In Palm Beach Gardens, Who Can Get a Mortgage on a Condo Now Depends on the Building

Since August 3, 2026, a conventional mortgage on a Palm Beach Gardens condo has required the lender to go through the association's finances in detail, unless the building qualifies for a waiver. The listing photos, the unit's square footage and the asking price don't change that. The building's height, its unit count and the way it was legally created decide how hard the loan will be, and that sets how many buyers can make an offer.

Before that date, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each offered a shortcut. Fannie Mae called it Limited Review and Freddie Mac called it Streamlined Review. Fannie Mae's Lender Letter LL-2026-03 and Freddie Mac's Bulletin 2026-C, both issued March 18, 2026, retired those shortcuts for applications dated on or after August 3. According to The Real Deal's September 13 report, the old process let lenders approve conventional mortgages "without a deep dive into a condo associations' finances," and 40% of condos nationwide went through limited review last year.

Where the friction shows up in a contract

Timelines stretch first. The same Real Deal report says mortgage brokers are waiting on condo associations for the right documents. Once those documents arrive, more buildings fall short of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac thresholds. Buyers in those buildings move to non-QM lenders, which usually charge higher rates. In the outlet's account, some brokers now run conventional and nontraditional applications side by side, doing twice the work on one purchase.

Reserve math gets stricter too. Fannie Mae also tightened how lenders use a reserve study. Lenders now have to confirm that the budget uses the highest recommended reserve allocations, and they can no longer accept a baseline funding method that historically let the reserve balance approach zero.

Buyers also have less to go on before an offer. A buyer can't look up whether Fannie Mae considers a building eligible. Fannie Mae's Condo Status Finder is built for HOAs, management companies and authorized advisors. A "No findings" result means the project isn't currently flagged as ineligible. It doesn't mean the project has been reviewed or approved. Fannie Mae points buyers to their HOA or lender for a check. Loans on projects marked "Unavailable" are ineligible however the lender's own review turns out.

The government-backed route is narrow as well. A MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld release from October 16, citing HUD statistics, says only 21 of the 2,397 condominium buildings in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are approved for FHA loans. HUD keeps a public condominium lookup where any project's status can be searched by name or location.

How a building's shape sorts its buyers

Not every unit goes through full review. Fannie Mae's waiver rules and Freddie Mac's exempt-from-review criteria cover a specific set of property types, and Florida's inspection laws apply a separate height test. Put the two side by side and you get the tiers a Palm Beach Gardens buyer is really choosing between.

Waived review isn't a free pass. Fannie Mae says property eligibility, insurance and other baseline requirements still apply. On the state side, Florida's milestone inspection statute covers condo buildings of "three habitable stories or more," and the structural integrity reserve study requirement in Chapter 718 applies to buildings "three habitable stories or higher."

The last row of the table matters most in this city. Freddie Mac states that a unit legally created as a condominium inside a PUD has to meet the condo requirements as well as the PUD ones. Fannie Mae adds that zoning alone doesn't make a property a PUD. Marketing names can say "villa" or "townhome." The recorded documents decide which financing tier applies.

PGA National shows the tiers on a single map

PGA National runs under a master property owners' association with many separately governed condo and homeowner associations beneath it, according to the PGA National POA's community listing. Two buildings that look alike from the golf course can land in different rows of that table.

The POA describes The Lakes of PGA National as 16 condo units in two two-story buildings within the Canterbury HOA. At two stories, the buildings fall below Florida's three-story threshold for milestone inspections and SIRS. At 16 attached units, the project is too large for either agency's size-based waiver, so a conventional purchase loan goes through full review. A building can be outside the state's reserve study mandate and still have its reserves examined line by line by the lender.

Golf Villas at PGA National is a much larger condominium community, which the POA lists at 340 units. Cypress Point appears as a condominium association in the City of Palm Beach Gardens' 2026 association directory. Before a buyer can tell how a loan in either one will be reviewed, someone has to pull the building height and the recorded structure.

On the Intracoastal, the Ritz-Carlton Residences at 2200 PGA Boulevard sits at the opposite end of the table. Florida YIMBY reported in April that it has 106 units in three six-story buildings and projected completion in late summer 2026. At six stories, it is well above the state's three-story threshold.

What the county numbers look like through this lens

MLS-based condo figures aren't published for Palm Beach Gardens on its own, so the countywide report is the nearest current measure. Read it with financing in mind and the pattern makes sense.

In September 2026, cash buyers made up 61.1% of existing condo sales in Palm Beach County, compared with 44.6% of single-family sales, per the MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld September report. In August, the first month the new review rules applied, the condo cash share was 57.2%. Mortgage rates also climbed to 7.46% as of October 13, so financed buyers felt two pressures at once.

The rest of the September numbers fit a market where the buyer pool is thinner than the listing count:

• The county condo median rose 3.33% year over year, to $310,000.
• Condo inventory fell 15.27%, to 5,858 listings, yet it still came to 6.8 months of supply. Single-family homes had 3.6 months.
• Condo dollar volume slipped 0.81%, to $396 million, while single-family dollar volume rose 17.59%.
• Condo sellers received a median 93% of original list price, and the median condo took 53 days to go under contract, down from 65 a year earlier.

Fewer listings would normally tighten a market. Condo supply still reads as balanced while single-family supply reads as a seller's market, because for many condo units the realistic buyers are the ones who don't need a lender's approval of the building.

The next two dates on the calendar

Two deadlines matter to anyone buying or listing a condo this season. The Florida DBPR inspections page sets December 31, 2026 as the outside date for associations completing a SIRS together with a milestone inspection due by then. Most existing associations were expected to finish their SIRS by December 31, 2025. Then, for applications dated on or after January 4, 2027, Fannie Mae's minimum replacement reserve allocation under Full Review rises from 10% to 15%. Contracts written now could reach closing under the higher reserve standard.

Associations that need more money have a defined set of tools. HB 913, now Chapter 2025-175, allows required structural reserves to be funded through regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit or loans. The last three require majority approval of the association's total voting interests. Melissa Cohn, a South Florida mortgage executive quoted by The Real Deal, put the funding gap plainly: "A lot of these buildings don't have the financial capacity to increase their reserves to 15 percent." In her view, the changes "will put a premium on the value of the buildings that are compliant."

Cost pressure on owners is a public issue right now too. On October 13, WPTV covered a panel organized by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel in West Palm Beach on rising HOA fees and condo assessments. Ideas included more state oversight of associations and limits on attorney fees charged to condo owners. On safety reporting, the Palm Beach Post reported on July 31 that a state report listed no unsafe condo complexes in the Palm Beaches. The same report found that 17 of 39 municipal building officials had not submitted the required milestone inspection data.

Questions to settle before an offer or a listing

1. What is the property, legally? Confirm whether the unit is a recorded condominium, a fee-simple PUD home or a detached condo unit. That answer shapes the financing tier, and the lender makes the final classification.
2. How many units are in the project, and is it under a master association? In communities like PGA National, the second part can take a small attached project out of the waiver.
3. How many habitable stories? Three or more brings in Florida's milestone inspection and SIRS requirements.
4. Can the association deliver lender documents quickly? Ask early, since Fannie Mae's eligibility checks go through the HOA or the lender.
5. Will the budget meet a 15% reserve allocation after January 4, 2027? That matters for anyone whose loan application could fall after that date.

This is general information about lending guidelines and Florida condo law, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm how any rule applies to your own purchase or sale with your lender, attorney or tax professional.

FAQ

Does a two-story condo in Palm Beach Gardens skip the new lender review? Not because of its height. Florida's SIRS and milestone requirements start at three habitable stories, but agency review depends on unit count, whether the units are detached, and master association status. A 16-unit, two-story project like The Lakes of PGA National is still too large for the size waiver.

Are townhomes affected? Fannie Mae waives condo project review for units in a PUD. A townhome that is legally a condominium unit is still treated as a condo, even inside a PUD.

Can sellers check their building's status before listing? The association or its management company can use Fannie Mae's Condo Status Finder, and HUD's public lookup shows FHA approval status.

If you're weighing a condo purchase in Palm Beach Gardens, or planning to list one before the January reserve change, Janet Cordero can help you sort out which financing tier your building falls into before it shows up in your contract timeline. Request your free home valuation, and we'll include a review of what lenders will ask about your association.