Florida Condo Sales and Prices Fell in 2025: What Owners in Older Buildings Should Know Going Into 2026

The year ended the way it began for many Florida condo owners: with fewer buyers, softer prices and large repair bills. A Homes.com report published December 31, 2025, found that condo sales fell 8.2% nationwide in 2025, but dropped more steeply in three of Florida’s four largest markets: 12.9% in Miami, 17% in Tampa and 13.3% in Orlando ¹.

The numbers

Prices followed. Nationally, condo prices rose 0.4%, but they fell 2.6% in Miami, 7.5% in Orlando and 11.4% in Tampa, according to Homes.com ¹. Jacksonville was an outlier on volume, with condo sales up 25.5%, yet its median condo price still fell 19%, or $56,125, to $238,750 ¹.

Lisa McNatt, director of analytics for Homes.com, said condo pricing remained under pressure across Florida as of November 2025 and pointed to elevated ownership costs, including insurance and assessment fees, especially in coastal areas ¹. The report cited Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation figures putting the state’s condo inventory at over 1.5 million units governed by roughly 27,000 associations, and it said up to 70% of those units may fall under the safety law ¹.

Why older buildings are hit hardest

The report ties much of the decline to the condominium safety law passed after the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse, which requires inspections for buildings of certain ages, heights and coastal locations and requires associations to bring reserves up to adequate levels ¹. Under section 553.899, Florida Statutes, a residential condominium building three or more habitable stories tall must undergo a milestone inspection by December 31 of the year it turns 30, and every 10 years after that ². Buildings that turned 30 between July 1, 2022, and December 31, 2024, face an initial deadline of December 31, 2025 ². Local officials may require the inspection at 25 years for buildings near salt water ².

Those inspections have produced major assessments, some over $100,000 per unit, according to John Cadden of the Orlando-based Condominium Advisory Group ¹. Fear of those bills has pushed owners to list units and kept buyers away ¹. Cadden said many associations long avoided raising dues, leaving reserves short and maintenance deferred, and that older buildings outside top locations are not rebounding ¹. New construction continues, including foreign buyer demand in South Florida, which widens the gap between new and older buildings ¹.

The squeeze on individual owners

For an owner in an older building, the combination can be difficult: a special assessment arrives just as the unit’s market value falls. Selling may not raise enough to cover the mortgage plus the assessment, and staying means finding the money to pay.

Falling behind carries risk. Under section 718.116, a condominium association has a lien on each unit to secure payment of assessments ³. Against a first mortgage of record, the lien is effective once a claim of lien is recorded ³. An association can pursue that lien even when the owner is current on the mortgage.

Owners in this position have more options when they act early:

• Get the building’s milestone inspection report and the association’s reserve and repair plan, which tell owners what may still be coming ².
• Ask whether the association offers installment plans or is financing the work through a loan, which spreads costs over time.
• Compare the unit’s realistic sale price against the mortgage balance and assessments owed, using current local data ¹.
• Look at the full household budget, including insurance and other debt, before making a decision about the unit.

A falling market does not make every condo a bad place to live, and Cadden described condos as going through a period of adjustment rather than disappearing ¹. But for families already stretched, the next assessment can be the point where a manageable situation becomes a debt problem.

Condo owners in South Florida weighing how to handle an assessment, an association lien or other mounting debt can request a confidential consultation with The Roca Law Firm, in English or Spanish.