Why would condo sales on Singer Island fall for the third year running while the average price barely moves at all?
The headline number says nothing is happening. The Zillow home value index for the island, updated at the end of August 2026, showed the average home value sitting at $868,925, up exactly 0.0 percent over the prior year. Flat. But condo closings tell a different story. Through September 1, 2026, 129 condominiums had sold on Singer Island and in neighboring Palm Beach Shores, essentially matching the 126 sold over the same stretch of 2025, and both years sit well below the 183 sold during that same window in 2024. Fewer transactions, same average price. Something is being absorbed rather than reflected, and the reason has less to do with buyer demand than with the decade a specific tower was poured.
A Price Index That Blends Two Different Markets
A single average or median doesn't distinguish between a unit in a building that finished its structural obligations years ago and one in a building still working through them. On Singer Island, where the oceanfront skyline runs from towers built in the late 1970s to projects still on the drawing board, that distinction is doing a lot of quiet work. The flat headline number isn't describing one market. It's blending two, and a buyer comparing listings without knowing which one they're looking at is comparing units that only look interchangeable.
The Deadline Sitting Three Months Out
The reason building age matters right now, specifically, is a state law with a hard date attached. Florida's milestone inspection statute requires condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or taller to undergo a structural engineering review once they hit 25 years of age if they sit within three miles of a coastline, or 30 years inland, and every 10 years after that. Buildings due for their first inspection by the end of this year have an outer deadline of December 31, 2026 to complete it, alongside a companion requirement called a Structural Integrity Reserve Study that dictates how the association funds the repairs the inspection turns up. The SIRS deadline for existing associations already passed on December 31, 2025.
A second law that took effect January 1, 2026 requires associations with 25 or more units to post governing documents, budgets, and reserve studies where owners, and prospective buyers, can actually find them, and it extended a buyer's contract rescission window from three days to seven specifically so people have time to read what those documents say before they're locked in.
None of this is abstract for Singer Island. A tower that reached its 25th year a decade ago has already been through at least one inspection cycle. A tower approaching that threshold now is doing the math for the first time, in public, with a hard date on the calendar.
A September 2026 audit of active condo listings across five South Florida counties found that in buildings finished before 1980, 8.0 percent of active listing remarks disclosed a special assessment, SIRS, milestone inspection, or reserve issue without saying it had been resolved. In buildings from 2000 forward, that figure was 1.1 percent. Palm Beach County read lowest among the three largest counties in the sample, at 3.0 percent unresolved, but lowest isn't zero, and the pattern by construction era held everywhere the data was pulled.
Same Beach, Different Decades
Three named buildings on the island show what that pattern actually looks like once you get past the aggregate number.
| Building | Built | What already happened | What it means for a buyer today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiara | Late 1970s | Operates under Florida's standard milestone-inspection and reserve cycle as one of the island's original oceanfront towers | Ask specifically where the current inspection and SIRS stand, since a building this age is squarely inside the law's target range |
| Eastpointe I & II | 1979 to 1981 | Worked through a documented concrete-restoration project in the early 2020s | A prior restoration can mean the harder capital work is already behind the building rather than still ahead of it |
| Dunes Towers | Original construction era not specified in association materials, restoration completed 2021 to 2023 | Financed a building-wide restoration, including concrete, roofs, and fire sprinklers, through an SBA loan with the assessment amortized into monthly condo fees | The cost shows up as a steady line item in the fee rather than a pending lump-sum bill |
Tiara's current listings, as of late July 2026, ranged from roughly $642,000 to $1.75 million, spanning the building's original one-bedroom units up through renovated higher-floor layouts. That range alone won't tell a buyer anything about where the building sits in its inspection cycle. The condo association's records will.
The point isn't that older buildings carry more risk than newer ones as a blanket rule. Eastpointe and Dunes Towers both show the opposite case: a building that has already completed a major restoration and folded the cost into its budget can be a steadier hold than one that hasn't started the process yet. The only way to know which category a specific listing falls into is to ask.
What's Rising to Meet the Older Stock
New supply is entering the broader Singer Island submarket on both sides of the Intracoastal. Forest Development is advancing a project called Oculina on the former Winn-Dixie site at 3700 Broadway in Riviera Beach, just west of the island, with two 25-story towers planned for 399 condominium residences alongside restaurant, retail, and office space.
On the island side itself, a New York developer, The Continuum Co., filed site plans with Riviera Beach in early 2026 for a 28-story tower called Singer Island Gateway, proposed for the eastern edge of the Blue Heron Boulevard bridge along the Intracoastal Waterway, designed by Arquitectonica and sized at 298 residences with a marina and public open space. Both projects are still moving through approvals rather than sitting on the market today, but their presence in the pipeline matters for the same reason the older towers do. Every unit in a building built after 2000 starts its ownership life on the low-friction side of the assessment data. Every unit in a building from the 1970s or early 1980s starts it somewhere in the middle of a cycle that state law now puts on a fixed schedule.
What to Ask Before Comparing Two Listings
A buyer weighing two Singer Island condos at similar price points can ask for specifics that the listing price alone won't surface.
- The building's certificate of occupancy date, which sets its milestone inspection clock
- Whether the milestone inspection and SIRS have been completed, and if not, when they're scheduled
- Whether any special assessment tied to that work is fully paid, currently being collected, or still pending a board vote
- Whether the building has 25 or more units, which means its governing documents and reserve study should already be posted for owners to review under the January 2026 transparency law
- How a completed restoration, like the ones at Eastpointe and Dunes Towers, was financed and whether that cost is already folded into the monthly fee
None of these questions require special access. They require asking the seller's agent or the association directly, in writing, before an offer goes in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the milestone inspection law apply to single-family homes on Singer Island? No. The requirement applies to condominium and cooperative buildings three or more habitable stories tall under Florida Statute 718. Single-family homes and townhome communities governed under Chapter 720 homeowners associations are exempt.
Where can I check a specific building's inspection or reserve status myself? Associations with 25 or more units are now required to post governing documents, budgets, and reserve studies through a website or app under the law that took effect January 1, 2026. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation also maintains a public portal on condominium inspection requirements.
Is a special assessment always a warning sign? Not necessarily. A completed assessment that's already amortized into the monthly fee, as at Dunes Towers, can mean the building has already absorbed its major capital cost. A pending or newly announced assessment is a different conversation, and one worth having with the association before writing an offer.
Comparing two Singer Island units side by side only works once you know what decade each one is standing on. Kristen Danzig and her team can pull a building's inspection history and reserve status before you ever schedule a showing, so the number on the listing sheet isn't the only one you're working from.
