Look up a South Florida condo before you make an offer

Why condo loans in Florida need extra checks

With a house, the lender mostly looks at you and the home. With a condo, the lender also reviews the building and the association: its budget and reserves, insurance, any special assessments or lawsuits, how many units are owner-occupied, and whether required safety inspections and repairs are handled. After the 2021 Surfside collapse, Florida added milestone structural inspections for condo buildings three or more stories tall and required structural integrity reserve studies, so these questions now come up on almost every Florida condo loan. Flood zones and insurance costs add to the monthly payment, too.

This hub gathers the public records a lender would start with, for a pilot set of buildings in Broward and southern Palm Beach. It's a head start for your questions, not an answer. Read more in Why Florida condos take extra work and Fort Lauderdale condo financing.

What these fields mean for your loan

Address, city, county

The community and the street address its units have on the county tax roll. Appraisal, title, insurance and the condo questionnaire all have to match the legal address. Garden-style communities can have many building addresses.

Year built

From the property appraiser roll (via the Florida Department of Revenue parcel data). Age drives the milestone-inspection clock, insurance cost, and how closely lenders look at reserves and repairs.

Units

The unit count registered with Florida DBPR, plus the number of unit parcels on the tax roll. Lenders review project size, investor ratio and single-owner concentration. If the two numbers differ, ask why (phases or commercial units, for example).

Stories

Shown only where a primary public record states it. Buildings three or more stories tall fall under Florida's milestone-inspection and reserve-study laws.

Association

The association DBPR lists for the condo, and its corporate record on Sunbiz. The association completes the lender's condo questionnaire. The Sunbiz match was made by name, so confirm the address on the Sunbiz detail page.

FEMA flood zone

The FEMA flood zone at the community's parcels and at its street address. Zones starting with A or V are high-risk (Special Flood Hazard Areas): flood insurance is required for federally backed loans. Zone X usually doesn't require it, though many owners still carry it. This is not an official flood determination; your lender orders that.

FHA status

Exactly as HUD's public FHA condo list shows it on the date checked. FHA loans (often used with low down payments) can be made anywhere in the project only if it is "Approved" and not expired. Otherwise a single-unit approval may still be possible case by case. We never state Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or VA eligibility, which have no public project list; your lender decides those per loan.

Milestone inspection timing

An estimate computed from the year built and Florida's published rule, not a record of what was filed. Use it to ask the association: "Was the milestone inspection done? Can I see the report and the repair plan?"

HOA dues

Not shown: we found no citable public source. Ask the association or listing agent. Dues count in your debt-to-income ratio.

Where the data comes from

Florida DBPR's condominium records (project, units, association); the county property appraiser roll as published in the Florida Department of Revenue statewide parcel data (year built, unit parcels); the US Census geocoder; FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer; HUD's FHA condominium search; and Sunbiz. All checked October 17, 2026. Check flood maps yourself at FEMA's Flood Map Service Center and FHA status at HUD's lookup.