Market news & financing

Condo Financing in Fort Lauderdale Just Got Harder. Here's What Changed and What to Do About It.

Bryan Gold · Compass · August 27, 2026

As of August 3, 2026, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stopped offering the shortcut review process on condo loans. If you own a condo, are selling one, or are shopping for one in Fort Lauderdale or anywhere in Broward, this affects how easy it is for a buyer to get financed — and it's worth understanding before it costs you a deal.

What actually changed

For loan applications dated August 3, 2026 or later, Fannie Mae no longer permits its Limited Review process, and Freddie Mac has eliminated the corresponding Streamlined Review option. This is spelled out in Fannie Mae's Lender Letter LL-2026-03.

Those shortcut reviews used to let lenders skip a deep look at a building's finances for lower-risk loans — think smaller loan amounts or larger down payments. According to the Community Associations Institute, that shortcut path covered roughly 40% of all condo project reviews. It's gone now. Every condo loan gets the full review: reserve funding levels, milestone inspection compliance, management practices, insurance coverage, all of it, regardless of how much the buyer is putting down.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, said the change comes from a documented correlation between underfunded condo associations and severe building failures. In Florida, that connection isn't abstract — it's the reason the state tightened condo safety law in the first place.

How we got here

This didn't come out of nowhere. Florida has been tightening condo reserve and inspection requirements in stages since the Surfside collapse, and the August 3 lending change is the latest link in that chain.

Conventional financing through Fannie and Freddie is the main path for most South Florida condo buyers, and that path just got a harder gate. Buildings that haven't funded reserves for the eight mandatory structural components, or haven't completed a required milestone inspection, are going to be harder — sometimes impossible — to finance a unit in, no matter how strong the buyer's financial profile is.

John Rosemary

VP of Mortgage Lending, CrossCountry Mortgage · NMLS #203673

View profile · 954.588.3745

The market context: condos are already sitting longer

This is landing at a moment when Broward's condo market and its single-family market are moving in opposite directions. Broward single-family homes are at 4.3 months of supply, a seller's market. Condos are at 10 months of supply, solidly a buyer's market, and the median number of days to sell a condo climbed from 108 days a year ago to 122 days in July 2026.

Tighter financing on top of a market that's already soft for condos means sellers in older buildings need to get ahead of the paperwork, not wait for a buyer's lender to find the gaps.

If you're weighing a specific building or want a second opinion on what a reserve study is actually telling you, reach out. I can help you read through it before you're deep into a contract.