464,858 closed sales with fee data · 2020–2026
Because they have risen roughly seventeen times faster than the condos they are attached to. Here is the arithmetic, from the closing documents rather than the headlines.
Short answer: The average association fee on a Miami-Dade condo sale rose from $650 a month in 2020 to $1,159 in 2026 — a 78% increase. Over the same period the average sale price in that group rose about 3%. Fees now consume 2.78% of a condo’s value every year, against 1.85% in 2022.
This page uses South Florida closings, because that is the data I hold: 464,858 closed sales carrying a reported association fee, recorded between June 2019 and November 2026. The pattern is Miami-Dade’s. The direction is not unique to it.
Every Miami-Dade condo closing with a reported fee, normalised to a monthly figure, comparing the same 1 January to 11 November window in each year:
| Year | Sales | Avg fee / month | Per sqft / year | Avg sale price | Fee as % of price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 7,090 | $650 | $6.43 | $402,917 | 2.36% |
| 2021 | 14,734 | $791 | $7.53 | $558,628 | 2.19% |
| 2022 | 13,285 | $790 | $7.95 | $631,029 | 1.85% |
| 2023 | 9,401 | $863 | $8.91 | $632,969 | 1.99% |
| 2024 | 8,146 | $988 | $10.12 | $646,617 | 2.24% |
| 2025 | 6,972 | $1,093 | $11.24 | $655,819 | 2.53% |
| 2026 | 7,288 | $1,159 | $11.83 | $648,878 | 2.78% |
Miami-Dade condominium closings with a reported association fee, 1 January to 11 November of each year.
That is the whole answer, and it is worth seeing as money rather than percentages. Take the 2022 fee as the baseline and add up what the increases since then actually cost, on an annualised basis:
| Year | Avg fee | Above 2022 | Extra per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $863 | +$73 | $876 |
| 2024 | $988 | +$198 | $2,376 |
| 2025 | $1,093 | +$303 | $3,636 |
| 2026 | $1,159 | +$369 | $4,428 |
| Cumulative extra paid, 2023–2026 | $11,316 | ||
Over the same four years the average sale price in this group rose from $631,029 to $648,878 — a gain of $17,849.
So roughly 63% of four years of price appreciation was consumed by fee increases alone, before a single special assessment, tax bill or insurance renewal. That is why the market feels worse to owners than the price charts suggest, and it connects directly to something I found in the closed-sale data: sales under $500,000 have fallen by half since 2022. A fee competes with the mortgage payment for the same buyer’s budget, and at the entry level there is no slack.
The common assumption is that old buildings have the high fees — ageing concrete, deferred work, assessments. In the closings, it is the reverse:
| Building completed | Sales | Avg fee / month | Per sqft / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1980 | 2,691 | $837 | $10.54 |
| 1980s | 1,127 | $925 | $8.69 |
| 1990s | 694 | $1,302 | $10.65 |
| 2000s | 1,795 | $1,434 | $13.96 |
| 2010s | 770 | $1,629 | $15.42 |
| 2020s | 230 | $1,921 | $17.13 |
Miami-Dade condominium closings in 2026, by decade of completion.
A condo in a 2020s tower carries an average fee of $1,921 a month — more than double the $837 of a pre-1980 building. Age is not what drives the monthly number. Staffed amenities are: valet, concierge, security desks, spas, multiple pools, package rooms. Those are payroll, and payroll recurs every month whether or not anything needs repairing.
There is a second reading hiding in the last column. Per square foot, the cheapest decade is the 1980s at $8.69 a year, while pre-1980 buildings cost $10.54 — more than the 1990s. Older buildings tend to have smaller units, so a modest monthly fee lands on fewer square feet. The headline fee looks affordable; the cost per foot of what you own does not.
| City | Avg fee 2022 | Avg fee 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hallandale Beach | $656 | $979 | +49% |
| Miami | $720 | $1,058 | +47% |
| Miami Beach | $946 | $1,383 | +46% |
| Aventura | $1,072 | $1,564 | +46% |
| Hollywood | $676 | $989 | +46% |
| Sunny Isles Beach | $1,170 | $1,575 | +35% |
Condominium closings with a reported fee, 1 January to 11 November, 2022 against 2026. Cities with at least 40 qualifying sales in each year.
The striking thing is how little the range varies. Six cities with very different price points, and five of them landed between 46% and 49%. This is not a story about one badly-run association or one troubled building — it is close to uniform across the market.
Sunny Isles Beach is the outlier at 35%, and its 2022 starting point was already the highest of the six. Aventura now carries the second-highest absolute fee at $1,564 a month, on a market whose median sale price sits near $450,000.
I can show you what associations charged on every sale that closed. I cannot show you, from this data, why any individual board raised its budget. What I can say is that the increase is broad, steep, and concentrated in the years after Florida tightened the rules around structural reserves — associations that had been deferring reserve funding no longer could, and insurance renewals moved in the same direction over the same period.
What the numbers settle is the question people actually ask. Fees are not high because of one building, one city, or one decade of construction. They are high because the cost of running a Florida condominium has repriced across the board, and sale prices have not moved with it.
A buyer is underwriting a total monthly cost. At current rates, every extra $100 of monthly fee removes roughly $15,000–$18,000 from what a financed buyer can borrow against the same payment. A unit with a $1,900 fee and a unit with a $900 fee are not in the same market, whatever the comps say.
Two identical lines in the same building can carry different fees after a reserve study or an amenity upgrade. Across buildings, a “comp” that ignores the fee is comparing two different products.
Every figure above is an average across hundreds of associations. Yours has its own budget, its own reserve position and its own recent history, and that is the number a buyer will price against. It is also the first thing I look at before suggesting what a unit should list for.
I will value your unit against its own building’s closed sales — carrying cost included, not a city average. Free, private, and no call unless you ask for one.
Get a building-level valuationCondos that closed in Miami-Dade County in 2026 carried an average association fee of $1,159 a month, which works out to $11.83 per square foot per year. In 2020 the same average was $650 a month, or $6.43 per square foot.
Fees have risen far faster than prices. Across Miami-Dade condo closings, the average monthly fee rose 47% between 2022 and 2026 while the average sale price in the same group rose about 3%. Fees now consume 2.78% of a condo’s sale price each year, up from 1.85% in 2022.
No, the opposite. Among Miami-Dade condos closing in 2026, buildings completed before 1980 averaged $837 a month while buildings completed in the 2020s averaged $1,921 a month, more than double. Newer towers carry more staffed amenities, and those cost more to run than age alone.
Of the cities measured, Sunny Isles Beach and Aventura are highest. Condos closing in 2026 averaged $1,575 a month in Sunny Isles Beach and $1,564 in Aventura, against $979 in Hallandale Beach and $989 in Hollywood.
Across the South Florida cities measured, average monthly fees rose between 35% and 49% from 2022 to 2026. Hallandale Beach rose 49%, Miami 47%, Miami Beach 46%, Aventura 46%, Hollywood 46% and Sunny Isles Beach 35%.
They change what a buyer can afford to pay. A fee is a permanent monthly cost that competes directly with the mortgage payment, so when fees rise faster than prices the price a buyer can support falls. Two units with identical finishes and very different fees are not comparable sales.
Related: why Miami condo prices are falling, what Aventura condos are worth today, and how I price and sell South Florida condos.
Method and sources. Figures come from my own closed-sale database. 464,858 closed South Florida sales carry a reported association fee, recorded between 13 June 2019 and 12 November 2026. Tables cover condominium closings only, with a reported fee, living area between 300 and 10,000 square feet and a sale price between $50,000 and $20,000,000. Fees reported quarterly, semi-annually or annually are converted to a monthly equivalent; monthly figures outside $50–$5,000 are excluded as data-entry errors. To keep years comparable, every year counts only closings between 1 January and 11 November. Averages are means, not medians. Fee reporting is not universal — roughly a third of closed records carry a fee — so these describe sales where a fee was disclosed. Analysis run 13 November 2026.