Watch: How To Evaluate Florida Condo Associations Like A Pro
This a 75-minute video of the October 2024 Monthly Meeting of the Miami Condo Market Investing Club™.
Note to Club members: A video of Peter Zalewski’s entire presentation and four supplementary charts are located at the bottom of this report behind the paywall.
Are you thinking about buying - or providing financing for - a condo unit in Florida?
If so, forget everything you have heard about location, location, location being the primary factor in deciding where to invest.
In fact, you can also disregard a unit’s view and price until after you determine whether or not a prospective new unit is in a condo building that is safe.
How do you do that?
This is the issue that owners, buyers and lenders are all trying to figure out in the aftermath of the Surfside condo collapse in 2021.
This evaluation process was the focus of the sixth Monthly Meeting of the Miami Condo Market Investing Club™ that occurred virtually on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024.
During the 75-minute presentation, Club founder Peter Zalewski shared his insights about evaluating South Florida condo associations based on an podcast interview he conducted with veteran facility manager and maintenance supervisor Carlos Villanueva of SeeWhyConsutlingLLC.com.
Villanueva has overseen the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) of South Florida condo towers, office buildings and retail centers for more than 30 years.
Prior to the October Monthly Meeting, Zalewski - who is a former business journalist, Wall Street consultant, court-admitted expert witness, keynote speaker and a licensed Florida real estate buyside broker - interviewed Villanueva to better understand what condo buyers, owners and lenders should be focused on when evaluating the MEP of a condo tower.
The MEP is critical, Villanueva said, as it represents as much as one-third of a tower’s development cost.
Once a developer turns over control of an association, the MEP is often the primary reason why unit owners are burdened with special assessments in the lead up to Florida’s 2025 Condo Association Financial Cliff.
Watch A Clip From The Meeting
This is the first 10 minutes of the October Monthly Meeting featuring Miami condo expert Peter Zalewski. To view the entire presentation, please join the Miami Condo Market Investing Club™.
A lot has changed for the South Florida condo market since June 24, 2021 when the Champlain Towers South collapsed on the barrier island in Miami-Dade County. Nearly 100 people died and a $1 billion settlement was reached with the families of the victims.
Some industry watchers have compared it to an inflection point on par with the Category 5 Hurricane Andrew that devastated South Miami-Dade County in August 1992 and led to more stringent building code requirements in South Florida.
Since the 2021 collapse, older units are said to be tougher to sell, insurance prices are spiking year-over-year and association maintenance fees and special assessments are squeezing owners to the brink.
During the October Monthly Meeting, Zalewski also provided an update on the latest South Florida condo resale statistics based on the age range in which the units were built.
Zalewski categories South Florida condos into four market segments based on the year built:
Total units (All ages);
New Units (Less than 10 years):
Used units (10 to 24 years);
And vintage units (More than 25 years).
Overall, vintage condos represent about 75 percent of the total number of active listings and completed sales in 2024 in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. To view the charts, you must be a member of the Club.
The objective of the Club is to create a community that shares realtime, actionable information on the latest real estate trends, opportunities and service providers in South Florida,
Besides real estate professionals, developers and lenders, the Club is also ideally suited for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) condo buyers who can utilize our latest statistics, expert opinions and access to consulting services.
All of the Club’s preferred vendors have also been invited to the event, including:
Veteran title expert Clarita Rosa of Miami-based Candor Title & Closing Services;
Permit and planning expert Anne-Christine Carrie of Miami 21 Zoning & Entitlements;
Construction contractor Andres Alvarez Murcia of 3A Quality Services Construction And Remodeling;
Wholesaler Jose Suarez of Global Inventory Liquidators;
It is worth noting that all of the Club’s Monthly Meetings are scheduled to be held at Noon (EST) on the second Wednesday of every month throughout the year. Here is the schedule for the remaining Monthly Meetings in 2024:
Besides access to all reports, charts and Monthly Meetings, the Club also is scheduled to host monthly Meetup events during the 2024-25 South Florida Winter Buying Season for members to talk shop, pitch their services and discuss the latest trends they are witnessing in the trenches of Miami’s volatile condo market.
The third Meetup event is scheduled from 5.30 PM to 8 PM Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Miami's Shenandoah neighborhood just west of Greater Downtown Miami.
As with the Monthly Meetings, the Meetup events are exclusively for members of the Miami Condo Market Investing Club™.
We crunch a lot of statistics each week and then publish the results byway of a series of reports posted on CondoVultures.com.
If you want the reports emailed to you, just sign up for the Miami Condo Market Intelligence Report With Peter Zalewski™ newsletter at: PeterZalewski.substack.com
Additionally, we encourage you to listen or view our podcast wherever you get podcasts. Additionally, the podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and/or YouTube.
As a reminder, we are always available for consulting, expert witness work and buyside brokerage services just as we have been since 2006.
For more information, please call 305.865.5859 or visit CondoVulturesRealty.com
This information is believed to be accurate and complete but cannot be guaranteed or warranted.
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