$1 to $3 MILLION

In June 2026, Miami-Dade recorded 483 sales at $1 million and above — up 29.1% on the year. That is the headline. The part nobody puts in a headline is that on 3 August 2026, two days before this page was written, the single most common way of financing a condominium in this price band was retired. If you are buying between $1 million and $3 million in Miami right now, the building matters more than the unit, and it matters more this month than it did last month.

This band is not one market. It is two, moving in opposite directions.

Miami-Dade condominiums are sitting on 12.3 months of supply. Single-family homes are sitting on 4.9 months. Anything above roughly six months is conventionally read as a buyer’s market; anything below, a seller’s market. Miami currently has both at the same time, in the same county, and the gap is the widest it has been in this cycle.

What that means practically, between $1 million and $3 million: on the condo side you have negotiating room, real inventory, and 85 days of median marketing time working in your favour. On the house side, at this price you are competing — the county median house is $695,000, so $1M–$3M buys a genuinely good home in a good area, and so does everyone else’s offer.

The mistake is treating the two as one decision. They are not comparable assets in 2026 and they are not exposed to the same risks.

The 3 August 2026 change, and why it lands hardest here

Fannie Mae’s Lender Letter LL-2026-03, issued 18 March 2026, retired the Limited Review process for established condominium projects effective 3 August 2026. Limited Review was the light-touch path: a larger down payment bought you a shorter list of questions about the building. It is gone. Established projects must now go through the Full Review process, or qualify for a Waiver of Project Review — and the waiver, as expanded in the same letter, covers projects with ten or fewer units.

Almost no Miami condominium in this price band has ten or fewer units. So for practical purposes: if you are financing a Miami condo between $1 million and $3 million, your building is getting a Full Review, at every down-payment level. Twenty percent down no longer shortens the questions. Fifty percent down no longer shortens the questions.

Full Review reaches the things buildings are least comfortable disclosing: reserve funding, deferred maintenance, pending litigation, insurance adequacy, the budget. Two related changes in the same letter tighten it further. From 1 July 2026, a master property policy with a deductible above $50,000 per unit breaks eligibility — and in a coastal market where carriers have pushed deductibles up hard, that is not a hypothetical. From 4 January 2027, the minimum reserve allocation rises from 10% to 15% of the annual budgeted assessment income.

One change ran the other way: the 50% investor-concentration limit on established projects under Full Review was retired, effective immediately. That helps buildings with heavy rental ownership — and there are a lot of those in Brickell and Edgewater.

Why a financing rule is a pricing event

48.5% of Miami-Dade condo sales close in cash. Read the other way: 51.5% of buyers need a lender. When a building fails Full Review, it does not become unsellable — it becomes cash-only. It loses half its buyer pool overnight.

In a market with 4.9 months of supply, losing half your buyers is survivable. In a market with 12.3 months of supply, it is a price event. That is the entire argument for doing building diligence before unit diligence in this band, and it is the reason a beautiful line-through unit in a badly run building is the most expensive mistake available at this price.

The milestone calendar — the number nobody publishes

Florida Statute 553.899 requires a milestone structural inspection on any building three habitable stories or more under condominium or cooperative ownership, performed by 31 December of the year the building reaches 30 years of age, and every 10 years thereafter. A local enforcement agency may determine that local circumstances require the first inspection at 25 years instead — which in practice is aimed at buildings close to salt water.

That means every condominium in Miami has a first milestone year that is mechanically derivable from its certificate of occupancy date, and almost nobody will tell you what it is before you make an offer. A building whose milestone falls inside your intended holding period carries an unpriced liability: the inspection itself, whatever it finds, and the structural integrity reserve study that follows.

Between $1 million and $3 million this cuts both ways. Newer towers have no milestone exposure for decades and price accordingly. Older buildings — often the ones with the location, the floor plates and the light you actually want — may be trading at a discount that is either an opportunity or a warning, depending entirely on whether the association has funded what is coming. Ask for the milestone year, the SIRS, and the last three years of budgets. In writing. If a seller will not produce them, that is your answer.

What I would actually do in this band

Decide first whether you are buying a house or a condominium, because in 2026 those are different trades with different leverage. If it is a condominium, run the building before you run the unit: milestone year, reserve funding against the 15% standard that arrives 4 January 2027, master policy deductible against the $50,000 per-unit ceiling, litigation, and the last three budgets. If the building clears, negotiate hard — 12.3 months of supply is the strongest hand a condo buyer has held in years. If it is a house, move faster than feels comfortable and win on terms, because 4.9 months of supply does not reward deliberation.

And be honest about the line: the top 5% of the Miami-Dade condo market now begins at $3.4 million. Between $1M and $3M you are buying a very good property in a strong market. You are not buying the statistical luxury tier — and anyone marketing it to you as such is selling, not advising.