In this episode of Condo Capitalism™, Peter Zalewski examines the distressed market on the final day of the 2025-26 Winter Buying Season as cash-strapped owners are increasingly being forced out. Condo Capitalism™ is a weekly podcast hosted by Peter Zalewski of the Miami Condo Investing Club™ that provides data-driven analysis on distressed real estate—foreclosures, shortsales and bank-owned REOs—in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. The program tracks the Florida Condo Association Financial Cliff, where rising maintenance fees, special assessments and insurance costs are squeezing cash-strapped owners. On the show, experts analyze how the national “two-sided risk”—rising inflation and falling employment—magnifies these local pressures, potentially forcing a capitulation by owners who can no longer afford condo living. Join Peter Zalewski at MiamiCondo.Club for a livestream every weekday at 4 pm (Miami time). On-demand recordings of all shows are available here. Episode Overview In the April 30, 2026, episode of the Condo Capitalism™ podcast, host Peter Zalewski identified 20 bank-owned condos currently listed in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach for less than $100,000 per unit, with the lowest asking price at $39,000—or $44 per square foot—for an 880-square-foot unit in Delray Beach. During the 47-minute episode, Zalewski delivered a status report on the distressed market—shortsale and Real Estate Owned (REO) by lenders—on the final day of the 2025-26 Winter Buying Season of November through April. Zalewski explained how the date of April 30, 2026, carried particular weight for both buyers and sellers heading into the heat, humidity and hurricane warnings of the Summer Buying Season of May through October, when the pool of buyers shopping for condos typically thins out as investors begin to look elsewhere. The 20 REO condos currently listed for resale at or below $100,000 were identified as part of a broader distressed inventory of 474 properties—a mix of 406 REOs and 68 shortsales—currently listed in South Florida, according to data from CVRRealty.com. The current supply of distressed inventory represents about 1.9% of the roughly 25,500 condos currently listed for resale in South Florida. The three lowest-priced REOs listed for resale are all located in Delray Beach in Palm Beach County, with asking prices of $39,000, $41,000 and $59,900, translating to $44, $54 and $68 per square foot, respectively. Broward County has emerged as the primary focus area for distressed buyers, with an average REO asking price of less than $274,000 per unit compared to nearly $782,000 in Miami-Dade and about $490,000 in Palm Beach County. Zalewski examined Vintage condos separately, noting that 287 of the 406 total REO units on the market were at least 30 years old, making older units the primary source of the distressed inventory in the tricounty region. Vintage condos have faced greater scrutiny in the aftermath of the Surfside condo collapse in June 2021, when nearly 100 people died and a $1 billion settlement was paid out to the families of the victims.
