Florida
Florida homeowners have no choice but to lower condo prices as insurance and HOA fees 'skyrocket,' Redfin says
Hurricanes and homeowners’ associations have cooled Florida’s hot condo market. Condo homeowners have been forced to lower their listing prices to offload their properties—going against the national trend of rising condo prices, a Redfin report published Monday shows.
Condo prices in Jacksonville dropped nearly 7% year-over-year, while Miami’s decreased almost 3%. Meanwhile, average U.S. condo list prices are up over 8%, according to Redfin. The major culprit? Climbing costs associated with owning a condo in Florida, namely surging insurance and HOA costs in the aftermath of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Fla., experts say. In 2021, the beachfront condo building collapsed and killed 98 people.
“Two events happened recently that affected the Florida housing market: Hurricane Ian in 2022 and the Champlain Towers collapse in 2021,” Craig Stunicky, founder and CEO of South Florida luxury real estate firm ISG World, tells Fortune. “In reaction to the hurricane, flood insurance rates went up.”
Now, the state of Florida requires that all condos have “adequate reserve for replacements,” Stunicky says, meaning that condo associations must have enough money on reserve to replace structures. Take a roof’s lifespan, for example, which is about 25 years. “If the estimated replacement cost for a roof is $2 million, the association must collect $80,000 annually to accumulate the replacement cost by the end of the 25-year period,” according to insurance firm CRC Group.
Needing that cash on hand makes HOA fees higher—and more condo properties out of reach for homebuyers.
“Realtors are not selling the properties well,” Stunicky says. “The single-family home market sales are not affected as much, although flood insurance has doubled or even tripled. South Florida is unique because there is very little inventory and huge demand, so condos are really being affected.”
Where and why condo prices are falling
Jacksonville, Miami, and Orlando condos have seen the most significant price drops during the past year, according to Redfin data. Jacksonville condo owners slashed prices 6.5%, Miami prices dropped 2.5%, and Orlando’s fell nearly 5%.
Meanwhile—as Stunicky says—single-family homes are faring better, meaning that their prices have actually increased. In Miami, for example, the median sale price of single-family homes increased by double digits year-over-year, sales rose by 9%, and new listings also shot up 13%, according to Redfin.
Condo sales, on the other hand, are slow because the cost of both buying and owning a condo has surged. Homeowners insurance in Florida increased about 40% year-over-year in 2023—and a whopping 102% during the past three years, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
Florida insurance costs three times the national average, which clocks in at $1,759 per year for $250,000, according to Bankrate. While HOA fees can vary greatly from building to building, the costs can be “shocking,” Juan Castro, a real estate agent in Orlando, told Redfin. In some cases, condos that once had a $400 monthly maintenance fee may now have a $700 fee, which is “causing buyers to rethink their plans.”
And real estate investor Elena Nuñez Cooper says that condos don’t typically have a cap on HOA fees, and many people can buy a single-family home for “less than what most luxury condos cost, not even including HOA fees.”
Especially for millennials, “an ever-increasing HOA fee may not be feasible for budget reasons versus a home price that’s locked in via a mortgage,” Cooper says.
With insurance and HOA fees as high as they are, sellers have little choice but to lower their listing prices as condo ownership becomes less attractive—and affordable.
“These increased expenses, paired with economic uncertainties like inflation and potential interest rate hikes, are prompting potential buyers to exercise caution,” Matt Dunbar, senior vice president of the southeast region for Churchill Mortgage, tells Fortune. “As a result, the higher financial burden associated with condos is leading buyers to explore other housing options that may offer more financial benefits and fewer ongoing expenses.”
The new versus the old
While condo prices are falling and are becoming less attractive to some buyers, they’re by no means an obsolete housing type in Florida. Stunicky says that existing properties that are less than 10 years old are “extremely popular” among condo homebuyers, but “if we are considering condos that are pre-construction, that is a different story.”
New condos aren’t as popular anymore because they typically come with a higher price tag, Stunicky says. Once a property is valued at more than $2 million, it’s more difficult to find Latin American buyers, who dominate that housing market.
“We are seeing more Latin American buyers in Orlando than in South Florida,” Stunicky says. “The American buyer is still interested in properties over $2 million, but is concerned with the date of delivery for these properties. For buyers, a huge concern is not the architecture, design, or location, but rather the timing.”
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
-
World1 week agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Wisconsin4 days agoSetting sail on iceboats across a frozen lake in Wisconsin
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Maryland5 days agoAM showers Sunday in Maryland
-
Massachusetts3 days agoMassachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
-
Florida5 days agoFlorida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
-
Denver, CO1 week ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Oregon6 days ago2026 OSAA Oregon Wrestling State Championship Results And Brackets – FloWrestling