AS stated many times, I live down here. The little burg of Surfside is probably a 20 minute drive from my place.
Just a preface about my area of the country - South Florida experienced a housing boom of great intensity over the past few decades. Most that come here want to live near the water - if they can afford it and that's another huge topic, so apartment buildings / condos are erected on every scrap of land bordering any body of water (the MIA metro area has not only the Atlantic Ocean, but Biscayne Bay and many intracoastal waterways). It's kind of expected that corners are cut between the city's permitting dept., developers and contractors. We will see if the speed of building will cause issues in the future.
Anyway, the building that collapsed was built in 1981, so the above may not be true in this case. I work as a paralegal in the insurance claim industry so, I had the opportunity to speak to an engineer from Chicago working on an unrelated case who told me something interesting - South Florida is deadly for buildings / structures more than anywhere else: No elevation, extreme heat and sunlight, humidity, sea salt, torrential rains and wind storms (aka hurricanes) wear down structures much faster than in other parts of the country. Also, we have sandy soil with a high water table which isn't the best base for buildings.
Secondly, Condo hell in South FL means there are tons of Condo Associations calling the shots on building maintenance, elected by the owners in the building. They are not necessarily experienced in handling maintenance and some like the status (even if it's unpaid - a joke is that they get kickbacks from contractors hired to take care of the buildings) So, another issue is unqualified contractors are responsible for building upkeep.