Posted on 09/09/2024 6:44:35 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
The Sunshine State’s housing market is caught in a perfect storm that could soon drive condo owners to flee in droves.
Experts are predicting that the skyrocketing costs of condo ownership — driven by massive increases in homeowner association (HOA) fees and a slew of new safety regulations — are poised to spark a fire sale that could send shockwaves through Florida.
Steven Kupchan, a real estate agent with One Sotheby’s International Realty, paints a grim picture.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Most of the people in those condos are from New York City, or worse.
A lot of speculators are about to get a brutal life-lesson, or two.
What goes up, must come down.
HOA’s mean they own your home, you don’t.
And people might stop fleeing the blue states.
And people might not want to retire in Florida.
Or people might want to move from Florida to the people's republic of collyfornia.
Florida was booming in the 1920s, then came the hurricane of 1926, and the State went into a depression for years.
my daughter is a property manager. She is killing off all her contracts to manage condos. The new Federal rules are insane.
The rules are needed and are for the protection of the residents - but it is the ‘it all must be done yesterday’ that makes for all the pain.
Governor is 'ready, willing and able' to ease pressure on Florida condo owners https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/state/governor-is-ready-willing-and-able-to-ease-pressure-on-florida-condo-owners
If the economy tanks, then it's not going to be worse than most other states, but it would probably get pretty bad.
I never got the allure for Florida. It is muggy and buggy.
But a couple of back-to-back heavy hurricane seasons could make a difference too.
The problem in Florida is that the State passed laws after the condo collapse in Miami a few years ago that require a 3rd party assessment of all maintenance and repairs that will be required over the next X years and the HOA must create reserves to cover the costs. This means pretty much every Condo in Florida will have a Special Assessment, and if the building is over about 15 years, then it could be higher than the cost of the condo.
A major building collapse caused by a failure to make necessary repairs will tend to do that.
It might be that 90% of the price of a prime waterfront condo is for the land.
If the building needs to get rebuilt, stay with a relative for a year.
The mortgage on the new condo in a new building might be little more than the insurance on the old condo and the new condo should have far lower insurance costs.
If your home needs a new driveway, you can do it now or hold off until next year. In a Florida condo association, your condo board doesn’t have much discretion anymore.
The new regulations are hurting owners with condos over 3 stories. They are making Associations to 100% fund the reserves by 2025. They are forced to have reserve studies and pay big bucks to accomplish inspections.
In our association we saw our flood insurance go from 17K to 43K just last year. We are in Clearwater Beach FL, hurricanes don’t help. Many owners are incurring super high assessments and COA/HOA fees.
Ours is a unique condo-tel, 2 story 22 unit complex that operates as a hotel but each unit is individually owned. We saw 5 units sold in the last year alone. Even though most regulations don’t apply to us, it’s rough. I’m on the Board or Directors.
Nationwide...my EX insurance company...forced me into a new roof last year.
I can’t imagine there are enough engineering firms around to do all the studies that are required. That stuff will be absurdly expensive to start with.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.