NEIGHBORHOOD: Miami Shores

Looking at the listing photos for this house in the heart of Miami Shores, one has a few questions. First, what the heck happened and how did it get this way? The place is an absolute, abandoned wreck.

In the heart of Miami Shores, this roomy midcentury modern (a.k.a. "Miami Modern" here) house sprawls over a half-acre lot, and includes a unique breezeway or loggia that encloses a courtyard-like lawn area in the back yard, offering plenty of protected outdoor living space, all for $2.599 million. Located at 500 NE 96th St, and listed a few days ago, the house was built in 1950, and has quite a few original details intact, including terrazzo floors and even the brightly colored tile bathrooms that are so emblematic of the era yet very often torn out.

Check out this fabulous, early midcentury modern house designed as the personal residence of Jerome Schilling, an associate to one of Miami's most interesting and innovative tropical modernist architects, Igor Polevitzky. (Yes, Miami had innovative architecture long before Zaha Hadid's "Scorpion Tower!")

Built in 1954, this split-level mid-century ranch house has been redone while preserving some of the 1950s flair that made it unique. The 3,360 square foot place, with four bedrooms, and four and a half baths, is listed for $1.185 million, which, after the cost of the renovation, is just a little bit above the $835,000 the owner spent on the place in 2014. It's a buyer's market people!

Have you ever heard of Henry End? Nope? Well, neither has the Big Bubble, but apparently he was a prominent South Florida architect in the midcentury period known for his hotel and restaurant design, and he also did this spectacular Miami Shores house in 1959.

The Brightline is the closest Miami could get to a bullet train anytime soon, and it's coming to Miami this weekend. The high speed train, which builds up speed as it heads north out of Miami-Dade County and South Florida, will eventually reach Orlando International Airport.