Quick answer: This page does not carry a listings feed, and it will not pretend to. Portals do inventory better than anyone. What they do not do is tell you what changes when you cross a Florida county line: the tax bill, the insurance, the association cost, the letting rules and the inspection schedule. That is what decides whether a home you can afford to buy is a home you can afford to keep, and it is what this page is for.
Entry prices in the areas we cover
These are the lowest published entry prices among the buildings covered on this site, by area. They describe the buildings we write about rather than the whole market, and they are useful as a floor: what it takes to be in a given area at all.
| Area | Buildings covered | Entry price from | Median entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brickell | 24 | 380,000 USD | 510,000 USD |
| Edgewater | 12 | 310,000 USD | 780,000 USD |
| Downtown Miami | 10 | 390,000 USD | 520,000 USD |
| Sunny Isles Beach | 9 | 480,000 USD | 1,950,000 USD |
| South Beach | 5 | 908,000 USD | 2,400,000 USD |
| Bal Harbour | 3 | 1,350,000 USD | 2,400,000 USD |
| Aventura | 2 | 450,000 USD | 800,000 USD |
| Downtown Fort Lauderdale | 2 | 285,000 USD | 492,500 USD |
Two things to read from that table rather than one. The entry price tells you the cost of admission. The median entry tells you what the area is actually made of: Brickell’s entry and median sit close together because the stock is deep and similar, while Sunny Isles Beach has a low entry and a median four times higher, because a handful of older buildings sit beneath a market of oceanfront towers.
Prices are the easy part of this decision. The rest of this page is the part that is not on a listing.
The five costs that change with the address
| Cost | Why it varies | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Property tax | county and municipal millage, plus assessed value | the actual itemised tax bill for the parcel |
| Insurance | wind and flood are separate, and coastal exposure prices them | real quotes on the specific address and elevation |
| Association dues | what the budget covers and how it is funded | 3 years of dues history, split by line |
| CDD assessment | newer master-planned stock funds infrastructure bonds | the tax bill, as a separate line from tax |
| Letting rules | set by city and county, not by the state | the city, in writing, for that parcel |
Ask for the full itemised property tax bill for the last 3 years rather than a rate or a listing’s estimate. It shows the millage, the assessed value, and any Community Development District assessment, which on newer master-planned housing can be a four-figure annual sum that no one mentions until closing.
Insurance is the line most often estimated and most often wrong. Get real quotes, not a percentage of value, and get the flood zone and elevation certificate. See the Florida property insurance guide and the Citizens insurance guide.
Homestead changes the tax arithmetic, and only for residents
Florida’s homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes assessment limitation reduce and then cap the taxable value of a permanent primary residence. They are not available on a second home or on an investment property.
The consequence compounds. A homesteaded property’s assessed value is limited in how fast it may rise each year, so over a decade the gap between a resident’s tax bill and a non-resident’s on identical houses widens steadily, entirely because of the cap rather than because of any difference in the properties.
For a buyer this means two things. Model the tax on the basis that will actually apply to you, not on the seller’s current bill, which may be homesteaded. And where a move to Florida is genuinely intended, the timing of establishing residency has a measurable effect on the holding cost.
See the guides on Canadian buyers and Florida property taxes and property for foreign buyers.
House or condominium is a risk choice, not a lifestyle one
| Single-family house | Condominium | |
|---|---|---|
| Roof and envelope | entirely yours | the association’s, funded by dues |
| Insurance | one policy set, all yours | master policy plus your own HO-6 |
| Cost predictability | you control timing | the board controls timing |
| Assessment risk | none | real, and it has grown since 2022 |
| Milestone inspection | not applicable | applies at 25 or 30 years, then every 10 |
| Lending | ordinary | subject to project-level tests |
Since 2022 Florida condominiums carry a structural regime that houses do not: milestone inspections at 25 years within 3 miles of a coastline and 30 years elsewhere, repeating every 10 years, together with structural integrity reserve studies and mandatory reserve funding. That regime is a protection, and it also means that a building’s reserve position is now part of the purchase. See the condominium safety guide and the Florida condos hub.
A house removes all of that and replaces it with a different fact: when the roof needs replacing, it needs replacing, and there is no reserve fund. Neither structure is safer in the abstract. The documents decide.
Letting rules are local, and they are not uniform
If any part of the plan involves letting the property, establish the rules before the offer, because they vary by city rather than by state and they are frequently the binding constraint.
Florida Statute 509.032(7)(b) prevents local governments from prohibiting vacation rentals or regulating stay duration and frequency, but only for ordinances adopted after 1 June 2011. Rules in place before that date survive, which is why the position ranges from open to near-prohibited across a single coastline:
| Position | Example |
|---|---|
| Not permitted in residential districts | Clearwater Beach |
| Capped at 3 short lettings a year | St. Pete Beach, Naples |
| Minimum stay by neighbourhood | Anna Maria Island |
| Capped transferable licence | Key West |
| Permitted with registration | Destin, Fort Myers Beach |
Private covenants sit outside all of that and can be stricter than any ordinance. See the HOA restrictions guide.
Buying from outside Florida
There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own Florida real estate, and buying property creates no immigration status. Those two sentences answer most of the questions overseas buyers arrive with.
What does need planning:
Financing. Foreign national mortgage programmes exist and sit outside conventional agency rules, with larger deposits. Non-resident buyers frequently need an ITIN.
Title and structure. Whether to hold personally or through an entity has tax and liability consequences. See LLC versus personal title.
Tax on sale and on death. FIRPTA withholding applies on disposal by a foreign person, and US estate tax exposure for non-residents is a separate question with a much lower threshold than most buyers expect. See the estate tax guide for foreign owners.
SB 264. Florida restricts certain real property purchases by buyers connected to specific countries of concern. It does not restrict foreign buyers generally. See the SB 264 guide.
Before you make an offer anywhere in Florida
- Get the full itemised property tax bill for the parcel for 3 years, and identify any CDD line.
- Model the tax on the basis that will apply to you, not on a homesteaded seller’s bill.
- Get real insurance quotes for the specific address, plus the flood zone and elevation certificate.
- On a condominium, get the reserve study, the funding percentage and 3 years of dues history.
- On a condominium, ask about assessments levied, pending or discussed in the last 24 months.
- On a house, get the roof age with its permit and the last 3 years of maintenance.
- If letting is planned, get the city’s position on that parcel in writing.
- Read any recorded covenants for minimum lease terms and approval procedures.
- On a mortgage, get a written lender determination early, and on a condominium a project review.
Where to start on this site
The city and area pages cover the individual markets: Miami, Brickell, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando, Naples, Sarasota and West Palm Beach.
The holding-cost guides are the insurance guide and the condominium safety guide. The county pages under regulations carry the letting position jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
And if the purchase is a condominium rather than a house, the Florida condos hub covers the parts of this decision that only apply to buildings.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no single Florida price. Entry prices across the buildings and areas covered on this site run from about 285,000 dollars in Downtown Fort Lauderdale and 310,000 in Edgewater to 1,350,000 in Bal Harbour, and single-family stock spans a far wider range again. The useful question is what a home costs in a specific city, and what it costs to hold there.
Five: the county and municipal millage that sets the property tax bill, insurance including separate wind and flood cover, association dues, any Community Development District assessment on newer master-planned stock, and the local rules if you intend to let. Two identical houses in different counties can carry very different annual costs.
Effectively yes, because the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes assessment cap are available only on a permanent primary residence. A second home or an investment property is assessed without them, so its taxable value tracks the market more closely and rises faster over time.
Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own Florida real estate, and buying property does not create any immigration status. Financing is available through foreign national mortgage programmes, and Florida's SB 264 restrictions apply to buyers from specific countries of concern rather than to foreign buyers generally.
They carry different risks. A house puts the roof, envelope and insurance entirely on the owner. A condominium spreads those across an association, but since 2022 brings milestone inspections, reserve studies and mandatory reserve funding into the dues. Neither is safer in the abstract; the documents decide.
Start with the city or area pages for the markets you are considering, then the condominium safety and insurance guides for the holding costs, then the county rules page if letting is part of the plan. The buildings section carries entry prices, dues and letting rules for individual buildings.
Tell us the cities you are weighing and we will price the difference
Send us two or three Florida markets you are considering and a budget. We will come back with entry prices in each, the actual tax and insurance position for comparable properties, association and CDD costs, the local letting rules, and what the annual carry looks like side by side.