The True Cost of Owning a Home in South Florida

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Every week I talk to someone who found their number. They've run the mortgage math, they know the payment to the dollar, and they're ready — right up until the first full year of owning a home in South Florida sends them bills they never budgeted for.

The purchase price is the loudest number in a move. It is not the biggest one. What decides whether a house feels comfortable or tight five years from now is the carrying cost — taxes, insurance, and the local line items nobody up north has ever heard of. Here's the honest stack, in the order it will hit your mailbox.

1. Property taxes: the number that resets the day you buy

Florida has no state income tax, and that's real. But the property tax bill deserves your full attention, because of one rule that surprises almost every out-of-state buyer: when a home sells, its tax assessment resets to market value. The seller's bill — the one in the listing, the one the previous owner paid for a decade under Florida's Save Our Homes cap — is not your bill. Your first full tax bill is figured on what you just paid.

Two things soften that, and both require you to act:

- Homestead exemption. If the home is your primary residence, file for homestead with the county property appraiser by March 1 of the year after you buy. It's worth up to $50,000 off your assessed value, and — more valuable over time — it locks in the Save Our Homes cap, which limits how fast your assessed value can rise each year no matter what the market does. Miss the filing and you pay full freight while your capped neighbors don't.

- Portability. Moving within Florida? You may be able to carry up to $500,000 of your accumulated Save Our Homes benefit from your old homestead to the new one. For long-time Florida owners, that transfer can be worth more than the exemption itself.

Taxes also vary more by city than buyers expect. Millage — the total tax rate — differs town to town: Lighthouse Point runs about 18.9 mills and Pompano Beach about 20.4 mills, which works out to roughly $1,480 a year of difference on every $1 million of taxable value, for two cities whose canals are ten minutes apart. Same coast, same water, different bill. It's one reason the city choice matters as much as the house choice.

2. Insurance: budget it like a second tax

Homeowners insurance in coastal Florida is the line item that has genuinely changed in the last few years, and I won't pretend a tidy average exists — the honest answer is that it depends on the house more than the ZIP code. What actually moves your premium:

- The roof — its age and material are the first questions every carrier asks.

- Wind mitigation — impact glass or rated shutters, roof-to-wall connections, and a current wind mitigation inspection earn credits that can take real money off the premium. If a seller has a recent inspection report, ask for it before you offer, not after.

- Elevation and flood zone — which brings up the next bill.

Get quotes during your inspection period, on the actual house, from a Florida agent. A premium guessed from a friend's house two streets over is how budgets break.

3. Flood insurance: separate policy, separate decision

Your homeowners policy does not cover rising water. Flood insurance is its own policy — federal (NFIP) or private — and whether you must carry it depends on your flood zone and your lender. Whether you should is a different conversation, and on the water it's one worth having with the elevation certificate in hand. 

How king tides and flood zones actually behave on this coast — and how to read a specific property before you buy — is here: https://reedkellough.com/king-tides-and-flooding

Know your zone before you fall in love with the dock.

4. The Florida extras

- HOA and condo fees — read them for what's coming, not just what's charged. Florida condos now carry milestone inspections and reserve requirements (the SIRS rules), and special assessments are how deferred maintenance sends the bill. A low monthly fee with empty reserves can cost more than a high fee with healthy ones.

- CDD fees — some newer communities (several of Boca's west-side developments among them) carry Community Development District charges on the tax bill, paying off the neighborhood's infrastructure over decades. They're on the TRIM notice, not the listing sheet. Ask.

- Waterfront carrying costs — if you're buying on the water, add dock and seawall maintenance to the annual picture, and price a seawall inspection into your due diligence. A seawall near the end of its life is a five-figure conversation you'll want before closing, not after.

The method, in one paragraph

Before you offer on any home here, build the full monthly number: mortgage, taxes at your purchase price (not the seller's bill), insurance quoted on the house, flood if applicable, HOA/CDD, and a maintenance reserve. Then compare homes on that number — it's the worksheet logic I give my own buyers, and it regularly reorders which house is "cheaper." 

That worksheet logic is the money chapter of my relocation playbook, Move to South Florida Like a Local: https://movetobocaflorida.com/the-relocation-playbook

The $850,000 house in the low-millage city with a new roof and impact glass can cost less to own than the $800,000 house without them. Price gets the headline; carrying cost writes the next ten years.

Running these numbers for a move of your own? Start with the free 90-day relocation checklist: https://movetobocaflorida.com/relocation-checklist

I'm Reed Kellough, a Douglas Elliman agent (Eklund|Gomes Team) in Lighthouse Point — 200+ closings · 14 years on this coast. If you're running these numbers on a real house and want a second set of eyes, call or text me at (954) 242-0441. And a standing note: I'm licensed in Florida only, but I keep a national network of vetted relocation specialists and referral partners — if your move starts with a sale in another state, or takes you somewhere else entirely, I'm glad to connect you with the right agent there. Help first, always.