What a Florida home actually costs per month

What does a Florida home cost per month, all in?

On a $400,000 home with 20% down, budget roughly $3,600–$4,300 a month all in — and only about 60% of that is the mortgage itself.

Here is the whole stack on one house, so you can see the shape of it before we take each line apart:

Illustrative, using median figures explained line by line below. Your own numbers move most with the county, the age of the roof and whether the community has a CDD.

What is actually inside the mortgage payment?

Four things, and only two of them are the loan: principal, interest, taxes and insurance. Lenders call it PITI, and they collect all four in one payment.

The tax and insurance portions go into an escrow account. Your lender holds the money and pays the county and the carrier when the bills come due. Three consequences that catch people out:

• The payment changes even on a fixed-rate loan. When your tax assessment or your insurance renewal moves, so does your monthly payment. A fixed rate fixes the interest, not the bill.
• You get an escrow analysis once a year. If the account came up short, you pay the shortfall and your monthly payment rises to rebuild the cushion — often both at once, which is why the increase can feel disproportionate.
• Higher taxes and insurance shrink your loan. Underwriting works from the total payment, so in Florida the same income supports a smaller mortgage than it would in New Jersey. It is the same reason a property tax cut immediately raises what you can borrow.

If you put less than 20% down, add mortgage insurance to the stack — typically 0.3% to 1.5% of the loan a year, and on a conventional loan it comes off once you reach 20% equity.

How much are the property taxes?

Roughly 1.5% to 2% of assessed value a year, depending on the county. In Miami-Dade the combined rate is about 18.49 mills — 1.85%.

On our $400,000 home, assessed at $400,000 with the homestead exemption, that works out to about $580 a month in Miami-Dade. In a lower-millage county the same house runs meaningfully less; the rate is set by the county, the city and the special districts, so it changes at the city line, not just the county line.

Two things to know before you budget:

• The seller’s tax bill is not yours. Long-time owners are protected by an assessment cap that resets when the home sells. A listing showing $2,400 of tax can become $7,000 in your first full year, on the same house.
• A cut is on the November 2026 ballot. If it passes, the exemption on the non-school portion rises to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 — which on a modest home removes most of that line. Plan on today’s bill and treat the cut as upside.

How much is the insurance?

This is the line that surprises everyone. Florida is the most expensive state in the country for homeowners insurance, and the range inside the state is wider than the gap between most other states.

For a standardized $300,000 policy, Florida averages $8,471 a year — 5.8 times New Jersey and 4.6 times New York. The average of policies actually in force, which includes smaller and older inland homes, is closer to $3,800.

The spread within Florida is the part worth planning around. Actual premiums per policy, 2022, from the federal collection:

U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Insurance Office, 2018–2022 collection: 330 insurers, 246 million policies.

And remember that flood is not included in any of those figures. It is a separate policy, mandatory in high-risk zones with a federally backed mortgage, and worth having in plenty of places where it is not required.

HOA and CDD — what’s the difference, and how much?

The HOA runs the community. The CDD paid for the ground it sits on. You can be paying both, and outside Florida almost nobody has met the second one.

What each one is

• HOA — a private association that maintains shared areas, amenities and standards. It can raise dues, levy special assessments and place a lien on your home if you do not pay.
• CDD — a Community Development District, a special-purpose local government created to finance the roads, water and drainage that made the development possible. It issued bonds, and your CDD fee is repaying them. It arrives on your property tax bill, not as a separate invoice, which is exactly why buyers miss it.

What they actually cost

From our catalogue of 940 new-construction communities across Florida, the ones that publish their fees:

In the 107 communities that publish both, the combined median is $392 a month — comparable to the property tax line on a mid-priced home, and it is the line most out-of-state buyers leave out entirely.

Utilities, and the Florida line items you haven’t budgeted

Electricity is the big one, and it does not behave the way it does up north — your peak is summer, not winter, and it lasts longer.

• Electricity. Air conditioning runs most of the year. A 2,000-square-foot single-family home commonly lands between $180 and $300 a month, higher in July through September.
• Water, sewer and trash. Often billed together by the city or county; irrigation in a lawn community can double it in dry months.
• Pest control. Not optional here in practice. Budget a modest monthly amount, plus periodic termite treatment.
• Lawn care. Grass grows year-round. Either it is in your HOA dues or it is a monthly bill.
• Pool service, if there is one — and in Florida there often is.

What you stop paying is also part of the picture: no heating oil, no gas heating bill through a northern winter, and no snow removal. That offset is real, just smaller than the AC line that replaces it.

What should I set aside for maintenance?

The usual rule of 1% of the home’s value per year is a floor in Florida, not a target — because the two most expensive components both have shorter lives here.

On a $400,000 home that rule is $333 a month. Two Florida-specific reasons to sit above it:

• The roof. Sun, heat and storms shorten its life, and its age is also what your insurer prices on. A roof replacement is a five-figure expense that arrives on a schedule you can predict — so save for it on a schedule too.
• The air conditioning. A system that might last twenty years in a mild climate works far harder here. Ten to fifteen years is a realistic planning horizon.

Neither is a surprise if you know the age of both on the day you buy. Both are questions to ask during the inspection period, and both are negotiating points.

How does this compare to what I pay now?

Property tax almost certainly goes down. Insurance goes up, often by more than the tax saving. And the line that decides the whole thing is the one that is not on this page: state income tax.

Property tax: median paid, U.S. Census Bureau. Insurance: same standardized $300,000 policy priced in every state, 2026. Income tax: Tax Foundation 2026 top marginal rate.

Run New Jersey through it. Property tax falls by about $6,370 a year. Insurance rises by about $7,020. Those two very nearly cancel. What makes the move work is the income tax — and that is a line on your paycheck, not on your housing budget, which is precisely why it gets left out of comparisons like this one.