Condo Association Fees in 2026

When buyers encounter a monthly HOA or condo fee, the instinct is to benchmark it against comparable listings and ask whether it is high. That is the wrong question. The right question is whether the fee is adequate — whether it covers what the building actually needs to operate, maintain, and eventually replace its major components.

A high fee in a well-run association is better than a low fee in one that is deferring maintenance and underfunding reserves. Understanding the difference requires looking past the dollar amount.

Where Fees Stand Nationally

Monthly HOA and condo fees vary widely by geography, building age, amenity level, and local insurance costs. Arizona stands out in recent data as having among the highest average monthly HOA fees in the country, at approximately $448 per month. This reflects the state's robust amenity-heavy developments — gated communities, resort-style pools, shared landscaping, and common-area maintenance in high-end Phoenix and Scottsdale complexes.

Texas metro fees tend to run lower, with median condo fees in major markets generally in the $200 to $300 per month range for mid-tier buildings. Florida fees vary broadly — many pre-1990 buildings were operating on dues of $200 to $500 per month before recent reserve-funding mandates; post-reform compliance is pushing many associations toward the higher end of that range or beyond.

These figures are averages across building types and ages. A newer, well-built building with a modest amenity package and a healthy reserve fund may have lower fees than a 40-year-old building with a pool, elevators, and significant deferred maintenance — even in the same market.

What the Fee Covers

A condo association fee typically funds three distinct buckets:

Operating expenses are the day-to-day costs of running the community: management fees, common-area utilities, landscaping and cleaning contracts, small repairs, and administrative overhead. These costs are relatively predictable year to year.

Insurance covers the master policy on the building — property, general liability, and, in relevant markets, wind and flood coverage. Insurance is the line item that has changed most dramatically in recent years. Florida homeowners' insurance rates rose approximately 18% in 2025, reflecting ongoing carrier exits, reinsurance market pressure, and hurricane exposure. Texas saw homeowners' insurance premiums jump approximately 22% in 2023, nearly double the national pace. Those increases flow directly into association operating budgets and, absent a dues increase, squeeze reserves or operating contingencies.

Reserve contributions are the portion of monthly dues set aside for future major repairs and replacements — roofing, elevators, parking decks, pool resurfacing, painting, and similar capital items. This is the bucket most vulnerable to underfunding, and the one with the most direct long-term consequence for owners.

The Adequacy Problem

A fee that feels high may simply reflect honest accounting. A fee that feels low may reflect an association that is not doing honest accounting.

The Community Associations Institute and most reserve specialists use the reserve study as the benchmark for what adequate contributions look like. If the reserve study recommends a $180,000 annual contribution and the operating budget shows $90,000, the association is building its deficiency at $90,000 per year — regardless of whether the monthly fee looks reasonable compared to neighboring buildings.

Fannie Mae uses a minimum floor of 10% of the association's annual budget being allocated to reserves as one of its conditions for purchasing conventional loans on units in a given building. A building where dues are $300 per month with $30 going to reserves clears that threshold — but if the reserve study recommends $60 per month to stay on track, the building is falling behind while technically meeting the lending standard.

The Champlain Towers South association had been collecting dues for decades. The problem was not that it had no fee structure — it was that the fee structure was not producing adequate reserves. The association held approximately $706,000 against a projected capital need of approximately $10.3 million at the time of the 2021 collapse, representing roughly 6.9% funding. The gap between what was collected and what was needed accumulated over many budget cycles where dues were set with an eye toward owner comfort rather than capital adequacy.

How Florida's Post-Surfside Laws Have Changed Fee Dynamics

Florida's legislative response to the Surfside collapse — particularly SB 4-D in 2022, SB 154 in 2023, and HB 1021 in 2024 — has fundamentally altered fee expectations for buildings three stories or taller. Associations that were previously waiving reserve contributions or funding only minimally are now legally required to fund the structural components covered by the Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS). Reserve waivers that were common in prior practice are no longer permitted for SIRS-covered items.

The practical effect: many Florida condo owners have seen dues increases of 10% to 20% in recent years, sometimes accompanied by one-time catch-up assessments. Over 16,000 associations covering approximately 900,000 units were at or beyond 30 years of age as of late 2024, creating unprecedented demand for reserve funding across a large portion of the state's condo stock simultaneously. This is not a failure of the law — it is the law working as intended, surfacing costs that were always real but were not being collected.

HB 913, which took effect in July 2025, extended some SIRS compliance deadlines by two years while maintaining the core reserve-funding mandate. It also required boards to publish minutes and documents online, increasing transparency around how associations are managing the transition.

For buyers in Florida, a fee that appears high relative to pre-2022 norms may simply reflect compliance. A fee that still appears low relative to the building's age and SIRS obligations warrants scrutiny — the reserve obligation exists whether the association is collecting for it or not.

Texas: High Insurance, Low Reserve Accountability

Texas presents a different profile. There is no state law requiring condo associations to fund reserves or conduct reserve studies. Associations set reserve policy by their governing documents and board discretion. Many Texas condo budgets run lean on reserves, expecting to fund major repairs by assessment when they arise.

At the same time, Texas insurance costs have risen sharply. Average homeowners' premiums in the state rose from approximately $2,124 in 2021 to approximately $3,291 by 2024. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association reported average coastal policy premiums around $2,877 as of March 2026. For a condo association with coastal exposure, those premium levels are a substantial and growing share of the operating budget.

A Texas condo fee that looks stable may be masking a reserve-funding gap, particularly in older buildings where the lack of statutory reserve requirements has allowed voluntary underfunding to persist.

Arizona: High Fees, Strong Amenities, Voluntary Reserves

Arizona's high average fee reflects the state's dominant development model: master-planned communities with extensive shared amenities, private roads, pools, and full landscape maintenance. These amenities are real and their operating costs are real.

Reserve funding in Arizona is voluntary — no state law mandates a minimum contribution or a reserve study cadence. Arizona associations with 50 or more units are required to disclose their reserve balances and any existing reserve study to prospective buyers under ARS 33-1260. The disclosure requirement does not mandate any minimum funding level; it simply requires transparency about what exists.

In practice, many Arizona boards budget approximately 10% to 15% of dues to reserves as a matter of fiduciary prudence and to satisfy lender requirements for mortgage eligibility. But voluntary compliance is uneven, and disclosure obligations do not substitute for actual adequacy.

Evaluating a Fee Before You Buy

When you encounter a monthly fee, the evaluation process has three steps:

1. Understand what it covers. Break the budget into its three components — operating, insurance, reserves. What percentage is going to reserves? Does that match what the reserve study recommends?

2. Check the reserve study's percent-funded figure. Below 30% indicates that even if current contributions are adequate going forward, there is a historical shortfall that will eventually require either accelerated contributions or a special assessment.

3. Read the meeting minutes. As discussed in the separate article on reading HOA meeting minutes, the minutes surface deferred repairs and assessment discussions before they appear in formal votes. A fee that looks adequate today may be headed for a catch-up assessment if the minutes show a pattern of deferred maintenance.

This article explains how condo association fees are structured and how to evaluate their adequacy. It is not financial or legal advice. If you have concerns about a specific association's reserve funding, fee structure, or special-assessment exposure, consult a real estate attorney or a qualified reserve specialist.

Upload your condo or HOA documents for a free risk review at CondoSignal. We analyze the budget, reserve study, and financial statements together to give you a clear picture of whether the fee you are paying — or about to pay — reflects what the building actually needs.

Sources

• Florida HB 913 (2025) — Condominium Associations — supports the deadline extensions, online-publication requirements, and reserve-funding mandate discussion
• Florida SB 4-D (2022 Special Session) — Condominium Safety — supports the post-Surfside reserve-funding mandate and SIRS discussion
• Florida HB 1021 (2024) — Condominium Associations — supports the milestone inspection and SIRS-funding reform discussion
• Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1260 — Resale of units; disclosure — supports the Arizona disclosure requirement for associations with 50 or more units