The cost comparison now includes principal and interest, calculated with the standard mortgage amortization formula from the price, down payment, rate, and term you enter, alongside the same verified county millage figures used in the homestead savings calculator, split into school and non-school portions with the current-law homestead exemption math. HOA fees and insurance premiums aren’t statutory numbers, they’re set by each association and each carrier, so those fields are your own figures or estimates, not something this tool computes for you. PMI, closing costs, and ongoing maintenance or utilities aren’t included on either side.
Florida Condo Calculator: True Monthly Cost & SIRS Risk Check
Short version: A condo’s HOA fee is doing more work than it looks like, so its all-in monthly cost, property tax plus HOA plus insurance, is often closer to a comparable house’s cost than the fee alone suggests, sometimes further apart than expected in the other direction. Separately, Florida requires milestone structural inspections for condo and co-op buildings three habitable stories or taller, at 25 years old if within 3 miles of a coastline or 30 years old otherwise, every 10 years after that, and a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) on a similar cycle, with reserves for that study’s required items no longer legally waivable since 2025. A building behind on either isn’t just a paperwork problem, insurers are now checking for it too.
“All-in” here means principal, interest, property tax, HOA, and your insurance estimate, the full monthly housing payment for each scenario at the price, rate, and down payment you entered. It does not include PMI (relevant if putting down less than 20%), closing costs, or ongoing maintenance and utilities, both a condo and a house carry those, just differently. Property tax uses each county’s 2025-26 final adopted millage for unincorporated areas.
Based on F.S. 553.899 (milestone inspections) and F.S. 718.112(2)(g) with current DBPR guidance (SIRS). A local enforcement agency can require the 25-year trigger for a non-coastal building under certain conditions, and this tool can’t know a specific association’s actual compliance history, only what the law requires by when. Ask the association directly for its SIRS report and milestone inspection status before relying on this alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The fee usually covers building insurance, common-area maintenance, and reserve contributions, but you're still paying your own property tax and your own HO-6 policy on top of it. Comparing the full monthly number against an equivalent house is what actually shows the real cost gap, in either direction.
Some do, especially in newer planned communities like Lake Nona or MetroWest, though usually a smaller fee than a condo's since there's no shared building or master insurance policy to fund. Older and unrestricted neighborhoods often have none at all. The calculator's single-family HOA field defaults to $0, enter your own number if the house you're comparing has a fee.
A milestone inspection is a structural safety check of the building itself, load-bearing elements and structural systems. A Structural Integrity Reserve Study is a budgeting tool, it identifies structural components the association must maintain and sets a funding plan to pay for them. They can sometimes be completed together, but they answer different questions.
Only buildings three habitable stories or taller. Single-family, two-family, three-family, or four-family dwellings of three or fewer habitable stories are excluded by statute, and floors used only for parking, storage, or mechanical equipment don't count toward the three-story threshold.
Florida law treats buildings within 3 miles of a coastline as facing more corrosive, higher-stress conditions, so their first milestone inspection comes due at 25 years old instead of 30. A local enforcement agency can also require the earlier 25-year trigger for a non-coastal building under certain conditions.
Beyond the compliance risk itself, it's increasingly an insurance problem. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation and most private carriers now require SIRS and milestone compliance before writing or renewing a condo association's policy, so a building behind on either can face higher premiums, non-renewal, or a special assessment to catch up, costs that land on unit owners either way.