How Financing Risk Indicators are computed

What this is

On every condo-building landing we publish a five-signal Financing Risk score. It compresses public-records data into a single 0-100 number that approximates how much extra friction a buyer is likely to encounter when seeking conventional financing on a unit in that building.

The score is built from sales records, recorded mortgages, lis pendens and foreclosure judgments, the building's age, and the condo association's registration status with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). Every input is public.

1. DBPR registration status

Florida condo associations must register with DBPR and file an annual report. We pull the public Florida statewide condo-registry CSV (refreshed monthly) and match each building by address. A Delinquent secondary status — meaning the association has missed its annual filing — triggers administrative action and is the strongest single warrantability signal in the score. Approved/Recorded buildings sit at the floor of this signal.

2. Cash vs. financed sales

We count deeds recorded for units in the building over the trailing 24 months. For each, we look ±60 days for a recorded mortgage on the same parcel. Sales without a matching loan record are counted as cash. Heavy cash share (≥70%) is a tell that conventional lenders consider the stack difficult — possibly because of project-level concentration, litigation, insurance gaps, or non-warrantable amenities — and we surface it.

3. Foreclosure activity

We count foreclosure-related filings against units in the building over the last 5 years: Notice of Lis Pendens, Judgment of Foreclosure, Certificate of Title, and clerk auction records. We normalize per 100 units so a 30-unit boutique and a 700-unit tower are comparable. A higher rate suggests stress on individual ownership in the stack — which lenders then price into pool-level risk.

4. SB 4D milestone applicability

Florida Senate Bill 4-D (2022) requires structural milestone inspections at 25 years for buildings within three miles of the coast and 30 years inland, plus a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS). The score reflects how soon the deadline applies based on year-built data from the property appraiser. Buildings already past the threshold without documented compliance carry the highest weight on this signal.

5. Non-market transfers

Sales recorded at a price of $100 or less are not real transactions — they're transfers between LLCs, estate distributions, divorce settlements, or other intra-entity moves. A high rate over 5 years (per 100 units) flags buildings dominated by bulk-investor stacks, which lenders treat differently from owner-occupied projects.

Composite score

The five signals are mapped to a 0-100 sub-score and then weighted. The composite is the weighted average.

Risk levels

Composite scores below 30 read as Low, 30-49 Moderate, 50-69 Elevated, 70+ High. Most well-run luxury towers in our coverage area sit in Low or Moderate; ELEVATED almost always reflects a DBPR delinquency or active foreclosure cluster.

Data refresh cadence

Sales and mortgage data refresh weekly from the county clerks. The DBPR condo registry refreshes monthly. The score is recomputed nightly and cached on the per-building landing.

Limits and disclaimers

This is not legal advice, lending advice, or a substitute for a lender's condo questionnaire. Buildings change — an Approved association can go Delinquent, foreclosure clusters can resolve, and milestone-inspection compliance can be filed after the fact. If you are sizing a specific deal, ask your lender to run the building through their Project Manager and request the latest condo questionnaire from the association.