Why the condo sale next door may not be the best comp

Vertical high-rise real estate markets in South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach) show that real estate does not have to be a horizontal market. Sometimes it is vertical. Consider two units on the 24th floor of the same building. The same address. Approximately the same square footage. Almost the same floor plan. Located directly across the hall from one another. One faces east, offering an ocean view. The other faces west, offering a view of the city. The units may be nearly indistinguishable in terms of listing data. But they may be quite distinct properties in the eyes of a buyer. The same address. The same floor. The same unit type. But different exposures. Different views. And possibly different buyer appeal. Now reverse the situation. A unit may be several floors above or below the subject. Located in the same vertical stack or line. It may face the same direction, offer the same floor plan and provide the same view from a slightly different elevation. On a physical level, it is further away than the unit next door. On a market level, it might be much closer. That is what is intriguing about the vertical real estate market: Distance inside a building does not ne...