Singer Island Oceanfront Condos

Singer Island is a place, not a town. Most of it — including most of the oceanfront towers — is in the City of Riviera Beach. The south end, along the Lake Worth Inlet, is the Town of Palm Beach Shores, a separate town with its own government. John D. MacArthur Beach State Park at the north end is in the Village of North Palm Beach.

That matters more than it sounds. The municipality sets part of your tax bill, runs the building department that enforces milestone inspections, and sets local rules on things like short-term rentals. The mailing address doesn't settle it: a unit at 5540 N Ocean Drive is listed as "Singer Island," but the parcel is in Riviera Beach. The Property Appraiser's parcel number does — its first two digits are the municipality code, 56 for Riviera Beach and 54 for Palm Beach Shores.

The island is narrow. North Ocean Drive runs up its length; east of it, the oceanfront towers stand on the beach. West of the road are single-family streets, canals and lower-rise condominiums facing the Lake Worth Lagoon — the stretch of the Intracoastal between the island and the mainland.

On the ocean side you get the beach at the bottom of the building and Atlantic views, along with the exposure that comes with them: salt, wind, and the maintenance and insurance costs they drive.

On the lagoon side the water is calmer, views face west across to the mainland, and some associations have boat docks. You give up walking from the lobby onto the sand.

Neither is the better buy; they are different purchases. Views, exposure and dock rights belong to the unit, not the building's brochure — confirm them for the exact unit you are considering.

Buying on Singer Island works like buying any Florida condo, with a few things that come up more often here.

Association approval. Many associations approve buyers before closing, sometimes with an application fee and an interview. Build that time into the contract.

Financing. Lenders review the building as well as the buyer. An older oceanfront building with open structural work, thin reserves or a pending assessment can be harder to finance conventionally. Find out early, not after the inspection period.

The document review window. Florida gives resale condo buyers a period after they receive the association's documents to review them and cancel; the condo rider in your contract sets out how it works. Use it — that is when the budget, reserves, inspection reports and rules get read.

The coastal construction control line. Oceanfront parcels often sit partly seaward of the state's coastal construction control line, which limits what can be built or rebuilt there. Florida requires the seller to disclose it, usually with a form in the contract package. Read it rather than initialing past it.

Owning oceanfront puts you close to the sand; it doesn't make the beach yours. In Florida, the beach below the mean high-water line is public, and the island has public beach parks with their own parking, fees and hours. Some buildings have a residents-only path or gate to the beach; others reach it by an easement. Lifeguards are posted at some public areas and not others. Ask what your building's access actually is, and check the current rules at any public access point before you count on it.

The island's beaches are sea turtle nesting habitat. During nesting season, lighting rules and association rules commonly limit light that reaches the beach — shielded fixtures, drawn blinds, nothing left on facing the sand. Ask what your building enforces.

It is a barrier island. Barrier islands are generally in the first evacuation zones when a storm threatens, and leaving means crossing a bridge. Ask the association for its storm procedures before you buy, not after the first watch is issued.