A qualified buyer and a great price aren't enough. In Long Beach, your building's reserves, insurance, and repairs now decide whether your condo closes.
There's a moment in a lot of condo sales right now that catches sellers completely off guard. You've done everything right. You remodeled the kitchen, the unit shows beautifully, you priced it correctly, and you landed a great buyer with excellent credit and a solid down payment. Everything looks good. And then the lender starts reviewing the HOA.
Suddenly there are questions about the association's reserves, or the master insurance policy, or deferred maintenance on the building, or a large repair coming down the line. And now you have a problem that has almost nothing to do with your individual condo.
If you own a condo in California, or you're thinking about buying one, this is the shift you really need to understand. Getting a condo sold today isn't just about the condo itself. The building matters, the HOA matters, the insurance matters, and the financial health of the entire community matters.
1. The conversation used to be about the buyer. Now it's about the building too. For years, when we talked about whether someone could purchase a property, the questions were mostly about them. Do they have enough income? How's their credit? What's the down payment? Can they qualify for the mortgage? With condos, there's now a whole other layer.
The buyer can qualify perfectly, and the condo project itself can still create a financing problem. Lenders are paying much closer attention to the financial and physical health of condo communities, looking at things like HOA reserves, deferred maintenance, significant repairs, special assessments, litigation, and the association's master insurance policy.
2. This isn't some obscure technical issue. Fannie Mae specifically identifies inadequate master insurance and critical repair issues among the leading reasons that condo projects get flagged with an ineligible status. There have been important changes to condo lending standards in 2026.
Fannie Mae has tightened certain requirements around reserves and project financial health, because underfunded associations can leave homeowners facing large special assessments or sharply higher HOA dues. So when you sell, in a very real sense, you're not just selling your unit. You're selling the financial and physical health of the community it sits in. That's one of the biggest changes condo sellers need to wrap their heads around.
3. Insurance is a major piece of this. California's insurance environment has been difficult for several years, and condo associations haven't been immune. Master policies now need to satisfy increasingly specific lending requirements around coverage, deductibles, and other protections. When an HOA has trouble obtaining adequate coverage, or the coverage doesn't meet lender guidelines, financing gets more complicated. When financing gets more complicated, your pool of potential buyers can shrink.
"You're not just selling your unit. You're selling the financial and physical health of the community it sits in."
4. Here's the part that surprises people: this isn't doom and gloom. The numbers tell a more nuanced story. The challenge in the condo market isn't that condos have stopped selling. Statewide, condo sales were actually up 9% in July. Prices just aren't seeing the same strength. Here in Long Beach, July condo sales were up 14% while the median price actually fell 5%, and looking at the year as a whole, Long Beach condo sales are down about 6%. So buyers are still buying; they're just being much more selective about what they're willing to buy and what they're willing to pay.
5. There's a good reason buyers keep coming. In many California communities, condos remain one of the more attainable paths to homeownership. For someone who wants to live in a particular neighborhood but can't or doesn't want to spend what a detached home costs, a condo can make a lot of sense. But the due diligence has changed.
If I were buying a condo today, I wouldn't just ask, "Do I like this unit?" I'd want to know what I'm actually buying into. How healthy is the HOA? Are the reserves adequate? Are there major repairs coming? Have there been recent special assessments? What does the insurance situation look like? And are there any issues that could affect financing today or resale later?
If I were selling, I'd want all of those questions answered before the property goes on the market, not three weeks into escrow when the lender suddenly discovers a problem. That's the part I think matters most. The condo market isn't disappearing, but it is getting more complicated. Knowing what questions to ask before you buy, sell, or even set the price can save you a tremendous amount of frustration later.
If you own a condo and you're wondering how your building or your HOA might affect your ability to sell, reach out. We can look at the property, the community, and the current market together and figure out what you need to know before the for-sale sign goes up.
Call or text me at 562-316-2915, email me at [email protected], or visit theelmerteam.com. Whether you're ready to list or just want to understand where you stand, I'm always glad to talk it through.
