Sarasota HOA and CDD fees by community

It depends far more on what you buy than on where in Sarasota you buy. Across the communities I track, the median single-family home pays roughly $4,368 a year in combined HOA and CDD costs, while the median condominium pays roughly $21,360. A condo fee is not a more expensive version of a house fee, it is buying different things: the building's master insurance policy, structural reserves, exterior and roof maintenance, elevators, staff, and often water and sewer. Compare a Sarasota condo against other condos and a Sarasota house against other houses, never one against the other.

Almost none do. Of the 97 Sarasota communities I track, 93 carry no CDD assessment at all, only Bird Key, Esplanade at Skye Ranch, Promenade Estates, and Huntington Pointe do. That is the opposite of Parrish and Wellen Park, where a CDD is close to universal because those are newer master plans that financed their own roads and drainage with municipal bonds. Most of Sarasota was built before that financing model became standard, so there is no bond to repay on your tax bill.

Because the fee covers the building itself. A single-family HOA maintains shared landscaping and amenities while you insure and maintain your own roof, walls, and exterior. A condominium association insures and maintains the entire structure on every owner's behalf, and Florida now requires buildings three stories and taller to complete milestone inspections and fund a structural integrity reserve study, which removed the ability to waive reserve funding. Older waterfront buildings with fewer units spread all of that across a smaller owner base, which is why the top of the Sarasota range runs so far above a master-planned community.

A little over 40 percent of the Sarasota communities I track sit in FEMA zone AE, a special flood hazard area where a federally backed mortgage lender will require flood insurance. That is a much larger share than Parrish or Lakewood Ranch, where nearly everything is zone X, and it reflects how much of Sarasota sits on or near the bay and the barrier islands. Zone is assigned by parcel, not by community, so confirm the exact address rather than assuming from the neighborhood.

For a CDD, pull the property on the Sarasota County Property Appraiser website and read the non-ad valorem assessments section of the most recent tax bill, where every assessment is listed with its exact amount. For an HOA, and for a condominium especially, ask for the association's current budget and most recent financial statements rather than relying on a listing figure, since that is where reserve funding and any planned special assessment will show up. Send me an address and I will pull both.