Curbed.

Manhattan will be the worst performing market in the U.S. in 2010, while Cleveland and other mid-size cities in Ohio will lead the rebound, according to the latest forecasts from Housing Predictor.

In addition to Manhattan, the top 25 worst markets include Las Vegas; Providence, Rhode Island; Miami; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Charleston, South Carolina. All are expected to see double digit drops, according to Housing Predictor’s list. Manhattan is expected to see a 17.2 percent drop.

Icon Brickell

Developers in downtown Miami sold more than 1,600 condos in the second half of 2009, after lenders slashed prices by 30 percent, according to Condo Vultures.

Only about 700 units sold in the first half of the year, but buying activity picked up when prices dropped from $300 a square foot to $200 square foot, Condo Vultures’ Peter Zalewski notes.

"The new prices triggered a buying frenzy by foreign nationals with strong currencies and private equity groups that finally began to purchase, completing a dozen condo bulk deals in the Brickell Avenue Area, Downtown Miami, and the Biscayne Boulevard Corridor in 2009," Zalewski notes.

Shaq estate

2009 was “a really blah year” for the Miami Beach waterfront market, agent Kevin Tomlinson reports in his South Beach blog.

In total, 42 waterfront homes sold in Miami Beach in 2009, compared to 49 in 2008. But the average price dropped from $934 a square foot in 2008 to $702 a square foot, a 24.8 percent drop, Tomlinson reports.

“In other words, if you own a 7,000 square foot waterfront home, in 2008 it was worth $6,538,000--today it would be worth $4,914,000,” Tomlinson notes.

Think back to November, 2008. The U.S. was wrestling with the choice between John McCain and Barack Obama. The government was bailing out AIG, again. And the real estate market was grinding to a halt as the world absorbed the ramifications of the financial collapse.

With that in mind, the jubilation over the latest U.S. sales numbers seems a tad misplaced. The National Association of Realtors today announced "another big gain in existing home sales," with the number of transactions jumping 44.1 jump from a year earlier, which is impressive. But not when the comparison is to a month when the industry was on the verge of Armageddon.

The level of sales transactions is certainly good news, representing a 7.4 increase from October and the highest levels since Feb. 2007, NAR notes in its press release. But they also show a market that is still in crisis, with 33 percent of sales involving distressed properties.

ICON Brickell

Miami condo developer Jorge Perez surprised at least one analyst with his decision to complete sales in a second tower of ICON Brickell, the troubled 1,800-unit waterfront project. Industry watchers expected Perez’ Related Group would roll the meager sales in the second, 560-unit tower into the 713-unit first tower, which is only 14 percent sold, according to CondoVulture’s Peter Zalewski.

By combining the sales into the first tower, Related would have been able to use tower two and a third tower with 501-units for rentals--or at least preserve the option if a hedge fund or investor wanted to buy the towers and use them for rentals.

"Institutional funds from Wall Street to Greenwich, Conn., Canada to the United Kingdom, have been looking for vacant residential towers to acquire and run as rental projects for the foreseeable future," Zalewski says in a report.

A condominium development in Florida may have been the target of a $10 million mortgage fraud scheme, involving fake buyers from Brazil, according to an investigation by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Of the 42 buyers in the Condominiums at Waterside in Rotonda, 28 involved Brazilian buyers who paid far more than the going price and quickly defaulted on their mortgages, most without making a single payment, the paper reports. The remaining condo owners have been left to pay $8,000 a month to maintain the development.

There are several clear indications of mortgage fraud, experts told the paper, including inflated prices, high default rates within a few months of purchase and large consulting fees.