A Secret Mortgage Blacklist Is Leaving Homeowners Stuck With Unsellable Condos

WSJ Mar 17, 2025 … The blacklist is maintained by Fannie Mae and includes condo associations that the mortgage finance giant thinks don’t have adequate property insurance or need to make critical building repairs. Being on the list can make it harder for potential buyers to get a mortgage.

According to lenders and real-estate agents, Fannie Mae greatly expanded the list after the Surfside condo collapse in Florida in 2021 killed 98 people. Compounding the problem, a nationwide insurance crisis is making it more expensive for condo associations to afford adequate coverage. 

The number of properties that fail to meet Fannie Mae’s standards has risen to 5,175 this month from a few hundred before Surfside, according to Stephen Marcus, a condo lawyer at Boston law firm Allcock & Marcus. Like other industry legal and finance players, he has access to the list of properties that don’t meet the criteria….

Florida has more than 1,400 developments blacklisted. That is in part because of a strict condo safety law enacted following the Surfside disaster. The next four states featuring heavily on the blacklist—California, Colorado, Hawaii and Texas—are prone to natural disasters and restrictive insurance policies ….

read … A Secret Mortgage Blacklist Is Leaving Homeowners Stuck With Unsellable Condos

Editor’s Note: Hawaii has the fourth-longest list--204 blacklisted condo projects, according to WSJ--and since the other top states are much larger, Hawaii probably has the most blacklisted condo units per capita.  The list of blacklisted condo projects is not available anywhere online.  Click ‘ACL’ link below to query ACL law firm about your own condo association.  If an association is blacklisted, it is usually because they don’t have enough insurance.

ACL: Is your condo on the Fannie-Mae blacklist?

FM: Selling-guide.fanniemae.com/ineligible-projects