Well, at least his neighbors hopefully won't have to complain anymore about all the filming that was going down there

Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has reportedly sold his Miami Beach mansion for $30 million. He had bought the home in 2010 (while dating Cameron Diaz) for $7.4 million and then invested another $7.6 million in major renovations. All-in-all that comes out to a tidy $15 million profit.

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Icon Bay, currently under construction in Edgewater.

Earlier this week, in a cringe-worthy turn of phrase The Miami Herald business section declared that Miami's Edgewater neighborhood is "located at the intersection of funky and trendy" after realizing, a few years too late, the neighborhood has experienced some classic gentrification. Of course, the Herald only bothered to get around to writing the story because developers are starting to build new luxury high-rise condos in the neighborhood. And whenever developers are involved, the Herald's instinct is to dutifully drop to its knees.

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This week The New York Times ran one of its periodic check-ins on the Miami real estate market. Nothing particularly new in there for people who already follow the ups and downs of the property market, but it is another reminder that Miami's latest "boom" is being driven by rich out-of-towners who like to shop.

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Miami was pretty much ground zero for the housing bubble bust, but things have begun to look up, at least according to some numbers. Home prices in the area are up 11 percent since last year, but the Washington Post warns that any semblance of a recovery might be the result of Wall Street strategy and not healthy, sustainable growth.

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Matt Damon is apparently moving out of Miami Beach.  Seven years after buying his North Bay Road mansion, the actor has put the spread on the market for a cool $20 million.

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Zombie homes: Less disturbing than this guy, but still not good.

All across our lovely, sun-drenched peninsula, acres and acres of cookie-cutter suburbs sit wilting in the humidity, bereft of human beings. They're "zombie homes": properties mired in foreclosure whose owners have simply walked away, leaving the rotting places to become havens for drug dealers and squatters.

Florida has more zombie homes than any other state in the nation by a huge margin, a new study shows.

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The next iconic skyscraper that might sprout up in downtown Miami will take its architectural cues from a bug. Plans for the proposed One Thousand Museum building, designed by star architect Zaha Hadid, have emerged and the towering residential building sports an exoskeleton.

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Marc Averette via Creative Commons

The Icon South Beach, a luxury condo building now in turmoil

Florida history is full of condominium-related corruption, including board members receiving kickbacks for contracts or raiding condo coffers and then disappearing into the Everglades. That's why state statute bars condo board members and officers from receiving compensation unless explicitly outlined in the building's bylaws.

So it's not surprising that residents of the Icon at South Beach -- a luxurious glass tower located at 450 Alton Rd. -- freaked out after discovering earlier this month that condo board president John Stimmel had cashed more than $113,000 in checks from Icon's accounts.

Stimmel insists the cash went towards employee bonuses.

See also:
- Trouble in Paradise: Fines, Photo Surveillance, and Filthy-Mouthed Vandals at Coral Gables Condo
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Let your teenage son swim in the pool? Get a warning. Leave your screen door open? Get fined $1,000. Post a written complaint? Watch it get defaced with expletives.

Welcome to the Waters Edge apartments, which some residents say has become the condo from hell thanks to board president Jim Lowe.

"Jim Lowe is a condo commando," says Loretta Dawson, who lives in the 100 Edgewater Dr. apartment building with her two teenage boys. "He harasses everyone, including nannies and children. We live in beautiful Coral Gables, but he's making it miserable."

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If at first you don't succeed, try again ... and again. 
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