Florida, the Land of Gleaming Condos, Frets After Collapse

[marmar]

(NYT) SURFSIDE, Fla. — Modern Florida was built on condos like Champlain Towers South.

“A new lifestyle is evolving in Florida and with it, a new habitat, the condominium,” Florida Trend magazine declared in 1970, when it first used the word. Condos promised an entrée to the Florida dream of sunshine and fresh starts, affordable because it could be shared with a few hundred neighbors.

A condo craze boomed in the 1970s, and Florida, decades after the advent of air-conditioning, insect repellent and swamp dredging, was on its way to becoming the third-most populous state, a frontier land for builders and investors and a powerful lure for people seeking the ultimate Florida reward: life on the beach.

The residents of Champlain Towers South came to Surfside, Fla., from all over the Americas and every walk of life: wealthy penthouse owners who kept a beachside pied-à-terre, modest-income retirees who had called the place home for decades, orthodox Jews just a few blocks from temple, Cuban exiles, New York snowbirds. They were seduced by the promise of prosperity and enjoyment embodied in the gleaming buildings that have defined the Miami skyline for nearly half a century. ............(more)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/us/miami-champlain-towers-florida-dream.html?

[CrispyQ]

1. I wish I'd bookmarked a DUer post with an image of a postcard from FL

from back in the 60s or 70s. There were no buildings over 3-4 stories tall.

[PortTack]

2. Buyers lulled in...owning a home be it a house or condo is not cheap. Repairs and up keep are an

Ongoing issue that needs to be budgeted.