What a Florida place really costs

Getting in

Good news first: you don't need to be American. No citizenship, no green card, no Social Security number. In most cases not even a visa beyond your ordinary visitor allowance. Foreign buyers close here every week without any of it.

What you do need is more cash up front than a local buyer.

Plan on 25% to 50% down. Many foreign-national programs ask for 25–35%; some programs for Canadians start lower, and new-construction condos can ask for up to 50%, which is worth knowing before you tour a pre-construction building.¹

Your home-country credit often follows you, which surprises people. Many lenders will take a Canadian, UK or European credit report and your existing mortgage and card history instead of a U.S. score. You're not starting from zero.²

On our $850,000 condo at 30% down:

• $255,000 at closing
• $595,000 financed

Foreign-national rates run roughly 0.5 to 1.5 points above what U.S. residents pay. For the week of 1 October 2026, the U.S. average 30-year rate was reported at 7.28%, so this example assumes 7.75% on a 30-year amortization. That's about $4,263 a month in principal and interest. Rates change weekly; a lender's written quote is the number to use.³

One thing to notice: a lot of foreign-national lending is adjustable, not fixed for thirty years. On a seven-year adjustable loan the rate is fixed until 2033 and then resets. Plenty of owners choose that deliberately; the key is knowing the date.

Holding it

Property tax

Florida has no state income tax, which is part of why you're here. It does have property tax, and as a non-resident you pay it without the discount locals get.

Florida residents get a homestead exemption on their primary home that caps how fast the assessed value can rise. You won't qualify, because this isn't your primary residence. Your cap is the non-homestead one: assessed value can rise up to 10% a year.⁴

On an $850,000 condo, budget roughly $14,900 a year, give or take by municipality.

A live note: Amendment 3 on Florida's 3 November 2026 ballot would cut the non-homestead cap from 10% to 5% starting January 2027. If it passes, your worst-case tax growth halves. Worth watching.⁵

Insurance

The number everyone has heard about, and it's finally moving the right way. The statewide average for a home is about $8,458; Palm Beach County runs around $6,412; and the state-backed insurer cut rates 8.7% across Florida and about 14% in Broward and Miami-Dade after the reforms.⁶

For a condo, you're insuring the inside of your unit and your contents (the building's master policy covers the structure). An HO-6 policy on our example runs roughly $2,800 a year. Non-resident policies exist; not every broker writes them, which is why we introduce you to one who does.⁷

The association fee

This is the one that has changed most since 2021. After the Surfside collapse, Florida now requires condominiums to fund structural reserves and complete milestone inspections. Buildings that deferred maintenance for decades are catching up, and the fee reflects it.

On our $850,000 condo, plan on about $1,200 a month, $14,400 a year. Read the budget, the reserve study and the milestone report before you buy. A well-run building with a high fee is a better purchase than a cheap one with a special assessment coming.

So what's the year look like

So the yearly cost is the sum of four things: the mortgage (about $51,150), property tax (about $14,900), the association fee (about $14,400) and insurance on the inside of the unit (about $2,800). That's about $83,250 a year with a mortgage. Pay cash and it's about $32,100, because the mortgage line disappears. Utilities, and a management company if you rent it out, come on top.

And when you sell

One more thing, and it's the one that catches foreign owners most: when you sell, the IRS holds back 15% of the sale price at closing. Not of the gain. Of the price. On a $900,000 sale that's $135,000, most of which is your own money, sitting with the IRS until you claim it back.⁸

It's very manageable. There's a form (8288-B) that asks the IRS to withhold only the tax actually due, and the IRS takes about ninety days to answer. So it just has to start on time, which means the week you decide to sell, not the week before closing.⁹ The seller's guide has the whole picture.

The honest summary

An $850,000 condo is a $255,000 down payment, about $83,250 a year to own with a mortgage (or $32,100 paying cash), a currency plan, and a sale that's smoothest when the paperwork starts early.

That's it. That's the whole list. It's a bigger number than the listing suggests, and it's entirely knowable in advance.

The buyers who enjoy it most are the ones who planned the numbers first.

We're happy to go through the numbers for a specific property any time. Contact us.