What Florida builders actually charge for HOA and CDD

How many new-construction communities actually publish their fees?

148 out of 701 publish an HOA fee, and 111 publish a CDD — meaning roughly 79% and 84%, respectively, show you nothing before you ask.

Our catalog tracks 701 active new-construction communities across Florida, refreshed every month. The starting prices — the cheapest model, no upgrades, no lot premium — run from $154,990 to just under $3 million, with a median of $334,350. That is a wide market. What is consistent across all of it is the silence on monthly costs. Not published is not the same as zero. A community with no listed HOA may have a mandatory fee that only appears in the contract documents.

What is a typical HOA fee in Florida new construction?

The median is $205 a month, but the range is enormous: the lowest published fee is $9 and the highest is $1,406.

A $9 fee and a $1,406 fee are both called “HOA.” They cover completely different things. The low end tends to be a basic deed-restriction community with little shared infrastructure. The high end usually includes amenities, landscaping, exterior maintenance, and sometimes insurance on the structure. The median alone tells you almost nothing about what you are actually buying. What matters is the specific fee for the specific community, confirmed in writing — and for 553 of the 701 communities we track, that number simply is not on the table yet.

What is a CDD, and what does it add to your monthly cost?

A Community Development District is a special taxing district that financed the roads, utilities, and amenities you see when you tour the model home. The median CDD charge is $163 a month, with a low of $16 and a high of $366.

The CDD charge appears on your annual property tax bill, not in your HOA statement, which is one reason buyers miss it. On a median-priced home in our catalog, a $163-a-month CDD adds up to $1,956 a year. Stack that on top of a $205 HOA and you are looking at $368 a month — $4,416 a year — before you pay your mortgage, your insurance, or your property tax rate. That is real money, and it applies only to the communities that publish both figures. The ones that do not publish are not necessarily cheaper.

Does the fee vary by region?

Yes, significantly. South Florida’s median HOA among the communities that publish is $313 a month; the Panhandle’s is $38 — but only three Panhandle communities publish at all, so that figure is nearly meaningless statistically.

Here is what the regional data actually shows:

Region	Communities	Publish HOA	Median HOA/mo	Median Start Price
South Florida	71	35	$313	$600,445
Treasure Coast	27	10	$259	$389,900
West Coast	258	31	$249	$319,400
North Florida	78	31	$150	$334,990
Central Florida	195	38	$140	$319,990
Panhandle	72	3	$38	$294,945

The Panhandle row is almost useless for planning purposes. Three communities out of 72 published a fee. The $38 median may reflect those three specific projects, not the region. The West Coast has 258 communities and only 31 publish — 12%. Central Florida, the largest region in the catalog, has the best publication rate at just under 20%, and still leaves more than four out of five communities undisclosed.

How much do HOA and CDD together add to the real cost of ownership?

At the catalog medians — $205 HOA plus $163 CDD — recurring community fees add $4,416 a year, or about $132,000 over a 30-year hold, before any fee increases.

That arithmetic assumes fees stay flat, which they rarely do. But even at today’s numbers: a buyer stretching to hit the $334,350 median starting price is also taking on up to $368 a month in fees that do not go toward equity, do not appear in the headline price, and may not appear on any marketing page. Run that against your debt-to-income calculation before you sign a contract, not after.

If the community has a CDD and an HOA, you need both figures. If the builder’s site shows only one, or neither, ask in writing. The answer belongs in the purchase agreement, not in a sales conversation you cannot document later.

Is a community without a published fee a red flag?

Not automatically — but it is a gap in your budget until you fill it with a confirmed number.

Some communities genuinely have no HOA. Others have a fee that will be set once the community is further along in construction. Others have fees that exist right now but are not posted publicly. You cannot tell which situation you are in from the absence of a number. The only way to know is to request the governing documents — the declaration, the bylaws, and any CDD indenture — and read what they obligate you to pay. If a community will not provide those documents before contract, that itself is information worth having.