DAYTONA BEACH — Following the Surfside building collapse, lawmakers went to work to put guidelines in place to ensure a tragedy like that would not happen again.

Condo units in buildings at least three stores tall need to have structural integrity reserve studies. The goal is to ensure condo buildings have the funds to make needed or necessary repairs in the neat future. Owners are also contending with rising insurance costs as well.

Recently, the Orlando Regional Realtors Association reported that the average property on the market sits for about 76 days. Single-family homes sit 30-45 days on the market, but condos are sitting two to three times longer than that. It’s a sunny post card picture looking type of day in Daytona Beach. The waves, the sand, the sun are what make living in a beachside condo so desirable. Realtor Ruben Orozco used to call the Ocean Ritz in Daytona Beach home. “My wife and I wanted a place to come and enjoy on the weekends and holidays,” Orozco said. “We wanted a place to take advantage of the beautiful beaches Volusia County has.” Orozco sold his condo in May last year. Between increasing maintenance costs, insurance costs, monthly condo fees, and a special assessment, living on the beach didn’t seem so sunny anymore.

Older beachside condos in Daytona Beach continue to see rising costs, insurance, and possible assessments to fund reserves.

“That’s the first thing that comes to mind, is cost to maintain,” he said. “The cost to rebuild, bring everything back to the way it used to be.”

Marisa Raines is a Community Association Manager with Genuine Management Services. She’s been managing condo building for more than three decades, and her company oversees about a dozen beachside condo buildings that are at least 40 years old.

What current condo owners are currently seeing, she believes, was not only avoidable, but predictable following the Surfside collapse.

“These boards that we have worked with over the years have kicked the can down the road,” Raines said. “They were not properly funding their reserves.”

Before 2021, Raines said the average cost to insure a building was $90,000. Today is costs about $300,000. Building concrete restoration, which needs to be done to beachside condos every five to seven years, went from about $1 million to between $2-3 million.

“Lacking the maintenance of the capital components of a building and structures of the buildings and not having expertise knowledge,” Raines said. “That was a turning point during the Surfside collapse.”

According to Realtor.com, there are nearly 900 condos for sale in Daytona Beach. Orozco, who also is a licensed Realtor, said the market needs time to adjust and correct itself. It also needs time for these buildings to be properly funded — a cost new buyers typically don’t want to be on the hook for.

“For the next year or so you are going to see prices depressed in the condo market, simply for condo buildings that are of age,” Orozco said.

When it comes to beachside condos in Volusia County, Raines said the average monthly condo fee is somewhere between $800-$1,200 a month.