> When I used to live in downtown Miami there were high rises going up everywhere with prices starting at 500k-1mm. These same places would later be short sales for 150-250k after the GFC.

This sentence doesn't make any sense to me. The definition of a short is to sell something you dont' own with the explicit intention of buying it back later at a lower price.

How can you sell a condo you don't own? and then why plan on buying the condo back at a later date?