Surfside

Surfside is nine blocks. Nine. It runs from 87th Terrace to 96th Street, hemmed by Bal Harbour above and Miami Beach below, and it sells roughly 130 homes a year of all types. That is a market small enough that a single Surf Club closing moves the town average, and most published “Surfside” numbers are exactly that — one trade wearing a statistic’s clothing.

It is also the town where the Champlain Towers South collapsed on 24 June 2021, which rewrote Florida condominium law for every building in the state. Five years on, that law is the single most important thing determining what a Surfside condo is worth. Not the beach. The law.

What Surfside actually costs in 2026

The town’s median condo sale price is $897,000, with a town-wide median across all property types of $1,450,000 and an average of roughly $1,397 per square foot on 130 sales in the trailing twelve months, against 106 active listings and 131 days on market.

Closed trades on the MLS luxury series run higher and tell you something more useful: an average closed price of $3.5 million at $1,293 per square foot across 39 closings in the rolling year to July 2026 — up from $1,150 per square foot in February. Active listings are asking $1,523 per square foot. That is an 18% gap between what sellers want and what buyers pay, with buyers negotiating roughly 9% under ask across a 188-day marketing period.

For context, the broader Miami Beach and Barrier Islands grouping saw its median condo price fall 9% year over year in Q1 2026, on inventory down 13% and sales up 15%. Miami-Dade county-wide, the June 2026 condo median was $431,000, down 3.15%, with 12.3 months of supply.

The two Surfsides, and why one number cannot describe both

At the top sits the Surf Club tier. In November 2025 penthouse 11 at Seaway, 9149 Collins Avenue, traded for $86 million — 16,053 square feet at $5,358 per square foot — the most expensive condominium ever sold in Miami-Dade County, beating the $44 million record set next door at the Four Seasons Residences at the Surf Club in 2024. Supporting trades in the same complex closed at $33 million in February 2026, $27 million in June 2026, and a $17 million resale.

Beneath that sits 1960s and 1970s oceanfront stock that trades below $1 million a unit and is now carrying milestone inspections, reserve studies and, in some buildings, assessments running into six figures per owner.

There is no meaningful middle. A comparable pulled without asking which side of that line the building sits on produces a number that describes nothing.

What is being built

Seaway North at 9165 Collins Avenue — Fort Partners, ten residences, a $386.4 million sellout at $3,935 to $7,414 per square foot — recently completed and delivered.

The Delmore at 8777 Collins Avenue is the Champlain Towers South site itself. Damac Properties bought it for $120 million at court auction in 2022 and is planning a 12-storey, 37-residence building by Zaha Hadid Architects, entry around $15 million, average $35 to $40 million. As of April 2026 it had sold zero units. Damac called its January 2025 soft launch premature, is resubmitting permits, and plans a relaunch in late 2026. Whatever you think of the pricing, understand what the site is before you consider it.

Every building in Surfside

Surfside is nine blocks of oceanfront between Bal Harbour and Miami Beach, and its condominium stock is small by design. These are the buildings with pages on this site.

What to check before you buy in Surfside

The milestone inspection and the reserve study, together. Florida requires a milestone structural inspection at 25 years for buildings within three miles of the coast — which is all of Surfside — then every ten years. It also requires a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, and for the structural components that study covers, owners can no longer vote to waive the reserves. Ask for both documents, and ask what percentage funded the reserves actually are.

Surfside runs its own recertification on top of the state rule. The Town administers the Miami-Dade 40-year program under Code section 8-11(f), with first recertification at 41 years and every ten thereafter. Owners get 90 days from notice to submit the engineer’s report and 150 days to complete repairs. Miss it and you get a building violation, then fines up to $500 a day, then a referral to the county Unsafe Structures Board.

Whether the building is financeable at all. This is the question most buyers ask far too late. Fannie Mae maintains a confidential ineligibility list; as of March 2025 696 buildings across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach were on it. A listed building generally cannot get Fannie or Freddie backing — roughly 70% of the US mortgage market — which leaves portfolio lending or cash. Ask whether the specific building is warrantable before you write an offer, not during underwriting.

Two changes are landing right now. A maximum per-unit insurance deductible of $50,000 took effect 1 July 2026. The required reserve allocation rises from 10% to 15% of budgeted assessment income on 4 January 2027, and the Limited Review path — historically about 40% of project reviews — has been eliminated for established projects. Both push fees up in 2027 budgets.

Use the seven-day window. Florida’s HB 913, effective 1 July 2025, extended a buyer’s right to review association financials from three days to seven. Use all seven. Pull the completed reserve study, the milestone inspection, twelve months of board minutes, the reserve funding schedule and any recorded assessment. A recorded, already-voted assessment typically follows the unit to you.

Who Surfside suits

It suits a buyer who wants the beach without Miami Beach — a walkable nine-block town with a small commercial strip on Harding Avenue, and Bal Harbour Shops a five-minute walk north. It suits a buyer who will do the association diligence properly, or who is buying new enough that the diligence is short.

It does not suit a buyer who wants to move fast. The vintage half of this market is a document exercise, and the sellers in it have not repriced — 188 days on market and an 18% ask-to-close gap is what that looks like from the outside.

Sources

• MIAMI REALTORS — Miami-Dade June 2026 market report, 17 July 2026
• The Real Deal — Fort Partners sells oceanfront Seaway penthouse for record $86M, 24 November 2025
• The Real Deal — Seaway North condos near $400 million sellout, 6 May 2026
• The Real Deal — At the Surfside collapse site, planned project has not sold a single condo, 15 April 2026
• The Real Deal — Coastal Miami and beaches inventory drops as sales rebound, 17 April 2026
• Peter Zalewski — 3,700 vintage condos in Bal Harbour, Surfside and Bay Harbor Islands, 19 June 2026
• Miamism — Surfside Real Estate Market Report, July 2026
• Town of Surfside — 40-Year Recertification Program
• Florida House of Representatives — CS/CS/HB 913 (2025)
• Bilzin Sumberg — Emerging pressure points on Florida condominiums, 13 May 2026