Condo Vultures® Celebrates 18 Years Of ‘Killing Comps’ In Miami

The Greater Downtown Miami-based consultancy and buyside brokerage was incorporated in March 2006 at the peak of South Florida’s condo bubble before the Great Recession.

Developer Carlos Rosso and Peter Zalewski debate the future of the Miami condo market. Circa. 2014

At the peak of the South Florida condo bubble in 2006, former financial journalist Peter Zalewski created a Miami company called CondoVultures.com that relied upon data to take advantage of a looming housing crash.

This month marks the 18th anniversary of Zalewski resigning as a banking reporter from the Miami Daily Business Review to launch the information and data consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. Zalewski – who has had a Florida real estate license since 2005 – subsequently launched the buyside Florida real estate brokerage Condo Vultures® Realty LLC.

Originally based in the Bal Harbour area, the firm now operates from commercial space in the Marina Blue condo tower across from the Kaseya Center in Greater Downtown Miami.

The Condo Vultures® office address may have changed through the years – the firm was located in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood for a decade between 2012 and 2022 – but the mission remains the same: collect and analyze data to identify opportunities in South Florida’s volatile condo market.

Condo expert Peter Zalewski moderated a Real Deal panel of developers. Circa 2015

Zalewski’s ability to do so has allowed him to be quoted more than 1,500 times by various local, national and international news organizations including The Economist, New York Times and South China Morning Post. Zalewski’s television appearances include the BBC, CNBC and 60 Minutes.

Zalewski is listed on IMDB for his part in the Michael Moore documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

As Miami’s condo market has boomed and busted, Zalewski diversified with the creation of a traditional sellside real estate firm called CVRRealty.com™ with longtime partner Jenny Huertas in 2009.

Jenny Huertas – the broker-owner of CVRRealty.com – is Zalewski’s longtime partner.

Huertas, who is the broker-owner of CVRRealty.com™, lists South Florida residential properties, including those purchased by customers and clients of Condo Vultures®.

In 2011, Zalewski also created CraneSpotters.com™ to track South Florida’s preconstruction condo market. The proprietary information collected for CraneSpotters.com™ spurred the creation of bus – and later walking – tours of various key condo markets in South Florida in 2013.

The tours are still offered today under the name Miami Condo Correction Tours™ given the current state of South Florida’s market.

Along the way, Zalewski was admitted to testify as an expert witness in cases being heard in Florida circuit court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

In 2024, Zalewski launched the Miami Condo Market Investors Club™ to create a community to share realtime, actionable information on the latest real estate trends in Miami.

In these last 18 years, Zalewski never lost his desire to communicate – written or spoken – about Miami’s condo market.

After leaving journalism and while running Condo Vultures®, Zalewski wrote a regular column – as a special contributor – for five years for the Miami Herald and The Real Deal before stopping in April 2016.

Zalewski continues to publish articles and reports on the flagship website CondoVultures.com. The Miami Condo Market Intelligence Report™ newsletter that was first launched in 2007 is still sent out weekly to subscribers.

One program that has been well received is the Miami Reporters Roundtable Podcast™ that brings together current and former journalists to discuss with straight talk the latest real estate and economic stories in South Florida.