HOA & GOVERNANCE
From Listings to Living
Two oceanfront buildings on the same street, both built in the early 1980s, both 18 stories. One charges $640 a month. The other charges $1,310. Neither has a better pool. The difference is almost entirely in two line items the listing never shows you: the insurance renewal and the reserve schedule.
Understanding why HOA fees are so high is mostly a matter of seeing what the association is buying on your behalf, and how much of the bill is being paid now versus deferred to a future owner. Buyers get caught on that second part.
Leevli EditorialLast updated 2026-09-17
The national picture is smaller than the horror stories suggest. Using 2024 American Community Survey data released in September 2025, the Census Bureau found 21.6 million of 86.6 million owner households paying a condo or HOA fee, with a national median of $135 a month. About a quarter of those households paid under $50. Roughly 3 million paid more than $500.
That median is dominated by lot-based subdivisions where the association mows a common strip and maintains an entrance sign. It tells you almost nothing about a high-rise. The geographic spread is a better clue: in New York, 64% of fee-paying owner households were above $500 a month, and in the District of Columbia and Hawaii close to half were. Fees cluster high where buildings are tall, old, coastal, or all three.
So before deciding your fee is outrageous, identify what class of association you're in. Then look at the five things that actually move the number.
This is the largest recent mover in condominium budgets, and it is not a local problem.
Nationally, the Treasury Department's Federal Insurance Office reported in January 2025 that average homeowners insurance premiums grew 8.7% faster than inflation between 2018 and 2022, based on data from more than 330 insurers covering roughly 246 million policies. Households in the 20% of ZIP codes with the greatest expected climate losses paid an average of $2,321 a year, about 82% more than those in the lowest-risk fifth, and their nonrenewal rates ran roughly 80% higher.
The association-level numbers are steeper. Analyzing quarterly data filed with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in September 2024 that the average commercial condominium association policy in Florida went from $72,570 in June 2022 to $147,381 in the second quarter of 2024, a 103% increase across 13,841 associations. The same analysis noted that about half of the state's roughly 27,500 associations either carried no property insurance or bought from surplus lines carriers outside that reporting.
Those are 2022 to 2024 reference points in a market that moves every renewal cycle, so check the association's most recent declarations page rather than assuming the trend continued or reversed. The mechanism, though, is stable: the master policy premium is a budget line, and it gets divided among owners by the percentage of ownership set in the declaration. When it doubles, your fee absorbs it.
Two things worth knowing beyond the premium itself. First, the deductible structure matters as much as the premium; a percentage wind deductible on a $90 million insured value is a number no reserve account is built for. Second, what the master policy covers determines what your own policy has to. We cover the split in our guide to condo association insurance and the policy document itself in our walkthrough of the master insurance policy.
A reserve study projects the remaining useful life and replacement cost of major components and compares that to cash on hand. The output is percent funded. It is the most honest number in an association's file, and for decades plenty of boards kept it low on purpose, because low reserves mean low fees and low fees sell units.
Association Reserves, analyzing more than 100,000 reserve studies across 25,000-plus properties in its April 2026 industry report, classified 34% of associations as weak, meaning under 30% funded. Only 25.7% were strong at 70% or better. The firm links weak funding to a high likelihood of special assessments, and found that associations refreshing their studies every three years generated about half as many new special assessment recommendations as those refreshing every five.
The catch-up is visible in budgets. Reserve contributions in the firm's dataset ran roughly 15% to 40% of the annual budget in 2015 and 15% to 45% in 2025, with inflation from 2021 through 2024 cited as the primary driver of the increase. Nothing about the building changed. The cost of replacing it did.
This is the single most important reason a fee can be high and still be a good deal. An association funding its reserves properly is charging you for wear that is happening whether or not anyone bills for it. One that isn't is quietly issuing you an IOU, which is the core argument in our piece on the honest downsides of HOA living.
After the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse, several states tightened structural inspection and reserve rules. Florida's is the most consequential, and it explains a large share of the fee increases owners there have seen since 2024.
Under Florida Statutes § 718.112, residential condominium associations must complete a structural integrity reserve study at least every 10 years for each building three habitable stories or higher. The study has to cover the roof, the load-bearing structure and primary structural systems, fireproofing and fire protection systems, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, and any other item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost above $25,000 that affects structural integrity. Associations existing before July 1, 2022 had to complete one by the end of 2025.
The part that hits the fee is the funding rule. For budgets adopted after December 31, 2024, an association subject to the SIRS requirement generally may not vote to provide no reserves, or less than required reserves, for the components the study identifies. The waiver that had absorbed decades of underfunding is gone for those components.
Florida is the sharpest example, not the only one. Reserve study and reserve funding requirements vary considerably by state, and several changed after 2021, so check your own state's condominium or planned community act rather than assuming the Florida rules apply to you.
Some of the gap between two fees is just scope, and comparing raw dollar amounts hides it. Typical inclusions that vary building to building:
Note what is not in the fee: your property taxes and your own insurance policy. Those are billed separately, and they matter for how a lender sizes your loan. The relationship between assessments and qualifying is its own subject, covered in how HOA fees interact with your mortgage.
The least discussed driver is arithmetic. A roof, an elevator modernization and a fire alarm upgrade cost roughly the same in a 28-unit building as in a 140-unit building of similar construction. Split the same invoice five ways fewer and the per-unit number is five times larger.
This is why small older buildings, particularly boutique mid-rises and converted properties, often carry fees that look wildly out of line with their square footage. They're not mismanaged. They just have a thin denominator. Owner delinquency makes it worse, because unpaid assessments get absorbed by everyone still paying, which is one of the reasons associations escalate collections the way they do. We walk through what happens when HOA fees go unpaid.
Usually yes, within limits, and the limits come from two places: your governing documents and your state statute.
California sets one of the clearest statutory ceilings. Under Civil Code § 5605, a board may not impose a regular assessment more than 20% greater than the prior fiscal year's, and may not impose special assessments that in the aggregate exceed 5% of the association's budgeted gross expenses for that year, without approval by a majority of a quorum of members. Those board-level powers also depend on the association having distributed the required annual budget report. A stricter cap applies to deed-restricted affordable units in developments whose declarations were recorded on or after January 1, 2025.
Florida takes a different approach. Rather than capping the increase, § 718.112 requires that when proposed assessments exceed 115% of the prior year's, the board must also present a substitute budget stripped of discretionary expenditures, with members able to vote on it.
Many states impose neither. In those, the answer is whatever the declaration and bylaws say, which is another reason to read them before closing rather than after the first increase notice.
Raw monthly dollars is the wrong unit. Use this instead:
Run that and the ranking often flips. The building with the higher fee is frequently the one where nothing is waiting to be billed.
A high assessment is a symptom, not a diagnosis. It can mean a coastal insurance market, a mandatory reserve catch-up, an amenity package you'll actually use, or a small building carrying big-building costs. It can also mean a board covering for years of deferred decisions. Only the documents distinguish them.
Ask for the current budget, the most recent reserve study, the insurance declarations page and the last two years of board minutes before you write an offer. If you're shopping in a market where all of this is in play at once, our Aventura neighborhood guide is a useful place to compare buildings side by side before you narrow to one address.
The budget shows you one year. An owner who has been paying the fee for several years can tell you which direction it has been moving and what the board said each time.
Listings show the property, but they rarely explain the lived reality around it. On Leevli, a mover can explore the city, review neighborhood and building information, and ask a verified resident the specific questions that remain unanswered. That human layer helps readers know what to investigate before signing a lease, making an offer, or choosing between two addresses.
The Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey data, released in September 2025, puts the national median at $135 a month across 21.6 million fee-paying owner households. About a quarter paid under $50. That median is pulled down by lot-based subdivisions that mow a common strip, so it is close to useless as a benchmark for a condominium tower.
In most buildings the answer is one of three line items: the master insurance renewal, a reserve contribution that was raised to catch up on years of underfunding, or a state law that removed the board's ability to underfund reserves. Ask for the adopted budget side by side with last year's. The increase will be concentrated in a small number of lines rather than spread evenly.
Usually yes, within limits set by your governing documents and your state statute. California's Civil Code § 5605 bars a board from raising the regular assessment more than 20% above the prior fiscal year, or levying special assessments totaling more than 5% of budgeted gross expenses, without a member vote. Florida instead requires a substitute budget when proposed assessments exceed 115% of the prior year. Many states impose neither limit.
It varies enough that comparing raw dollar figures is misleading. Common inclusions are water, sewer and trash, sometimes basic cable or internet, staffing such as a front desk or on-site maintenance, amenity operation and service contracts, and in a condominium the roof, exterior walls and structural systems. Your property taxes and your own unit policy are never included. They are billed separately.
The association builds a budget, then divides it among owners by the percentage of ownership set in the recorded declaration. In many condominiums that percentage tracks unit square footage, which is why a larger unit pays more for the same elevator. The declaration governs, so two buildings with identical budgets can allocate the cost very differently between their units.
Association Reserves found reserve contributions running roughly 15% to 45% of the annual budget in its 2025 data, up from 15% to 40% in 2015, with inflation from 2021 through 2024 cited as the main driver. The better test is percent funded. The same firm classifies associations under 30% funded as weak and found 34% of them in that range.
Arithmetic. A roof, an elevator modernization or a fire alarm upgrade costs about the same in a 28-unit building as in a 140-unit building of similar construction, but the invoice is split among five times fewer owners. Boutique mid-rises and converted properties routinely carry fees that look out of line with their square footage for this reason alone, without anything being mismanaged.
It can be. A fee held below what the building needs keeps reserves thin, and thin reserves correlate strongly with special assessments later. Association Reserves also found that associations refreshing their reserve studies every three years produced about half as many new special assessment recommendations as those refreshing every five. Read the percent funded before you treat a low fee as savings.
Under Florida Statutes § 718.112, residential condominium associations must complete one at least every 10 years for each building three habitable stories or higher. It covers the roof, load-bearing structure, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, plus any item over $25,000 affecting structural integrity. Associations existing before July 1, 2022 had to complete one by the end of 2025.
Convert both to fee per square foot per month, then subtract the market cost of anything one building bundles and the other does not. After that, read percent funded rather than the reserve balance, find the reserve contribution as a share of the operating budget, ask for the insurance renewal date and deductible, and pull five years of special assessment history. The ranking often flips.
Editorial review: verify current federal and state law, insurance regulations, HOA and condominium statutes, and lender guidelines before relying on any single claim. This article is informational and does not constitute legal, financial, tax or insurance advice.
