Why the county changes the loan in Florida
A reverse mortgage is a federal product with the same rules in Pensacola as in Key West. What is not the same is the property it gets written against, and in Florida the property varies more than almost anywhere else in the country. Four things move with geography here, and each one can decide whether a loan is possible at all.
Whether you are in a condo, and whether that condo is FHA approved. A HECM can only be written on a condominium in a project acceptable to FHA. In Pinellas County more than half of the homes currently for sale are condos. In Ocala or Lakeland the number is a fraction of that. The same borrower gets a completely different answer depending on which county they retired to.
Milestone inspections and reserve studies. Florida requires structural inspections of condo buildings three habitable stories and up at 30 years, and coastal jurisdictions may require them at 25. Ninety-four percent of the deadline extensions the state granted went to coastal counties. If you are on the Gulf or the Atlantic, this is your issue. Inland, mostly it is not.
Insurance and association costs. Premiums differ enormously between a barrier island and a county forty miles inland. Since every reverse mortgage borrower stays responsible for insurance, taxes, dues and maintenance, that gap changes what is affordable long term.
Property values against the FHA lending limit. The FHA HECM maximum claim amount is $1,249,125 for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026. In Naples, Marco Island or on Sand Key, plenty of homes sit above it, and a proprietary or jumbo product reaching up to $4 million does work a HECM cannot. In much of central Florida the limit never comes into play.
That is why these pages exist, and why they are not the same page with the town name swapped. Each one covers the condo picture, the inspection exposure, the insurance reality and the value range for that specific market.
Florida reverse mortgage guides by region
Tampa Bay and the Nature Coast
Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties
Southwest Florida
Collier, Lee and Sarasota counties
Central Florida and The Villages
Orange, Osceola, Polk, Marion, Sumter and Brevard counties
Southeast Florida
Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties
Do not see your town?
We are licensed for the whole state and we lend in towns that are not on this list. These pages exist because these are the markets we are asked about most, not because they are the boundary of where we work. If your town is missing, call and ask. The answer is almost always yes.
What every one of these markets has in common
Counseling with a HUD-approved agency independent of us is required before any HECM, wherever you live. You keep the title to your home. You stay responsible for property taxes, insurance, association dues and upkeep. And a reverse mortgage does not transfer title, so it is not a change of ownership under Florida Statute 193.155(3), which is why it does not reset your Save Our Homes cap.
Sunshine State Home Loans, LLC. NMLS ID 1901827, Florida license MBR3278. We are not affiliated with, and are not acting on behalf of, HUD, FHA or any government agency. Proprietary and jumbo reverse mortgages are not FHA insured. Borrowers remain responsible for property taxes, homeowners and flood insurance, association dues and property maintenance, and the loan may become due if those obligations are not met. This is not a commitment to lend.