41% of Florida Apartment Buildings Haven't Sold Since 2009

I track every recorded sale of a Florida apartment building, and one number keeps jumping out at me. A lot of the buildings I look at have not changed hands in a very long time. So I counted. I took every parcel the Florida property roll codes as an apartment building with five or more units, 25,156 of them, and found the year of each one's last recorded sale of $10,000 or more.

Who has not sold

Here is how the 25,156 parcels break down:

• No recorded sale since before 1990: 4,661 parcels (19%). This group mixes two kinds of owners: ones whose last sale was before 1990, and ones with no qualifying sale in the records at all, such as a family that built the property or a transfer under $10,000.
• Last sale in the 1990s: 2,305 (9%).
• Last sale in the 2000s: 3,362 (13%).
• 2010 to 2015: 3,254 (13%).
• 2016 to 2019: 3,516 (14%).
• 2020 to 2022: 4,459 (18%).
• 2023 or later: 3,599 (14%).

Add up the first three and you get 10,328 buildings, 41% of the total, with no recorded sale since 2009. On the other end, 8,058 buildings (32%) changed hands in 2020 or later, more than half of those in the 2020 to 2022 rush when debt was cheap. Florida's apartment stock is split between owners who have held through two or three cycles and owners who bought near the top of this one. Those two groups face very different decisions.

This post is for the first group. If you bought in 2021 or 2022, your questions are about debt and refinancing, and I cover those separately.

What prices did since you bought

The Florida median sale price per unit for buildings with five or more units, from every arm's-length sale on record, against 2025:

If you bought in 2005, the median was $65,000 a unit, and you bought near a peak. The median in 2025 was $157,143, about 2.4 times that. If you bought in 2009, at $59,900, you bought into the bust and the median is now about 2.6 times what you paid. If you bought in 1995, the median then was $38,904, and today's is about 4.0 times it. The full year-by-year history is in 30 years of Florida apartment prices per unit.

A caveat I always give: a median mixes whatever sold that year, and your building is not the median. A 1970s eight-unit in Polk and a newer building in Broward do not move together. The direction is right, though. A long-held Florida building has almost certainly gained a lot, and much of that gain arrived between 2019 and 2022, when the median rose 57% in three years.

Rents did their part. Across the 35 Florida counties Zillow has tracked since 2015, the average rent went from $1,088 a month in 2015 to $1,971 in 2025, up 81% (Zillow's index covers houses as well as apartments, so treat it as direction, not your rent roll). Buyers pay for income, and income is up.

Why long-time owners do not sell

I talk with long-time owners all the time, and the reasons are honest ones. The building pays. The loan is gone or nearly gone. Selling means a tax bill, and buying something else means starting over at today's prices. Some owners plan to leave the building to their kids. Those are all good reasons to hold, and I tell owners to hold when the numbers say so.

But holding has a cost that does not show up on a statement. Your statement shows a return on what you paid. The return that matters is on what the building is worth today, because that is the money you could have working somewhere else. If your building is worth $157,143 a door and nets you a few thousand a door a year, your return on today's value may be far lower than you assume. That is the number I would want every long-time owner to look at once.

The expense side also moved. When I started selling apartment buildings in 2013, insurance on the buildings I worked on ran about $400 a door. Today I underwrite $950 to $1,500 a door. An owner who has not shopped a policy or budgeted for a roof in years can be earning less than they think, and the buyer will find it.

Low basis: what you keep is the real question

The longer you have held, the lower your tax basis. Two things stack up.

Capital gains. If you bought in 2005 at $65,000 a door and sell at $157,143, that is $92,143 a door of gain before improvements, taxed federally. Florida has no state income tax, so the state takes nothing.

Depreciation recapture. Residential rental buildings are depreciated over 27.5 years (IRS Publication 527). An owner who bought in 2009 or earlier has written off a large share of the building's value, and the IRS collects tax on that at sale. For long holders, that is often the bigger surprise. I walk through both in capital gains tax when you sell a Florida apartment building.

The tool most long-time owners should understand before deciding anything is the 1031 exchange. It lets you sell, buy another investment property and defer the whole federal bill, recapture included, if you follow the deadlines. It can also be a way to trade a management-heavy building for something simpler. Your CPA runs the real numbers. I am a broker, not your accountant.

The tax reset your buyer inherits

Here is a part long-time owners rarely think about. Florida caps the yearly increase in the assessed value of non-homestead property at 10%, so a building you have held for 15 or 20 years is probably assessed well below what it would sell for. Your tax bill reflects that old number. When the building sells, the cap resets and the county reassesses toward the sale price. I estimate the new bill at about 80% of the price times the county's millage. At $157,143 a door, that is about $125,714 a door of assessed value.

A good buyer underwrites that reset before making an offer, so it shows up in your price whether you plan for it or not. If you price your building off your own tax bill, you will be priced above the market. The details are in property tax reassessment after a sale in Florida.

So should you sell?

Not necessarily. Holding is a fine answer if the building pays, the roof and insurance are handled, and you want to keep owning it. But make the choice with three numbers in front of you: what the building would sell for today on a buyer's underwriting, what you would keep after federal tax or through a 1031, and what that money would earn somewhere else. Most long-time owners I talk to have never put those three side by side. My full take is in should you sell your Florida apartment building.

For your own county, open its page from Miami-Dade, Duval, Hillsborough or any of the others and I will email you the full county report with every year of sales and rents.

How I built these numbers

I took every parcel the Florida property roll codes as multifamily with five or more units, 25,156 in all, and matched each to its last recorded sale of $10,000 or more in Florida Department of Revenue and county sales records. Sales under $10,000 are left out because they are mostly family transfers and quitclaims. That is why the oldest group mixes very old sales with buildings that have no qualifying sale on record. A building held in an LLC can also change hands by selling the company instead of the deed, which leaves no recorded sale, so some buildings in the older groups may have changed owners quietly. Median prices are from arm's-length sales of the same class of parcels, 1995 to 2025.

Questions owners ask

How many Florida apartment buildings have not sold since 2009?

Of 25,156 Florida parcels coded as apartment buildings with five or more units, 10,328, or 41%, have no recorded sale of $10,000 or more since 2009. That includes 4,661 with no recorded sale since before 1990 or none on record at all, 2,305 last sold in the 1990s and 3,362 last sold in the 2000s.

How much have Florida apartment buildings gone up since 2005?

The Florida median sale price per unit for buildings with five or more units was $65,000 in 2005 and $157,143 in 2025, about 2.4 times as much. From the 2009 median of $59,900, it is about 2.6 times. Your building may have done better or worse, since a median mixes whatever sold.

What taxes do I owe if I sell a Florida apartment building I have owned for years?

Florida has no state income tax, so the bill is federal: long-term capital gains on the appreciation plus depreciation recapture on what you wrote off over the years. A 1031 exchange can defer both if you buy another investment property and follow the deadlines. Have your CPA estimate the full bill before you list.

Will my buyer pay higher property taxes than I do?

Usually, yes. Florida caps yearly increases in the assessed value of non-homestead property at 10%, so a long-held building is often assessed well below its value. A sale resets that, and I estimate the buyer's bill at about 80% of the price times the county millage. Buyers price that into their offer.

Should I sell my apartment building if I have owned it since before 2010?

Only if the numbers say so. Compare what the building would sell for on a buyer's underwriting, what you would keep after federal tax or through a 1031 exchange, and what that money would earn elsewhere. Holding is a fine answer if the building pays and you want to keep it.

If you have owned your building since before 2010 and want those three numbers side by side, call me. Running them is the first thing I do as an apartment building broker in Florida, and I will tell you if the answer is to hold.