A buyer comparing two nearly identical new-construction listings north of St. Augustine will often see the same square footage, the same builder tier, the same list price down to a few thousand dollars. What they will not see on the listing itself is the line that shows up weeks later on the closing disclosure or the first mortgage statement: a Community Development District assessment that can add anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars a year, stacked on top of an HOA that has nothing to do with it. Two homes priced the same on the portal can carry monthly payments that differ by two or three hundred dollars, and the buyer usually finds out after they are already under contract.
That gap is not a pricing mistake. It is a financing structure, and once you understand how it works, it becomes one of the more useful things you can check before you fall in love with a floor plan.
A CDD, or Community Development District, is a special-purpose local government created to finance the roads, water and sewer lines, drainage systems, and amenity centers inside a master-planned community. The district issues bonds to pay for that infrastructure up front, then each home inside the district repays a share of that bond over time through an annual assessment. That assessment is separate from, and stacked on top of, any HOA dues the community also charges.
It is easy to confuse the two, and buyers frequently do. A CDD fee is not a homeowners association fee. It is typically billed through the property tax bill and, if your lender escrows taxes and insurance, gets folded into your monthly payment without ever showing up as its own filter on a real estate search. A home that looks affordable on price alone can carry a materially different total monthly cost once taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and a CDD assessment are added together. None of that shows up until someone runs the actual numbers for that specific address, which is exactly why it is worth doing before you write an offer rather than after.
Most of the large master-planned communities feeding new construction north of St. Augustine, in the 32092 corridor and the World Golf Village area, sit inside a CDD. Shearwater does. TrailMark does, with HOA dues running around $1,650 a year on top of the district assessment. Beachwalk does, and its fee structure is worth walking through in detail because it stacks more layers than most.
SilverLeaf is the exception, and it is a large one. Spanning roughly 8,500 acres in northwest St. Johns County, it is one of the few master plans of its size in the area with no CDD at all. Builders including Dream Finders Homes are active there, with Silver Landing at SilverLeaf currently pricing single-family homes from the low $500,000s into the mid $600,000s. The absence of a CDD does not mean the absence of a homeowners association. SilverLeaf still carries HOA dues like any managed community. What it does not carry is a bond repayment line that shows up as a separate annual assessment, which is the part buyers rarely think to ask about until they are comparing two contracts side by side.
Beachwalk is the clearest example of how many separate charges can sit on top of a single home price, because its structure has four distinct components rather than two.
| Fee type | What it covers | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Club capital contribution | One-time buy-in to the Beachwalk Club and its 14-acre lagoon | $3,750 to $5,000, based on home type |
| Monthly club dues | Ongoing access to the lagoon, pools, and clubhouse | $201 to $315 per month |
| HOA dues | Sub-neighborhood specific, varies by section | $574 to $1,143 per quarter |
| CDD assessment | Bond repayment for roads, utilities, and infrastructure | $1,200 to $5,000 per year, varies by sub-neighborhood |
Add those together and a Beachwalk buyer can be looking at a one-time contribution in the thousands, plus recurring monthly costs from club dues, HOA, and CDD that easily run into several hundred dollars a month before principal and interest ever enter the picture. That is the trade for a genuinely distinctive amenity package, and for a lot of buyers it is worth it. The point is not that Beachwalk is overpriced. The point is that none of those four lines appears in the list price, and a buyer shopping by sticker number alone has no way to see them.
Here is the part that gets missed even by buyers who know to ask about CDDs at all: not every CDD assessment carries the same weight, because the bond behind it amortizes over time. A community platted and bonded a decade ago may have already repaid a meaningful share of its original infrastructure debt, leaving a smaller annual assessment made up mostly of operations and maintenance. A section of the same master plan that broke ground more recently is often still paying full freight on a bond that has years left to run.
That means two homes inside the same CDD, in different phases of the same community, can carry noticeably different assessments depending on when that particular section was financed. It also means a resale home in an older phase can sometimes be a better carrying-cost value than a brand new build a few streets away, even at a similar price, simply because more of its bond has already been paid down. This is not something a portal search surfaces. It is something you ask the district or the seller's HOA management company directly, and it is worth asking before you assume a CDD home is automatically the more expensive option long term.
Pricing data for the 32092 zip code has shown a typical home value sitting somewhere between roughly $463,000 and $510,000 depending on the source and the month measured in 2026, with most readings clustering around the high $400,000s. That range tells a buyer roughly what a home costs to purchase. It says nothing about what it costs to carry, because that number depends entirely on which specific community, and which specific phase within that community, the address sits in.
A buyer aiming for a home near that median in SilverLeaf and a buyer aiming for the same price point in a CDD-bonded section of Beachwalk or TrailMark are not comparing equivalent monthly obligations, even though the purchase price on the contract might look nearly identical. The number that determines affordability is not the one on the listing. It is the one you get after adding taxes, HOA, and any CDD assessment together for that exact address, which is a calculation worth doing before you write an offer, not after you are already in escrow.
A few questions, asked directly to the builder, the HOA management company, or the CDD itself, answer most of what a listing price cannot:
None of these questions changes whether a home is a good fit. They change whether the monthly number you plan for is the number you will actually pay.
Is a CDD fee the same as an HOA fee? No. They are legally and financially separate. A CDD is a government district repaying bonds for infrastructure, billed through your property tax bill. An HOA is a private association funding community upkeep and amenities, billed separately.
Does a CDD fee ever go away? The bond portion can amortize and eventually be paid off, at which point the assessment typically drops to cover only ongoing operations and maintenance. Structures vary by district, so this is worth confirming for a specific address rather than assuming.
Does buying in a no-CDD community always mean a lower total cost? Not automatically. A no-CDD community still carries an HOA, and some no-CDD HOAs charge more to cover amenities that a CDD would otherwise fund. Comparing the all-in monthly cost, not just the presence or absence of a CDD, is what actually answers the question.
If you are weighing new construction against resale anywhere north of St. Augustine, from SilverLeaf to TrailMark to Beachwalk, Tara Belanger can walk you through the actual fee stack for a specific address before you write an offer, not after. Let's Connect.
Choosing Tara means partnering with a knowledgeable advocate who understands both the local market and the relocation process firsthand. Her certifications in luxury marketing and listing strategy ensure your property receives elevated exposure and precise positioning. With strong relationships among builders and industry professionals, she provides access and insight beyond the public market. Every transaction is handled with clarity, discretion, and a commitment to exceptional results.
