Condos for sale pile up at a staggering rate in southern states as spooked buyers stay away
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An increasing number of condos are sitting on the market as the divide between buyers and sellers continues to widen.
Potential condo buyers are abandoning deals, spooked by high prices, rising homeowners association (HOA) fees, and insurance costs, while sellers are growing increasingly desperate to offload properties.
There were an estimated 72.3 percent more condo sellers than buyers (108,945 more) nationwide in August — the fifth straight month in which that figure has been over 70 percent.
Indeed, spring and summer 2025 saw the strongest buyer's market for condo buyers in records dating all the way back to 2013 (with the exception of April 2020 when the pandemic halted activity).
The number of buyers and sellers were estimated using Redfin and MLS data, adjusting for seasonality. Markets are labeled as buyer's, seller's, or balanced based on whether the number of sellers exceeds or falls short of buyers by more than 10 percent.
A buyer's market doesn't necessarily make properties more affordable, but it does give buyers bargaining power.
Southern states, especially Florida, are seeing the strongest condo buyer's markets. Cities in these states became popular destinations for homebuyers during the pandemic, due to their lower costs and taxes, looser restrictions, and warmer climate.
However, the pandemic migration plays into issues we are seeing now.
There are far more condo sellers than buyers in many major metro areas, particularly in Southern states (Pictured: Miami Beach)
Chen Zhao, the head of economics research for Redfin, described South Florida as the 'epicenter of housing market weakness'
Builders rushed to capitalize on the demand for properties in pandemic boomtowns and ended up overdeveloping, meaning that there are too many new-builds — particularly condos.
Among the 50 biggest US metros, five of the 10 metro areas with the biggest surplus of condo sellers over buyers are in Florida, the report found.
In Miami, there were 11,486 condo sellers and 3,270 buyers in August, i.e. 251 percent more sellers.
In Tampa there were 241.2 percent more sellers, while there were 218.7 percent more in Fort Lauderdale, 212.5 percent more in Jacksonville and 192 percent more in Orlando.
Miami's condo market has been exceptionally worrying. The city as a whole was ranked as number one in the world in UBS's bubble risk rankings.
When it comes to condos, there has been trouble in paradise for quite some time.
Prices of condos cooled last summer, forcing sellers to slash prices. Experts warned that prices would only go further down, and they were right.
In May, the median sale price of a townhouse or condo in Florida was $310,000, down 6.1 percent year-over-year.
With prices trending downward, buyers feel little urgency to commit, expecting further savings by waiting.
Chen Zhao, the head of economics research for Redfin, described South Florida as the 'epicenter of housing market weakness' in the US.
Miami's condo market has been particularly worrying - there are 251.3 percent more sellers than buyers
Condos also come with steep HOA fees and tight rules and regulations which are putting off buyers
'The question for the rest of the country is, will this spread? Florida is uniquely bad right now,' Zhao told Bloomberg last month.
Another issue for prospective condo buyers in Florida is homeowners association (HOA) fees.
The 2021 collapse of a condo building in Surfside led to a new law that requires condo buildings to undergo structural inspections and shore up reserves.
This has meant that many HOAs have been hiking fees and doling out hefty special assessments to comply with the new rules, which has reduced demand for condos.
Other factors contributing to a lack of buyers include the risk of the properties losing value, and investors cashing out because the long-term and short-term rental markets have cooled.
Outside of Florida, San Antonio had 585 condo sellers in August and just 120 buyers, nearly four times more sellers than buyers, or 385.8 percent more.
This was the biggest gap of the 50 most populous metros in the US.
In Nashville, there were 1,682 sellers versus 518 buyers — 225 percent more — and in Austin there were 1,998 sellers versus 617 buyers — 224 percent more. In Houston, meanwhile, there were 214.3 percent more sellers than buyers.
This is compared to other metro areas in the US that saw very different dynamics, such as Nassau County, NY — which saw 47.9 percent less sellers than buyers.
There are also areas such as Chicago — which have a fairly balanced condo market with just 0.1 percent more sellers than buyers.
