Former 'Selling Sunset' star warns Florida's high condo prices turning into 'big issue' with retirees
Florida’s supposed condo catastrophe has no end in sight, according to former "Selling Sunset" agent and current Miami realtor Maya Vander.
"Look, it's a big issue," she said Wednesday on FOX Business’ "The Bottom Line." "I understand [homeowner associations charge] the most they can do sometimes on a condo. And that's literally life-saving. And it's sad that a situation like that, especially after the Surfside collapse, it's something to calculate in your mind when you're buying a condo in Florida."
In the aftermath of the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers South three years ago in Surfside, state lawmakers made an overhaul of legislative changes in hopes that they would prevent another disaster like it in the future.
Some of those housing and condominium policy changes included a law requiring three-story, 30 to 25-year-old buildings near saltwater to be inspected by the end of 2024 and every 10 years after that.
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Condominium and neighborhood associations are also required to gather an increased allocation of "reserves" from its homeowners, thus setting aside necessary funds and more if disaster does strike.
Unfortunately, this is forcing some long-time condo residents and retirees to sell their now-pricey pads. The Wall Street Journal spoke to multiple homeowners in April who found Florida’s hottest markets too hot, and opted for other red states like Alabama, where homes cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars less on average.
"When I moved here, [the] price per square foot for a unit used to be $0.70 [or] $1 per square foot for HOA assessments. Now you're talking about $2 per square foot. It's a huge increase," Vander said.
"And another question is, who is running the board on those associations? Do they know what they're doing with their budget? Because those assessments should not come in such a ‘Bang!' It should be like a slow build up over the years to calculate those reserves for a rainy day."
Vander, who moved to Miami after Season 5 of Netflix’s popular reality series, noted she always advises her clients to make important note of the reserve costs.
"It's a combination between [the Surfside] collapse and insurance costs. It's not ideal," she said.
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"Collins Avenue here in Miami, you have all these other condos, the same age as the Champlain Towers. So moving forward, I think it needs to be more regulated and people on the board need to be more, I guess, experienced," Vander added. "And the same with what's going on behind the scenes."
A reported 98 lives were lost in what’s now known as one of the deadliest structural failures in U.S. history. On June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers partially collapsed in Surfside. Investigators confirmed this past March that the building’s pool deck was the likely cause of the building giving way.
Fox News’ Caroline Elliott and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.