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South Florida home and condo sales edge down in July

Condo and home buyers may have an edge on sellers in South Florida. Average prices fell in July from a year ago while more owners were listing their properties for sale.

“A healthy balance” is how the Miami Association of Realtors described the number of single family homes for sale when compared to the pace of sales in July. That “healthy balance” is a consequence of more properties for sale and a slowdown in the number of homes sold.

Average prices for homes in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have been easing lower on an annual basis in recent months. Far from a crash, average single family home prices have been relatively stable even as average condominium prices have fallen to some of their lowest levels in almost two years.

It is a similar environment across Florida.

“The relatively abundant amount of inventory we have in both property type categories is an indication that we still do not have enough prospective buyers relative to sellers to push prices upward,” said Florida Realtors’ Chief Economist Brad O’Connor. “For buyers who can afford to purchase in the current market, this gives them a sizable advantage in price negotiation.”

2026 World Cup draw will be held at Washington’s Kennedy Center, Trump says

“It’s the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports, I guess,” said Trump, who made the announcement in an Oval Office event where he was joined by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Vice President JD Vance.

The U.S. is co-hosting next year’s tournament — which for the first time will feature 48 national teams up from 32 — with Canada and Mexico. The draw event will determine the World Cup’s groups, and the games each team plays in the opening round.

Infantino said the 48 teams will play “104 matches in one month” and likened it to “104 Super Bowls.” Trump picked up on that theme, saying, “It’s like having many Super Bowls in a short period of time, because each one of these games, essentially, is a Super Bowl. Some of them are bigger than Super Bowls, actually.”

The World Cup kicks off June 11 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and runs through the final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Games will be played in 16 cities across the three countries. Washington, D.C., is not among the host cities.

Trump said that the Kennedy Center “will give a phenomenal kickoff and we’ll be involved.” Asked if he’d be the one actually drawing the team names, Trump didn’t answer directly but deferred to Infantino, saying the FIFA chief “was the boss.”

UWF Starts Presidential Search

After former state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. took over last month as interim president of the University of West Florida, the school’s Board of Trustees on Friday took steps to begin a presidential search. A 15-member search committee, announced Friday, “will be responsible for collecting input from stakeholders, developing the presidential profile and position criteria, and recruiting and assessing candidates,” according to a news release.

The search committee will be chaired by UWF Trustee Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow for the conservative Heritage Foundation. Other members of the committee include Alan Levine, who is vice chairman of the state university system’s Board of Governors; former Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward; and Ginger Madden Bowden, who is state attorney in the 1st Judicial Circuit, which includes Pensacola.

Among others serving on the committee are Florida Power & Light external affairs manager David Peaden and Collier Merrill, a developer and entrepreneur who owns several restaurants in Northwest Florida and is chairman of UWF’s Historic Trust. The university is “uniquely positioned to attract an exceptional leader who will usher the university into its next chapter of growth in terms of enrollment, academic and athletic

Evening Briefs: Windom Goes to Supreme Court | UWF Starts Search

A day after the Florida Supreme Court rejected their arguments, attorneys for convicted killer Curtis Windom on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his scheduled execution next week. Windom’s attorneys filed a petition and an accompanying motion for a stay of execution at the U.S. Supreme Court. Windom is scheduled to be put to death Thursday at Florida State Prison for the 1992 murders of three people in Orange County. Windom’s attorneys argued, in part, that Windom, 59, should not be executed because he received incompetent legal representation during his 1992 trial.

They wrote that Windom’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated because his attorney was not qualified and that his convictions should be overturned. “At the time that trial counsel represented Mr. Windom, there were no special qualifications imposed for capital attorneys,” Friday’s motion for a stay said. “The trial record indicates counsel was clearly not acting as the Sixth Amendment envisioned, especially in capital cases. 

Trial counsel lacked the basic understanding and knowledge of how to investigate complicated mental health investigations or how to present such defenses at a trial and penalty phase in a capital trial. Under the evolved standards today, the rules in place now would have prevented this injustice.” But the Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected such arguments in a 26-page opinion Thursday.