Investors in troubled markets like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and San Diego are watching as cash investors scoop up hundreds of condos at bargain prices from Miami developers and banks that are desperate to get the units off the books.

Unlike investors in the boom years, these buyers are well heeled and willing to be patient.

They have the money and the knowledge and wherewithal to hold them until the market turns around, says Jennifer Drake, a real estate attorney with Becker & Poliakoff.

If this bulk-purchase strategy pays off in South Florida, expect to see it spread elsewhere, observers say.

Source: The Associated Press, Adrian Sainz (07/30/2009)