In 2021, the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, shocked the world. Initially framed as an engineering failure, the tragedy exposed a deeper issue: decades of deferred maintenance and a systemic unwillingness to address aging infrastructure in Florida’s condo market.

This isn’t just about one building or one law. For years, small cracks have widened into gaping chasms. For some condo associations, ignorance was bliss. But that bliss has come at an unbearable cost.

Florida’s condo market, long a source of affordable housing, now faces a crisis. Many of the state’s 1.1 million condo units over 30 years old are in dire need of repair. These buildings, often constructed during the 1970s and 1980s, were a cornerstone of middle-class housing. Yet, while these structures aged, many associations prioritized short-term savings over long-term planning.

Deferred maintenance may feel like a win in the moment — keeping fees low and residents happy. But like compound interest, these neglected costs grow exponentially. When the bill finally arrives, it’s no longer about patching cracks but replacing entire foundations.

For some boards, this was driven by denial. For others, it was about appeasing residents unwilling to pay higher assessments. Whatever the reason, the result is decades of neglect that have left Florida’s condo market teetering on the edge.

This June 24, 2021 photo shows the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida  

 

The Fallout

The financial consequences of deferred maintenance are now inescapable. In many cases, repair costs have reached hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit, hitting retirees and working-class families hardest. Some assessments exceed the value of the homes themselves, forcing owners to sell, face foreclosure, or abandon their properties entirely.

For years, these aging condos served as a critical part of Florida’s affordable housing ecosystem. In Miami-Dade County, half of all condo sales in 2024 were under $300,000. Today, that affordability is eroding as repair costs and mandatory assessments pile up.

What makes this crisis particularly frustrating is its predictability. Engineers and financial experts have been sounding alarms for years, warning that Florida’s condo market was a house of cards. Surfside didn’t create these problems; it exposed them. And while legislative reforms like Senate Bill 4D have introduced safety measures, they are only the beginning of what will be a long and painful reckoning.

A recent report by the Florida Policy Project provides a detailed analysis of the state’s condo market, offering critical insights into the extent of the challenges and the systemic reforms needed to address them.

The Transparency Problem

Another layer of the crisis is transparency — or the lack thereof. Condo associations tasked with managing billions of dollars in real estate often operate with little accountability. Financial records are opaque, reserve studies are rare, and many boards lack the expertise to maintain their buildings effectively.

Thankfully, incentives matter, and recent legislation provides the right incentives for transparency. Mandatory reserve studies and structural engineering reports are now required, forcing associations to confront long-ignored problems. While these are steps in the right direction, the challenges remain daunting.

The hard truth is that many buildings — and, tragically, some residents’ life savings — are beyond saving. No amount of reform or repair funding can change the fact that some properties are simply too far gone. Fighting to salvage unsalvageable buildings will only delay the inevitable and divert resources from properties that can be saved.

Instead, we must focus on pathways for redevelopment and ensure that residents displaced by these failures are supported with dignity and care.

The Bigger Picture

Florida’s condo crisis isn’t just a technical problem; it’s a systems problem. It’s what happens when small decisions—choosing not to increase fees, ignoring the signs of wear, putting off repairs — accumulate over decades. The Champlain Towers collapse was the inevitable outcome of a system stretched too thin, unable to adapt to the realities of aging infrastructure.

The good news is that systems can be fixed. By enforcing transparency, mandating regular structural assessments, and ensuring that associations are properly funded, Florida can create a system that doesn’t just react to crises but prevents them. The solutions are within reach, but they require a willingness to act, to make the hard decisions now so we don’t face harder ones later. Because in the end, systems don’t fail overnight — they fail one small choice at a time.