How Florida HOAs are making the housing crisis worse (2026) | HOA Spy
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HOA Spy › Florida › HOAs and the housing crisis How Florida's HOAs and condo associations are making the housing crisis worse A housing crisis has three parts: what a home costs, how many are for sale, and whether the people in them get to stay. In Florida the homeowner and condominium associations push on all three. HOA Spy indexes 104,659 Florida associations — the 27,377 with a unit count on file hold 1,518,436 homes between them. Their records show 10,296 foreclosure suits the associations brought against their own members, 460,412 claims of lien and 277,047 lis pendens recorded against homes, 48,999 court records in all, and 6,661 associations whose own corporation has lapsed or fallen out of standing. Every count on this page comes from official court dockets and county records, and every community named links to its own record; the dues and price figures are someone else's, dated and linked where they appear. Suits and liens are counts of filings, not of homes lost. Where it is happening 8,148 of the 13,601 Florida communities with court records (rings — red where foreclosure is the most common case type) and 8,165 of the 34,198 with recorded liens (dots, coloured by liens in the last five years) have an address or ZIP in the record and are drawn here. Click a pin for the community's report, or open the full-screen map. 10,296foreclosure suits brought by associations against their members2,695associations that have foreclosed on an owner460,412claims of lien recorded against homes277,047lis pendens — foreclosure suits announced48,999court records naming an association6,661associations lapsed or out of standing73%of the nation's association foreclosure suits Check a Florida community → Florida lawsuits, liens and foreclosures: all the numbers → Five ways Florida associations make it worse An association exists to keep a community maintained and insured and to collect the dues that pay for it. The records show what else the 104,659 Florida associations do with the powers the law gives them, and what it does to the housing around them. They foreclose on their own members, over debts that start smallFlorida law gives every association a lien on each home for unpaid assessments and the right to foreclose it — section 720.3085, Florida Statutes for homeowners' associations, section 718.116, Florida Statutes for condominiums. The debt that starts it can be a few hundred dollars; by the time a suit is filed it carries interest, late charges, collection costs and the association's attorney's fees, all secured by the lien.
10,296 foreclosure suits on file were brought by a Florida association against one of its own members, from 2,695 communities — 2.6% of those indexed. The lender's foreclosures that merely name an association number 1,629: the association is the foreclosing party more often than the bank is.The peak was 2009, with 875 suits (about 2 a day); 2025, the last full year, had 599, and 667 have been filed so far in 2026.Each suit is a household that may be forced to sell, a home that may go to auction for the debt and the fees, and a sale that takes place under a deadline instead of on the market. A foreclosure suit is not a lost home — most end when the owner, or the owner's lender, pays — but the pressure is the point.Florida foreclosure suits by year, by who brought them02505007501k2005: 236 brought by the association2005: 3 lender's suit naming the association2006: 410 brought by the association2006: 4 lender's suit naming the association20062007: 799 brought by the association2007: 12 lender's suit naming the association2008: 863 brought by the association2008: 50 lender's suit naming the association20082009: 875 brought by the association2009: 43 lender's suit naming the association2010: 683 brought by the association2010: 6 lender's suit naming the association20102011: 506 brought by the association2011: 9 lender's suit naming the association2012: 370 brought by the association2012: 18 lender's suit naming the association20122013: 299 brought by the association2013: 22 lender's suit naming the association2014: 235 brought by the association2014: 20 lender's suit naming the association20142015: 134 brought by the association2015: 6 lender's suit naming the association2016: 158 brought by the association2016: 16 lender's suit naming the association20162017: 118 brought by the association2017: 10 lender's suit naming the association2018: 87 brought by the association2018: 19 lender's suit naming the association20182019: 89 brought by the association2019: 18 lender's suit naming the association2020: 122 brought by the association2020: 12 lender's suit naming the association20202021: 230 brought by the association2021: 12 lender's suit naming the association2022: 194 brought by the association2022: 21 lender's suit naming the association20222023: 342 brought by the association2023: 45 lender's suit naming the association2024: 428 brought by the association2024: 124 lender's suit naming the association20242025: 599 brought by the association2025: 333 lender's suit naming the association2026: 667 brought by the association2026: 711 lender's suit naming the association2026brought by the associationlender's suit naming the association · 2026 is partialThey put liens on homes that then cannot be sold or refinancedBefore any suit there is a claim of lien, a one-page document in the county's official records against the home.
A lien does not have to be foreclosed to do damage: a title company will not close a sale over it, a lender will not refinance behind it, and clearing it means paying whatever the association's lawyer says is owed.
In the recorder indexes HOA Spy collects (Broward County Official Records index, Miami-Dade County Official Records index), 460,412 claims of lien have been recorded by associations since 1978, and 277,047 lis pendens — 60% of the liens were followed by a foreclosure filing. 5,702 communities recorded a lien in the last five years; 1,047 liens on file were contested.2025 saw 7,916 claims of lien, up 8% on 2020 (7,352); the peak was 2008 with 29,518.Florida association liens and lis pendens by year since 2005015k30k45k60k2005: 9,517 claims of lien2005: 4,488 lis pendens2006: 14,531 claims of lien2006: 6,290 lis pendens20062007: 23,061 claims of lien2007: 16,782 lis pendens2008: 29,518 claims of lien2008: 35,712 lis pendens20082009: 29,183 claims of lien2009: 46,427 lis pendens2010: 25,370 claims of lien2010: 30,766 lis pendens20102011: 24,845 claims of lien2011: 13,158 lis pendens2012: 20,020 claims of lien2012: 11,408 lis pendens20122013: 16,433 claims of lien2013: 7,872 lis pendens2014: 14,492 claims of lien2014: 5,545 lis pendens20142015: 12,636 claims of lien2015: 4,510 lis pendens2016: 10,415 claims of lien2016: 4,318 lis pendens20162017: 9,380 claims of lien2017: 3,702 lis pendens2018: 8,566 claims of lien2018: 3,394 lis pendens20182019: 8,239 claims of lien2019: 3,266 lis pendens2020: 7,352 claims of lien2020: 2,242 lis pendens20202021: 5,100 claims of lien2021: 1,958 lis pendens2022: 4,899 claims of lien2022: 1,809 lis pendens20222023: 5,368 claims of lien2023: 1,994 lis pendens2024: 7,298 claims of lien2024: 2,410 lis pendens20242025: 7,916 claims of lien2025: 3,425 lis pendens2026: 1,441 claims of lien2026: 707 lis pendens2026claims of lienlis pendens · 2026 is partialThe communities with the most liens on record: BEACHPLACE TOWERS CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC. (8,798); PALM-AIRE RESORT OWNERS ASSN (4,951); SILVERLAKES COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC.
(4,569); BEACH PLACE TOWERS CONDO ASSN INC (2,602); CHAPEL TRAIL OWNERS ASSN INC (2,407).They raise the cost of staying: dues, special assessments and the condo-safety billSince the Surfside collapse, Senate Bill 4-D (2022) and the laws that followed it require older condominium buildings to pass a milestone structural inspection (section 553.899, Florida Statutes) and to fund structural reserves on the strength of a structural integrity reserve study (section 718.112(2)(g), Florida Statutes), reserves the owners can no longer vote to waive. The repairs and the reserves are paid by the owners, through higher dues and special assessments, and an owner who cannot pay is back at step one above.The cost is visible in the dues.
Redfin reported in August 2024 that median monthly HOA fees in the three months to July 2024, against a year earlier, rose Tampa 17.2% to $614 a month, Orlando 16.7% to $467 a month, Fort Lauderdale 16.2% to $611 a month, against 5.7% across the metros it tracked (Redfin).Buyers price that in: Mortgage Professional America reported in January 2026, citing housing analyst Nick Gerli, that condo values in Florida fell 9.9% over the preceding twelve months (source).
A home that costs more each month to keep and less to sell is the crisis in one sentence.No public index records what an association charges, so HOA Spy cannot count the assessments. What it can count is what happens when they go unpaid — the liens and foreclosure suits above.They litigate, and every owner pays for itEvery suit an association files or defends is paid for out of the dues — and the cost of a suit an owner wins is still passed back to the owners.