A reckoning is coming for Florida's condo owners as buildings face millions in repairs
After five decades working as a teacher and school administrator, Janet Stone envisioned a relaxing retirement in her condo overlooking Florida’s Atlantic coast.
After five decades working as a teacher and school administrator, Janet Stone envisioned a relaxing retirement in her condo overlooking Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Instead, she’s gone back to work teaching preschoolers with disabilities and living with her son in Las Vegas to pay off a $100,000 bill from her condo association — her portion of a multimillion-dollar project to replace the 53-year-old building’s deteriorating concrete.
“I shouldn’t say it, but it really sucks to work every day and not have a cent and have to wonder, ‘Can I afford groceries this week?’” said Stone, who purchased her condo in Ormond Beach, Florida, for $400,000 in 2021. “Every penny I make goes towards that concrete restoration.”
Across Florida, aging condo buildings are facing rising expenses and millions of dollars in structural repairs to comply with new regulations following the collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium, which killed 98 people in 2021. While new building requirements are intended to prevent a similar tragedy, the costs are pushing some condo owners to the brink financially and jeopardizing one of the last bastions of relatively affordable housing along Florida’s coastline.“We’ve got to get these buildings back in shape, but for those that are renters and for those that are owners on fixed incomes it means they may have to find other housing,” said Florida House Rep. Vicki Lopez, who helped craft the legislation and whose Miami district includes more than 600 condo associations. “We already have an affordable housing crisis in Florida, so this perfect storm has arrived at a very difficult time.”
In Florida, like across the country, the soaring cost of housing has become a major pressure point on household finances. Home prices in Florida have increased 67% since 2020 and homeowners insurance was up 42% last year. In the vast majority of Florida counties, the median-income household can’t afford the median-priced home, according to NBC News’ Homebuyers Index.
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