South Florida Condo Sales Plummet 22% In 2024 Summer Buying Season
A review of the South Florida condo statistics shows about 13,542 units traded between May and October of 2024. This is the fewest condo sales since the 2009 season during the Great Recession.
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This was the worst South Florida Summer Buying Season for condo resales in the tricounty region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach since the Great Recession, according to an analysis of statistics compiled by CondoVulturesRealty.com.
The Summer Buying Season traditionally extends from May through October when visitors and locals, alike, flee South Florida to avoid the humidity, hurricane warnings and limited number of events.
Even when factoring in the fewer number of tourists that typically visit South Florida during this time of year, this Summer Buying Season was dramatically slower for condo transactions compared to previous seasons.
Buyers purchased less than 13,545 condos in the tricounty region between May and October 2024. By comparison, buyers bought about 17,261 condos in the 2023 season. That is nearly a 22-percent drop in total transactions on a year-over-year basis.
This is the third consecutive year that condo resales were down from the recent peak of the 2021 Summer Buying Season when about 28,150 units traded.
It is worth noting, the last time so few condos traded during a South Florida Summer Buying Season was the 2009 season when about 13,410 units transacted.
Many industry watchers consider the September 2008 bankruptcy filing of the former Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers as the “climax of the subprime mortgage crisis” and the resulting Great Recession, according to Wikipedia.
For context, some 16,730 condos transacted during the 2010 South Florida Summer Buying Season. A year later in the 2011 season, some 19,530 condos traded as prices were slashed.
This is an about-face from the pandemic years when a plethora of work-from-home employees relocated to South Florida from places such as California, Illinois and New York.
The influx of transplants to South Florida bought up or leased out much of the available housing supply, which increased prices and triggered new development.
Rising property values from strong demand, skyrocketing insurance prices following the Surfside condo collapse disaster and high interest rates from a series of hikes by the Federal Reserve brought the South Florida housing market to a standstill in the second half of 2023.
Added to this, Florida unit owners are increasingly experiencing the headwinds - spiking special assessments and falling prices from sellers trying to unload their properties - from the looming 2025 condo association financial cliff.
In the aftermath of the June 24, 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South in the town of Surfside on the barrier island of Miami-Dade County, everyone from residents to building inspectors, politicians to bankers understand better than ever the importance of ensuring that no Florida condo building ever collapses again.
Nearly 100 people died and a $1 billion settlement was reached with the families of the victims.
A federal investigation is currently underway but the preliminary reports suggest a flawed design coupled with a lack of upkeep by the condominium’s association contributed to the disaster.
The Florida Legislature has taken a number of steps - prompted by insurance companies threatening to withdraw coverage in the state - to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.
Up until now, the state’s measures were being implemented slowly but that all changes in less than 60 days when a key funding requirement takes effect.
Beginning in January, condo associations in Florida will be required to start collecting money from unit owners to place into reserve accounts - based on the results of Structural Integrity Reserve Studies (SIRS) conducted by experts - that will be used exclusively to fix, maintain and improve the structural integrity of residential buildings that are at least three-stories tall.
People are dubbing this moment as the 2025 Florida Condo Association Financial Cliff as it is expected to result in significantly higher costs for unit owners. News reports are already chronicling condo owners selling their units at deep discounts ahead of the 2025 deadline.