$500K TO $1 MILLION

This is the band where Miami’s two housing markets cross. The county’s median condominium sold for $431,000 in June 2026; the median single-family home sold for $695,000. Between $500,000 and $1 million you are above the middle of one market and below the middle of the other, and the two are moving in opposite directions. It is also the most financed band in Miami — which, as of 3 August 2026, makes it the one most exposed to a rule change almost no buyer has heard of.

The condominium discount is real, and it has a reason

Miami-Dade condominium prices fell 3.15% year over year while single-family prices rose 3.73%. Condominium inventory stands at 11,550 listings and 12.3 months of supply. Houses stand at 4,380 and 4.9 months. Median marketing time is 85 days for a condo against 52 for a house.

None of that is a mystery, and it is not a Miami-specific collapse in demand. It is the market repricing the cost of owning a share of an ageing coastal building — insurance, reserves, milestone inspections and the assessments that follow. Between $500,000 and $1 million, that discount is the single largest opportunity and the single largest trap on this page, and which one you get depends entirely on diligence you can do before you offer.

Why 3 August 2026 matters more here than anywhere else

Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03 (18 March 2026) retired the Limited Review path for established condominium projects effective 3 August 2026. Established projects now need a Full Review, or a Waiver of Project Review — and the waiver applies to projects of ten or fewer units. Miami condominium towers do not have ten units.

This band is the most leveraged in the county. Only 27.6% of single-family purchases and 48.5% of condominium purchases closed in cash in June 2026, and the cash share concentrates at the top — which means down here, the overwhelming majority of buyers need a lender to approve not just them, but their building.

Two further dates from the same letter belong in your calendar. From 1 July 2026, a master property insurance policy carrying a deductible above $50,000 per unit makes a project ineligible. From 4 January 2027, the minimum reserve allocation rises from 10% to 15% of annual budgeted assessment income. Buildings in this price range are, on average, older and thinner on reserves than the towers above $3 million. They are the ones most likely to fail.

The milestone question, in plain terms

Florida Statute 553.899 requires a structural milestone inspection of any condominium or cooperative building of three habitable stories or more by 31 December of the year it turns 30, then every 10 years. A local enforcement agency may require the first at 25 years where local conditions justify it.

A great many of Miami’s $500,000–$1 million condominiums are 1970s and 1980s buildings. That is not a reason to avoid them — the location, the layouts and the construction are often better than what replaced them. It is a reason to establish, before you offer: the year of the certificate of occupancy, whether the milestone has been performed, what it found, whether a structural integrity reserve study exists, and what the association has done about it. A building that has already been through it and funded the work is frequently a better buy than one that has not, because the liability is behind it and the price often has not caught up.

What I would do

If you are financing, get the building qualified before you fall in love with the unit — ask your lender to run project eligibility early, not at underwriting. If you are paying cash, understand that you are buying into a building whose next buyer will probably need financing, so the same questions determine your exit. And if you are choosing between a house and a condominium at this price, note that you are choosing between a seller’s market and a buyer’s market. That asymmetry is worth more than most people’s negotiating strategy.