Two units on the same floor of the same Bonita Springs building can list within twenty thousand dollars of each other and still represent a six-figure difference in what the buyer will pay to own them over the next three years. The list price hides that gap. A single line in the association's reserve report reveals it.
If you are shopping condos in Bonita Springs right now, that line is what you came here to learn how to read.
The number that replaced the median
For most of the past decade, the median sale price did honest work in Southwest Florida. It told you roughly what a two-bedroom on the water cost, and the delta from there to the next building over was small enough to ignore. That is no longer true.
Bonita Springs is currently a buyer-leaning market. Houzeo's February 2026 data shows a median sale price of $565,000, down 7.11% year over year, with 4.33 months of supply and a sale-to-list ratio of 94.41%. Only 1.67% of homes sold over asking. McGreevy & Comisar's May 2026 read put the median closer to $575,000 at roughly 55 days on market. The Naples Economic Development read of MLS activity in late 2025 pegged active inventory around 1,380 units, a 22% year-over-year jump, with luxury properties above $1M averaging 120 days on market.
Those numbers matter, but not for the reason buyers usually think. They matter because they are the reason you have the leverage to ask the harder question, which is this: what percentage of the required structural reserves has the building actually funded?
That single figure now predicts near-term ownership cost more accurately than the price per square foot does.
| Reserve funding level | What it typically signals for a Bonita Springs mid or high-rise |
|---|---|
| 80%+ funded | Association is on plan. Monthly assessments already reflect real structural cost. Low probability of a surprise special assessment in the next 24 months. |
| 40 to 80% funded | Catch-up funding underway. Expect monthly fee increases in the next budget cycle, and read the last twelve months of board minutes for any assessment discussions. |
| Under 40% funded | The building is behind. Under current Florida law it must catch up, and the mechanism for catching up is either a special assessment, a loan against the association, or a line of credit. Any of those changes your real purchase price. |
The table is not a rule. It is a framing. A building at 30% funded that has already levied and collected a special assessment for roof and waterproofing is in a different position than a building at 30% funded that has taken no action. The point is that reserve funding percentage, not list price, is the metric that separates them.
What actually changed at the closing table
Florida's House Bill 913 took effect on July 1, 2025. It sits on top of the post-Surfside framework the state built through SB 4-D and later statutes. If you have shopped condos in Florida before and think you understand the reserve rules, the details worth knowing are these.
The Structural Integrity Reserve Study, or SIRS, is now required for every residential condo and cooperative building three habitable stories or more. The initial SIRS deadline was extended from December 31, 2024 to December 31, 2025, so associations that were slow to comply spent 2025 catching up. The study covers eight structural components, from roof and load-bearing walls to waterproofing, plumbing, and fire systems, plus any other item over $25,000 whose failure would compromise structural integrity. HB 913 raised that threshold from $10,000.
The change that matters most to a buyer sits inside the funding rule.
As of January 1, 2025, unit owners can no longer vote to waive or reduce reserve contributions for the components identified in the SIRS. Associations must fund those reserves at the level the study recommends.
For decades, Florida condo owners kept monthly fees artificially low by voting each year to reduce or waive reserves. That is the mechanism, in one sentence, that created the deferred-maintenance backlog that surfaced after 2021. The vote no longer exists for structural components. Buildings that used the waiver are now catching up under a legally binding funding schedule.
Milestone Inspections operate alongside SIRS. Buildings reach the trigger age at thirty years, or twenty-five in jurisdictions the local enforcement agency has flagged for coastal exposure. Phase 1 is a visual inspection. If deterioration is identified, Phase 2 is invasive, and its findings translate directly into repair budgets. HB 913 allows an association actively completing milestone repairs to pause SIRS funding for up to two years, no later than 2028, so long as the pause is approved by a majority of the voting interests. That pause is not a discount. It is a schedule shift, and the reserve study must be updated before funding resumes.
Insurance sits on the same rail. Carriers writing HO-6 policies and commercial policies on associations are now asking about milestone status and reserve funding before they quote. Buildings that cannot document either are seeing higher premiums, exclusions for structural deterioration, or non-renewal, with the association sometimes pushed to Citizens as the insurer of last resort. When a building's insurance changes, the unit owner's monthly fee changes with it.
The disclosure rule closes the loop. By January 1, 2026, every Florida condo association must maintain a website that posts the most recent SIRS, milestone inspection reports, twelve months of meeting minutes, and financial disclosures. If a Bonita Springs building you are considering has not stood up that website, or the site is missing documents, that is itself information.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation maintains the current statutory text and reporting portal at condos.myfloridalicense.com/inspections.
The documents to request before you sign an offer
Bonita Springs sellers and their agents are working in a market where the average listing sits 55 to 79 days before it closes, depending on which source you read. That is your working time, and the current sale-to-list ratio near 94% is your negotiating leverage. Use both to obtain the documents before you commit.
- The current Structural Integrity Reserve Study, with its baseline funding plan and the component-by-component funding schedule.
- The most recent Milestone Inspection report, including Phase 2 findings if a Phase 2 was triggered, along with the certificate of occupancy date so you can confirm the building's age against the inspection timeline.
- Twelve months of association meeting minutes. Read for any mention of pending assessments, loan proposals, insurance renewal problems, or reserve waivers.
- The current-year budget line showing structural reserve contributions, and a statement of the reserve fund's current balance expressed as a percentage of the SIRS-recommended level.
- The declaration page of the association's master insurance policy, and confirmation that the policy is a renewal rather than a bind through Citizens with pending underwriting review.
- Any board resolution referencing a special assessment, loan, or line of credit adopted within the past twenty-four months.
An older beachfront building near Bonita Beach that hit its milestone trigger in 2024 or 2025 will have thicker files than a 2018 mid-rise. Both are worth reading. The mid-rise's SIRS is still telling you what the roof, plumbing, and waterproofing will cost the association across the next quarter century, and whether the current monthly assessment reflects that math.
Why the market itself is on your side right now
The interpretive point is this. In a 2021 or 2022 Bonita Springs market with under two months of supply and homes selling above list, a buyer who slowed the process down to request four documents lost the deal to a buyer who did not. In February 2026, with 4.33 months of supply, only 1.67% of homes selling over ask, and days on market roughly doubled from the peak years, that same buyer keeps the deal and gets the paperwork.
The disclosure regime and the current inventory posture are pointed in the same direction. Sellers who understand the market are pricing accordingly and expecting due diligence. Sellers who are still anchored to 2022 comps will resist, and that resistance is itself a signal about how carefully the building has been managed.
Bonita Springs' condo inventory ranges from small beach-adjacent buildings to the larger towers and mid-rises in the golf and gated communities inland. The reserve regime applies to all of them at three stories and up. What varies is the age of the certificate of occupancy, the exposure to salt air and storm surge, and the historical discipline of the board. Those are the variables the SIRS and milestone reports were designed to expose.
Short FAQ
Does the SIRS rule apply to a two-story coach home or villa? No. The statute applies to condominium and cooperative buildings three habitable stories or more. A two-story coach home is governed by its association's own reserve practices and by any planned community documents, which are worth reading on their own terms.
If a building has a pending special assessment, is that a reason to walk? Not on its own. A disclosed, funded, and scheduled assessment is a known cost you can price into your offer. The riskier condition is the building that has not yet completed its SIRS, or has completed it and has not adjusted the budget to fund it.
Can the seller pay off a pending assessment at closing? That is a negotiation, not a rule, and it turns on how the assessment is written. Some are lump-sum, some are amortized across multiple years. The document you want in your hand is the board resolution that levied the assessment, so the language is unambiguous before any credit is discussed.
If you are comparing Bonita Springs condos and want the reserve report and minutes reviewed alongside the price, that reading is part of how we work with buyers. The Dellatorè Real Estate Company can walk the documents with you before you write an offer, and if you already own a unit and want to understand what your building's SIRS means for your own resale, start with a free home valuation and a conversation about where your building sits on the funding curve.
