Since August 3, 2026, a conventional mortgage on a typical Fort Lauderdale condo has needed a lender's full review of the association's finances. Fannie Mae ended its Limited Review option for loan applications dated on or after that day. Freddie Mac ended its Streamlined Review on the same date. According to The Real Deal's August 5 report, every conventional loan now goes through full review unless the project qualifies for a waiver. Lenders must also confirm that a building budgets at the highest reserve allocation its reserve study recommends, and the baseline funding method, which historically let reserve balances run close to zero, is no longer allowed.
That rule change arrived in the same month the city's condo median posted one of its largest jumps in recent memory. The two facts are connected, and the link has less to do with what condos are worth and more to do with which condos get counted.
A 63% Rise on Fewer Sales
In August 2026, the City of Fort Lauderdale's condo and townhome median sale price was $663,000. That is up 63% from a year earlier, while closed sales fell 23%. In August 2025, the city median was $408,000 on 124 closed sales.
Countywide, the picture is calmer. In August 2026, Broward's condo and townhome median was $257,500, up about 4% from $247,700, on 883 sales compared with 974 a year earlier. Supply sat at 9.9 months. The association's own report treats 5.5 months as the benchmark for a balanced market and classifies anything higher as a buyers' market. The city itself showed 10 months of supply and a median of 72 days to contract in August 2026.
Prices do not climb 63% in a market with ten months of inventory. Something else moved. The economists behind the MIAMI REALTORS® data say so plainly in their own report: a median reflects only the homes that sold in a given month, and "the mix of the types of homes that sell can change over time." When fewer modest units close and the high end keeps trading, the midpoint rises even if no single unit is worth more than it was last summer.
The ZIP Codes Show How Small the Samples Are
The ZIP-level figures make the mechanism easy to see. Monthly sample sizes in Fort Lauderdale's eastern ZIP codes are small, so a handful of sales at the top or bottom can swing the median by six figures.
| ZIP and general area | Aug 2025 median | Aug 2025 closings | Aug 2026 median | Change in median | Change in closings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33316, 17th Street, Harbor Beach, Rio Vista | $337,500 | 15 | $910,000 | +169.6% | −40% |
| 33301, downtown and Las Olas | $500,000 | 19 | $730,000 | +46.0% | +5.3% |
| 33304, central beach | $741,000 | 20 | $950,000 | +28.2% | +25% |
| 33308, northern beach and Galt Ocean Mile | $325,000 | 53 | $437,000 | +34.3% | −28.3% |
In 33316, 15 closings in August 2025 fell by 40% in August 2026, leaving roughly nine sales. A median built on nine transactions nearly tripled. That tells you which units happened to close that month. It says almost nothing about the value of a two-bedroom in an older building near the 17th Street Causeway. In 33308, the median rose 34% while sales dropped by more than a quarter, which is the same pattern of fewer sales and a higher midpoint.
The ZIP labels need care. Several postal codes marked "Fort Lauderdale" in these tables, including 33319, 33321 and 33322, lie outside city limits. In August 2026, 33319 posted a condo median of $103,000, down 26.4%. For eastern Fort Lauderdale, the city row and the four ZIP codes above are the cleaner reference points.
What Is Pulling the Top Up
The high end has had new stock to trade. Selene Oceanfront Residences at 151 N. Seabreeze Blvd., a completed two-tower, 194-unit project, began closings in October 2025. By mid-January 2026, 168 deeds had recorded for $425.3 million. Its top recorded closing at that point was $12.2 million for 5,300 square feet. On the 17th Street waterfront, Pier Sixty-Six Residences completed its final building, Indigo, in September 2025, finishing all 88 residences. Indigo's penthouse closed for $14.5 million, which was reported as a Broward record for a new-development condo sale.
Those developer closings mostly stay out of the monthly figures. MIAMI REALTORS® says new construction, preconstruction and condo-conversion sales are largely not reported in the MLS. Once owners in recently completed towers start reselling, though, those units enter the resale count at prices well above the older inventory around them. The data cannot show how much of the August jump came from this. It does show that the upper end of the market has more product than it did two years ago, and more product means more chances for high-priced sales to land in any given month.
Why the Lower End Is Thinning
At the other end, financing has been narrowing for some time. Of 2,397 condo buildings in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, only 21 are approved for FHA loans, according to HUD statistics cited by MIAMI REALTORS® in September 2026. The August 3 change goes further. Without Limited Review, a buyer's conventional loan depends on how the building's finances hold up under full review, and lenders now check whether the budget uses the reserve study's highest recommended allocation.
Another step is already scheduled. For Full Review applications dated on or after January 4, 2027, Fannie Mae's minimum reserve requirement rises from 10% to 15% of annual budgeted assessment income. Experts quoted by The Real Deal expect slower loan processing and some deals that fail, along with a smaller buyer pool for sellers in buildings that fall short.
Two cautions keep this honest. The rule took effect partway through August, so most August closings were contracted under the old process. And the city's cash share was 55% in August 2026, roughly in line with 57% a year earlier, so cash buyers have not suddenly taken over. What the rule does is make the existing split sharper. A building with a strong reserve file can sell to buyers with a mortgage and buyers paying cash. A building without one sells mainly to cash buyers, and fewer buyers usually means a lower price.
The State Rules Behind the Reserve File
Florida's post-Surfside framework is still fully in force. According to Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, condo and co-op buildings at least three habitable stories tall need a milestone inspection at 30 years and every 10 years after that. Local agencies may set the first inspection at 25 years in qualifying circumstances. Chapter 718 requires a structural integrity reserve study every 10 years for residential buildings of three or more habitable stories. For budgets adopted after December 31, 2024, required reserves for the listed structural components generally cannot be waived.
HB 913, effective July 1, 2025, lets some associations complete the study together with a milestone inspection by December 31, 2026. It also requires phase-two repairs to begin within 365 days. It allows a qualifying owner-controlled association with a recent milestone inspection to pause or reduce reserve contributions for up to two annual budgets through 2028, with majority owner approval, to pay for repairs the inspection recommended. The 2026 session left all of this in place. The omnibus HB 657 died in Senate Rules on March 13, 2026. A proposal to limit structural reserve studies to buildings six stories or taller also failed.
These rules are where the financing split comes from. A reserve pause that is legal under state law can still leave a building's budget below what a lender's full review expects. A buyer can face both sets of rules in the same transaction.
What to Request Before Choosing a Building
Because the median shows the mix of sales rather than any one building, the useful comparison happens building by building:
- The most recent milestone inspection report and its phase status, including whether phase-two repairs are underway and how they are being paid for.
- The structural integrity reserve study and the current budget, so you can see whether the budget funds the highest recommended allocation, which is the test lenders now apply.
- Any reserve pause or reduction vote taken under the HB 913 provision, with the dates of the budgets it covers.
- Pending or recently approved special assessments. In 2024, owners at East Point Tower in Fort Lauderdale approved a $3 million assessment that included a new roof, which the association president estimated would come to nearly $11,000 per household by 2026, according to the Miami Herald.
- Early confirmation from your lender that the project will clear full review, before inspection periods and deposits start running.
Two buildings on the same stretch of A1A can carry similar asking prices and very different buyer pools. That gap affects resale as much as it affects the purchase.
FAQ
Do smaller boutique buildings avoid full review? Some do. Fannie Mae expanded review waivers to projects with 10 or fewer units, with extra limits for projects of five to 10 units. Freddie Mac exempts eligible projects of two to 10 units, and projects of five to 10 units cannot be part of a master association.
Did the 2026 Legislature change condo reserve rules? No. HB 657 died on March 13, 2026, and the three-habitable-story threshold for structural reserve studies remains in effect.
When will the next monthly figures come out? The Broward association lists October 16, 2026, as the release date for September data.
If you are comparing Fort Lauderdale condo buildings and want help reading a reserve study, an inspection report or a lender's review requirements before you commit, Heather Lefka can walk you through each building's file in detail. Schedule a private consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
