Florida Condo 'Do Not Buy' Warning Canceled After 11 Months
In this issue of the Miami Condo Market Intelligence Report™, we discuss State Rep. Vicki Lopez's decision to withdraw a 11-month-long warning not to buy Florida condos.
Volume 2025, Issue 19 (Subscribe here)
For this week’s Miami Condo Market Intelligence Report™ newsletter, we examine an “all-clear” announcement from Florida State Rep. Vicki Lopez (R - District 113) in which she said it is now safe to buy condos in the sunshine state once again.
This a reversal from nearly a year ago when Lopez - whose district includes hundreds of condo towers in Greater Downtown Miami and Key Biscayne - told radio host Tom Hudson of WLRN’s “The Florida Roundup” program that buyers should avoid purchasing a condo until 2026, according to a MiamiCondo.Club report.
“I'm telling people not to buy a condominium now,” Lopez said on June 28, 2024. “Wait for things to settle down. Wait for the assessments to be, you know, clarified. Wait until you have more information.
“I believe that by 2026 everyone will know what they're buying.”
Lopez’s warning came at a time when Florida officials were scrambling to better understand the structural integrity and related life-safety conditions of the state’s nearly 28,250 condo associations with more than 1.2 million units.
For context, nearly 13,000 condo associations with about 610,000 units are located in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, according to a MiamiCondo.Club report.
In the wake of the Surfside condo collapse in June 2021 when nearly 100 people died and a $1 billion settlement was paid out to the families of the victims, the Florida Legislature approved a series of changes to the Florida Condo Law designed to shore up the state’s associations.
A cornerstone of the revisions was to force Florida condo associations to conduct inspections - both Structural Integrity Reserve Studies (SIRS) and Milestone Inspection Reports - and then begin funding the necessary construction work to ensure the buildings are safe.
The measures, industry watchers said, have resulted in rising maintenance fees, hefty special assessments and increasing insurance rates for cash-strapped condo owners.
This has triggered a spike in resale supply, falling prices and an overall bearishness about the market that we call the 2025 Condo Association Financial Cliff.
At the onset of the 2025 Summer Buying Season, the South Florida condo market had more than 30,465 units listed - categorized as active, coming soon and active with contract - for resale in April 2025.
This represents nearly a 28 percent increase from April 2024 when there were less than 23,825 condo listings on the market, according to a report from CondoVulturesRealty.com.
For comparison, the number of South Florida condo listings in the three preceding Aprils totaled less than 15,160 in 2023, less than 10,500 in 2022 and less than 19,640 in 2021.
In the Summer Buying Season of 2020 - at the start of the pandemic - there were about 26,665 condos listed for resale in South Florida.
The last time South Florida began a Summer Buying Season with this many condos listed for sale was in 2016 when more than 31,700 units were on the market due, in part, to a building boom that was underway.
It is against this backdrop that Lopez returned to WLRN’s “The Florida Roundup” program on May 9, 2025, to discuss the current state of the condo market and recently approved revisions to the Florida Condo Law passed by the Florida Legislature that await approval by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
During the interview, Lopez was asked by Hudson, the program’s host, whether it was safe for buyers to once again purchase Florida condos.
Lopez said: “I feel much better. I feel now that the Structural Integrity Reserve Studies (SIRS) have been done. Milestone inspections are being done.
“We finally have the information that I think anybody, a prospective buyer of a condo unit, needs to have. We have increased those, I would say, disclosures. I think people now can make an informed decision, right?
“Whereas last year, I don't think any of us knew what the impact was going to be.”
Lopez went on to say that buyers who waited for the process to play out during the last 11 months may even be able to get a better deal today.
“I think it's a good time to buy simply because there are more units on the market,” Lopez said. “The market has, you know, kind of reduced some of those values so it's probably a good deal for people.
“They will now know what their future obligations will be.”
We are pleased to offer a portion of our research for free to our newsletter subscribers and MiamiCondo.Club readers, providing a glimpse into our insights.
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Whether you are a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) condo buyer or a seasoned real estate professional, the Club provides invaluable resources, including up-to-date statistics, expert analysis and access to tailored consulting services.
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As always, our consulting, expert witness and buyside brokerage services remain available to you, building on our established reputation since 2006.
For specific information regarding discounted condo resales or bulk deals in South Florida, please visit CondoVulturesRealty.com or contact our office directly at 305.865.5859.
— Peter Zalewski, Founder of the Miami Condo Investing Club™
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