Posted on 08/09/2024 6:57:44 AM PDT by Red Badger
Condo listings in Florida have skyrocketed as desperate owners attempt to dodge a costly new law requiring increased safety checks.
The legislation was brought in following the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Tower South in Surfside, which killed 98 people.
It later emerged that the condo association had postponed crucial repairs to avoid increasing costs, prompting lawmakers to introduced new regulations which take effect at the end of the year.
As a result, the number of condos on the market has soared, especially in southern Florida, prompting warnings of a 'mass exodus.'
There were 20,293 condo listings in the Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties in the second quarter of 2024, ISG World reports.
The figure is an 143 percent leap from the 8,353 in the same period last year. Almost 90 percent of those for sale are in buildings more than 30 years old.
Under the new guidelines, condos older than 30 years or more than three stories will require increased inspections from December 31.
Read More REVEALED: The cities offering the most apartment space on a $1,500 budget article image The cost of insurance and Homeowners' Association fees to cover the special assessment requirements has also jumped.
'Condo costs are shocking,' said Juan Castro, a Redfin Premier agent in Orlando. 'Condos that used to have a $400 monthly maintenance fee may now have a $700 fee. It's causing buyers to rethink their plans.'
Arkadiy Kats, 71, already pays $340 a month for a special assessment and $897 a month for monthly condo HOA fees.
Starting next year, he is expected to contribute an additional $731 toward reserves.
He has taken the decision to return to work as a real estate agent to help cover the costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
In essence, current condo owners have an incentive not to pay toward reserves for condo repairs and updates, leaving that cost to later owners and the years to come. Eventually though, repairs have to be made, at ruinous cost if delayed and a danger to life and limb is not made in a timely and complete enough manner.
As a matter of public policy, Florida dodged the issue for many years by permitting local governments to adopt weaker building codes and requirements for condo structural inspection and repairs. A spurt of hurricanes though exposed this as a dangerous folly, then the June 2021 collapse of the 12 story Champlain Towers South beachfront condominium the Miami suburb of Surfside caused the deaths of 98 people.
The legislation being criticized simply requires proper inspections of condos for structural integrity and adequate reserves for repairs. The alternative is to let hurricanes wreck condos and the passage of time bring condos to deadly ruin.
Does this impair the market value of older condos? Not really. The Surfside condo collapse was too spectacular to ignore and the value of older condos suffered. Fortunately, the rising value of land near the seashore makes it possible for clever condo associations to borrow for repairs in order to stretch out payments.
In addition, developers are hungry to buy up older condo buildings for tear down and new construction. This requires at least a vote by the condo owners. Some condo owners do well, while others are aggrieved at losing their home. Eventually, that condo conflict will also require legislative intervention, with compromises that inevitably leave some pleased and others angry.
I know three Florida people who lucked out of these monstrous assessments. Their condo buildings are only two stories high and not near the ocean. Nearby them are fancier and (formerly) more expensive 5 story high condominiums. These condo owners will pay out for special assessments to cover structural repairs. ^If^ the building has problems due to shoddy construction 20-40 years ago.
Worst hit are those owners right by the ocean, who wanted a great ocean view. So they bought a condo on the 10th floor. Those building will be inspected up the wazoo for salt water and salt air damage. Especially structural damage.
There are horror stories about **not** having an HOA. My husband and I lived through one.
The house next to ours was rented out to drugies and they were also running a whore house. The value of our property dropped considerably. We were glad to finally sell and move.
With an HOA problems like these are far more easily managed.
Our business property and condos for the past 25 years have been under the control of HOAs. Are there sometimes minor irritations? Yes, but nothing compared to having to live with whores and druggies next door.
We owned a condo on the intracoastal, in Fort Lauderdale, for about 7 years. I absolutely loved it and our monthly HOA fees were $525 a month. When my husband passed suddenly in ‘21 I decided to sell. A good many of my neighbors were moving back home or dying and we were being hit with assessments with more to come.
I was able to sell for a good price within 2 weeks. I recently went on Zillow to see what the condos are selling for now. There are none for sale and the HOA fee has skyrocketed to$1900 a month! More assessments are on the way.
Ron DeSantis sure fixed that one good! Republicans around here don’t like it when I say that but I really think it’s true. They didn’t think long and hard enough about this law, they just wanted to slap a Band-Aid on it. Make him look good while he was running for president. Now we’re all suffering the consequences.
I sure wish FL legislature and DeSantis would think of a good solution but they don’t care any more.
Thank God I live in a two-story condo and I’m not on the beach. But still my HOA fees are $687 a month, going up every year.
A grand a month to maintain a mostly empty building? Somebody is making some serious mailbox money and I don’t mean the HOA necessarily. As for corroding rebar, it sure happens and it isn’t pretty and it isn’t reversible or even fixable. Everything has some permeability and porosity, even concrete.
“Whenever someone bitches about the HOA or PID I ask if they would like to be on the board. We almost always have a vacancy or two we would like to fill. They NEVER take me up on it.”
Getting involved in your local community takes time away from barbecuing chicken, watching football and going on FR to whine about government. It’s especially amusing to watch conservative areas, that voted 60% or more for Trump, complain about leftists running their school boards, and they’re clueless on how to change that political dynamic.
“Southern state hit by mass exodus of condo owners spooked by ‘catastrophic’ market in wake of costly new law that could ‘bankrupt’ residents”
maybe they can flee to NYC, where insane regulations require costly new retrofits of condo towers with heat pumps that absolutely will NOT work and will cost hundreds of millions of dollars ...
Does this impair the market value of older condos? Not really
Self-evidentially false.
The legislation being criticized simply requires proper inspections of condos for structural integrity and adequate reserves for repairs.
The legislation includes an unrealistic, impractical, nearly immediate timetable for implementation and reserves funding. What constitutes building integrity (and the urgency in addessing it) for multi-story seaside concrete condominiums is far different from that concerning inland wood or mixed structures that are a few stories tall.
Maybe if your wife brings you a sammich you can kick back some more in the barcalounger and pontificate further.
It just dawned on me that many threads often wind up resembling HOA meetings...
I never understood the appeal of “buying” a condo when the mortgage is the same as the fees. A buddy of mine “bought” his condo on the California coast and his fee was just as much as the mortgage. He has paid off the loan but the fee still goes on. Crazy.
You will own nothing and lie it... or not.
What happened to the mythical Rv on the beach like in Rockford Files and Lethal Weapon....
Oh wait.... you can do that at the homeless camps in California.
Perhaps you prefer the prior state of affairs: no inspection, no report, and no higher assessments -- as you wait and guess if and when the building is going to fall down on you. Since real estate agents and attorneys had become alert to the risks after the Surfside collapse, they gave warnings about dodgy older condos and steered buyers away from them, diminishing their value.
Sellers of course insisted, no, their condo was just fine -- pay no mind to those superficially patched over cracks, fresh water stains, and falling stucco. It's an old game in Florida: sell bad real estate to fools who can be persuaded it is a bargain. Lots of lawyers have made a good living from litigating that kind of fraud.
See my previous, as discussion with promotional literature bores me.
Statewide, townhouses and condos active inventory is 62,011, a 91.9% increase from June 2023. Overall, the market is moving toward more activity.The spread vs 2022 is even greater. You really should pipe down.Existing townhome and condo properties statewide were at a 7.4-months’ supply, a large increase of 105.6% over June of 2023.
Like almost everywhere, Florida’s residential property market has accumulated unsold inventory due to the recent increase in interest rates. I may have been unclear, but my point is that entirely apart from the legislation, the value of older condos was diminished due to uncertainty over their structural integrity and accumulated repair and maintenance obligations for which no reserves were set aside.
You’re totally full of hot air. But I like your persistence.
Not to mention the out of the solar system price for hurricane and flood insurance. Condo in South Florida? No thanks. Home in South Florida? No thanks
Also keep in mind which 99% of the population doesn’t know, is that the Florida Keys are also infested with termites. True story.
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