On June 24, 2026, Florida marks five years since the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside killed 98 people and changed condominium law in this state for good. The anniversary lands at an odd moment for the market it reshaped. Statewide condo sales just closed out 2025 down nearly 6%, insurance premiums are the highest in the country, and a $15 million relief loan program for owners hit with special assessments closes its application window on June 30, six days after the anniversary itself. The timing is not poetic. It is just where the calendar happens to land in a market still working through the aftershocks of one building's failure.
What the data shows is not a single story but two. Older, lower-priced condos are moving faster than they have in years. Newer, higher-priced buildings are sitting. Statewide volume remains below 2024 levels, even as the most recent months show real recovery. Anyone buying, selling, or holding Florida condo product right now needs to understand which of these two markets they are actually standing in.
The Law Surfside Wrote
The collapse triggered a National Institute of Standards and Technology investigation into the building's failure, which remains ongoing, and prompted a legislative response in Tallahassee that was anything but slow. Florida lawmakers passed SB 4-D in 2022, then followed with SB 154, HB 1021, and HB 913 as the original statute proved too blunt in places and needed refinement.
The practical result for condo associations: buildings three stories or taller must complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, and associations formed before July 1, 2022, had until December 31, 2025, to do it, according to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Associations can combine that study with their required milestone inspection through the end of 2026, but not beyond. Reserve funding rules tightened alongside the inspection mandates. For any budget adopted on or after December 31, 2024, a majority of voting interests is required to waive reserve funding, and reserve items identified through the SIRS process cannot be waived at all.
None of this is optional, and none of it is cheap. Buildings that deferred maintenance for decades are now required to fund the math they avoided, on a fixed government timeline, with no escape hatch for shortfalls.
The Insurance Tax No One Voted For
Layer the insurance market on top of the reserve mandates and the cost picture gets worse. Florida homeowners now pay an average of $8,292 a year for home insurance, about 181% above the national average, according to Insurify data reported by Insurance Business magazine. That figure is projected to climb to roughly $8,458 by the end of 2026. Hurricanes Helene and Milton alone generated close to 300,000 claims in 2024, contributing to an 18% jump in premiums in 2025. Since 2020, Florida premiums are up 49.5%, compared with general inflation of 27.9% over the same period.
Condo owners incur a version of this cost specific to their unit. The national average HO-6 condo insurance policy runs $815 a year. In Florida, the same coverage averages $1,408, the highest of any state in the country, according to Insurance.com. Add that figure to a special assessment notice and a reserve contribution increase, and it becomes clear why so many condo owners describe the last three years as an unplanned third mortgage payment.
A Market Cut in Two
The statewide numbers tell a story of a market still absorbing the shock. Florida Realtors reported that 88,793 existing condo and townhouse units sold statewide in 2025, down 5.9% from 2024, with the statewide median price falling to $310,000, down 4.7% year over year. Months of supply for condos and townhouses sat at 8.8 at year's end, nearly double the figure for single-family homes.
But the most recent data points in a different direction. December 2025 condo and townhouse sales rose 10.4% year over year, the strongest single month in the recovery so far, and April 2026 statewide condo and townhouse sales climbed to 9,309 units, up 6.9% year over year. Whether that is a genuine turn or a base-effect bounce off a weak prior year is still an open question, but four consecutive months of improvement is not nothing.
Within Miami-Dade specifically, the split between segments is even sharper. Older condominiums, those 30 years or more, are spending a median of 66 days on the market against 81 days for newer buildings, according to data released by the MIAMI Association of Realtors. Sales of condos priced between $200,000 and $400,000 rose 21% year over year in November 2025. Buyers appear to be voting for location and price over building age, betting that the SIRS process itself, despite its cost, makes older inventory more financeable and structurally accountable than ever.
| Indicator | Reading | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Statewide condo-townhouse sales | 88,793 units, -5.9% YoY | Full-year 2025 |
| Statewide condo-townhouse median price | $310,000, -4.7% YoY | Year-end 2025 |
| Statewide condo-townhouse months of supply | 8.8 months | Year-end 2025 |
| Statewide condo-townhouse sales | +10.4% YoY | December 2025 |
| Statewide condo-townhouse sales | 9,309 units, +6.9% YoY | April 2026 |
| Miami-Dade older (30+ yr) condos, days on market | 66 days vs. 81 for newer stock | Year-to-date 2025 |
| Miami-Dade $200K-$400K condo sales | +21% YoY | November 2025 |
"Sales declines have been steeper than in the single-family category in recent years, particularly due to the gradual introduction of safety regulations and reserve requirements beginning in 2022. While these regulations improve the safety of condo buildings, like any regulations, they do come at a cost." — Dr. Brad O'Connor, Chief Economist, Florida Realtors, January 2026
A Lifeline With a Closing Window
For owners facing the sharpest end of these costs, Miami-Dade County relaunched its Condominium Special Assessment Loan Program on June 1, with $15 million available in loans of up to $50,000 per unit, including 0% interest options for qualifying households. Applications close June 30. Priority goes to owners aged 62 and older; eligibility extends to households earning up to 140% of the area median income; and the application runs entirely through the county's digital WISE305 system. Since its launch, the program has provided more than $55 million in assistance to condo owners countywide, according to reporting corroborated by Caribbean National Weekly and the Kendall Gazette, the Community Newspapers, building on the original program announcement from attorney Eric Glazer at CondoCrazeAndHOAs.com.
It is a meaningful program and the only one of its kind currently operating in South Florida.
The Property Thesis Take
Amos Eyal's clients sit primarily in Palm Beach and Broward counties, not Miami-Dade, and that distinction matters here. Palm Beach County commissioners discussed creating a low-interest loan fund for condo owners facing special assessments as far back as September 2024, with commissioners citing residents at risk of losing homes their families had owned for decades. As of this writing, no evidence indicates that fund has been implemented as a standing program. Broward County appears to have no equivalent program. Reporting on Hollywood Beach has cited special assessments there averaging nearly $99,000 per unit, though that figure comes from a single independent analyst's account and should be treated as a single data point rather than a countywide benchmark.
The practical takeaway for anyone transacting in this market: do not assume relief is coming. Buyers evaluating an older Palm Beach or Broward condo should request the SIRS report, the milestone inspection status, and the most recent reserve study before writing an offer, not after. Sellers in buildings that have already completed SIRS compliance have a real selling point and should document it clearly rather than assume buyers will ask. Investors have a genuine opportunity in well-documented, SIRS-compliant older buildings priced below newer construction, the same segment driving Miami-Dade's affordable-condo surge, but that opportunity depends entirely on verifying the building's financial position rather than its sale price alone.
Five years after Surfside, the regulatory bill has arrived. The market is sorting itself into buildings that can prove they are sound and buildings that cannot. Position on the right side of that line.
Sources:
- Florida DBPR: Condominium Safety FAQs
- NIST: Champlain Towers South Collapse Investigation
- CondoCrazeAndHOAs.com: Miami-Dade Announces Relaunch of Condominium Special Assessment Loan Program
- Caribbean National Weekly: Miami-Dade Relaunches Condo Repair Loan Program With $15M Funding Boost
- Community Newspapers (Kendall Gazette): County Relaunches Condominium Special Assessment Loan Program
- Florida Realtors: Fla.'s 2025 Housing Market Ends on Positive Trends
- Florida Realtors: Florida Home Sales Rise Again in April
- Insurance Business: Floridians Pay 181% More for Home Insurance Than US Average
- Insurance.com: Average Condo Insurance Rates by State
- PRNewswire (MIAMI Realtors): Miami-Dade Older Condominiums Continue Selling Faster Than Newer Units, Affordable Condo Sales Surge
- CBS12: Palm Beach County May Help Condo Owners Struggling to Pay Special Assessments
- Peter Zalewski (Substack): South Florida Condo Owners Enraged Over Special Assessments
