Coral Springs Condo Loans Now Turn on the Association's Books, Not Your Down Payment

If you apply for a conventional loan on a Coral Springs condo or attached townhome today, the lender will probably study the association's budget before it looks closely at yours. That is new. For loan applications dated August 3, 2026 or later, Fannie Mae no longer allows its "Limited Review" of condo projects. Established projects that used to qualify for it now go through Full Review, unless they fit one of a short list of waivers. Freddie Mac retired its own shortcut, called Streamlined Review, for applications dated on or after the same day.

This one change was announced as a relief for Florida buyers and reported as a tightening. Both descriptions are accurate. The difference is where the hurdle now sits. Before August, Florida buyers paid for the light review with a bigger down payment. Now the hurdle is the association's finances. That matters in Coral Springs, where attached homes and detached houses have been behaving like two separate markets.

Two markets in the same city

In MIAMI REALTORS' Broward city-level figures for August 2026, the two property types in Coral Springs look very different.

July 2026 told the same story. Condos and townhomes had about 10 months of supply, a $227,000 median and 78 median days to contract. Single-family homes had 3 months, a $720,000 median and 22 days. MIAMI REALTORS says its report is built from MLS sales data compiled by Florida Realtors. Its time measure is days to contract, not days on market.

Ten months of supply is a buyer's market by any common definition. Two months is a seller's market. The cash share is the number to keep in mind for the rest of this post. In August 2026, cash buyers made up more than a quarter of Coral Springs condo and townhome sales, compared with under a fifth of house sales. A cash buyer never goes through a lender's project review. These figures don't show that the August rule change caused the gap. They do show the kind of market the rule landed in.

Countywide, MIAMI REALTORS reported that Broward condo sales fell 9.3% year over year in August 2026, to 883. Single-family sales rose 0.1%, to 1,016.

What Florida buyers gave up, and what they gained

For about 17 years, Florida condo buyers who wanted the light review faced terms that applied in no other state. Congressman Byron Donalds' office described the old rule as a 25% down payment requirement for Florida. When the retirement was announced, his March 19, 2026 press release called it a win:

"For the last 17 years, the Florida condo market has been singled out and subjected to overly burdensome Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac restrictions that don't apply to any other state in the country."

Fannie Mae's lender letter confirms that retiring Limited Review "effectively retires the remaining geographic restrictions that apply to the state of Florida." The full pre-August down payment limits for Florida sit in Fannie's archived guidance. Its August 2026 FAQ tells lenders to keep using those limits only for applications dated before August 3.

So the Florida-only penalty is gone. But the light-review path is gone too, for everyone. A Florida buyer who could put a large amount down used to have a faster option. That buyer now gets the same Full Review as a buyer putting little down. The Real Deal reported on August 5 that the changes "will likely slow down the loan process and could kill some deals, experts say." In a September opinion column in HousingWire, the author estimated from Community Home Lenders of America member feedback that 60% to 80% of condo loans had used Limited Review. The author said lenders were already seeing higher borrowing costs, fewer lenders making these loans and longer closings.

What a Full Review actually examines

Full Review is a review of the association, not the buyer. In it, the lender has to check for several conditions that block a loan.

1. The project's status with Fannie Mae. If a project is marked "Unavailable" in Fannie's systems, Fannie Mae won't buy loans there.
2. Recent inspections. Lenders must review structural or mechanical inspections completed in the prior three years. If one of those reports shows critical repairs that haven't been addressed, the project is ineligible until they are.
3. Special assessments tied to critical repairs. If an assessment is funding a critical repair that hasn't been finished, the project stays ineligible until the repair is done.
4. How the budget funds reserves. A lender may use a reserve study when the budget doesn't meet Fannie's reserve requirement. In that case the budget must include the reserve study's highest recommended amount. The "baseline funding" method, which allows the reserve balance to get close to zero, is no longer accepted.

Under Limited Review, most of this was outside the lender's checklist. Now every item depends on paperwork the association controls. A buyer can have strong credit and a solid down payment and still wait on a budget, a reserve study or an inspection report that only the association's manager can provide.

Why the legal label on a townhome matters

Attached homes in Coral Springs aren't all treated the same under these rules. Fannie Mae's waiver table goes by legal form, not by what the building looks like from the street.

The table covers the project types that matter for a purchase. Fannie's guide also lists waivers for certain refinances, including some Fannie Mae to Fannie Mae limited cash-out refinances. On a purchase loan, two townhomes with the same floor plan can face different loan processes. If one is legally a condominium inside a master association and the other is a PUD unit, only the first needs Full Review. A waiver doesn't clear everything. The project still can't be marked Unavailable, and the property and insurance rules still apply. The legal form is in the community's recorded documents. It's one of the first things worth confirming on any attached home in Coral Springs, because it decides which part of the rulebook applies.

Florida's condo safety laws cover different buildings

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation applies milestone inspections to residential condo and co-op buildings at least three habitable stories tall. The first inspection generally comes at 30 years of age, or 25 where the local building official requires it, and then every 10 years. The Structural Integrity Reserve Study, or SIRS, has the same three-story threshold. Associations that pair a SIRS with a qualifying milestone inspection have until December 31, 2026 to finish the combined study.

Many attached homes in Coral Springs are two-story villas and townhomes, and those fall below the state's three-story threshold. Fannie Mae's review has no story count. If a two-story condo community has more than ten attached units, a purchase loan there will still usually need a Full Review of its budget, reserves and recent inspections.

The next date: January 4, 2027

The minimum reserve requirement rises once more. For Full Review loan applications dated January 4, 2027 or later, an association's budget must set aside at least 15% of its annual assessment income for capital expenditures and deferred maintenance, up from 10%. Freddie Mac set the same date. An association that meets the 10% line this fall but not the 15% line could see financed sales slow down after the new year. Sellers in those communities may notice that before buyers do.

Some rules eased at the same time. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both dropped the 50% investor-concentration limit for established projects. The Real Deal noted that Fannie Mae also stopped requiring roofs to be insured at replacement cost, although they must still be insured.

Common questions

Does FHA financing offer a way around this? Rarely. A MIAMI REALTORS release from September 2026 counted 21 FHA-approved buildings out of 2,397 condo buildings in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. That's 0.9%.

Can I look up whether a building is eligible? Not directly. Fannie Mae says it doesn't publish eligibility decisions to the public. It suggests that buyers ask the association or their lender to check the project. Fannie's Condo Status Finder is built for associations, property managers and their authorized advisors. A "No findings" result there means Fannie hasn't identified an ineligible condition. It doesn't mean Fannie has approved the project.

I applied for my loan in July. Which rules apply to me? The rules follow the application date. Applications dated before August 3, 2026 could still use Limited Review under the archived Florida limits.

If you own a condo or townhome in Coral Springs and are thinking about selling, or you're comparing attached homes as a buyer, the association's budget and legal form now shape the loan as much as the price does. Timothy Byrne can help you collect those documents early and talk through what they mean for your timeline before you sign a contract. Let's connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.