St. Augustine 55+ Retirement Budget & Cost of Living

Real Monthly Cost by Community

St. Augustine's 55+ market splits into two very different cost structures: communities with a Community Development District (CDD) assessment on the tax bill, and communities without one. The HOA fee alone tells you almost nothing about which is cheaper. Here is what is actually confirmed for each community's fees.

Parkland Preserve's CDD is not one fixed number — it ranges $2,390–$3,924/year depending on which construction phase your lot was built in, a $1,534/year spread that adds up to roughly $15,340 over 10 years. Reverie at Silverleaf is the only major new-construction 55+ community in this market confirmed to carry no CDD at all, which is why its combined annual cost (HOA only, $2,376–$2,616) runs lower than Parkland Preserve even though its monthly HOA is higher. WaterSong's HOA is nearly nothing at ~$5/month, but that is the least useful number in the community — its CDD is not published by Mattamy Homes and must be pulled by parcel at the St. Johns County Property Appraiser (sjcpa.us) before you can budget accurately. Villages of Seloy, as a resale-only community with no builder backstop, requires the current HOA fee schedule and a reserve study directly from the HOA — figures aren't publicly listed.

On a $425,000 home, illustrative non-mortgage monthly totals (HOA + CDD + year-1 property tax + estimated insurance) run roughly $989–$1,116/month at Parkland Preserve (low-to-high CDD scenario) versus roughly $950/month at Reverie at Silverleaf with no CDD. Those figures come from the community-specific true cost guides linked above and assume the same $425,000 purchase price for a like-for-like comparison — your actual insurance quote and CDD phase will move the number.

St. Johns County CDD Fees & Property Tax

St. Johns County's 2025 total millage rate is approximately 13.47 mills — $13.47 per $1,000 of taxable value after exemptions. That single number, applied to the standard $50,000 homestead exemption, produces the year-one tax bills below.

These figures do not include CDD — add your community's CDD assessment to get the full annual number. And these figures are your year-one bill, not the seller's current bill. Florida's Save Our Homes Amendment caps annual assessment increases at 3% for existing owners, but that cap resets to zero the moment a home is sold. A seller who has owned for years may show a tax line thousands of dollars below what you will actually pay in year one, because their assessed value never caught up to current market value.

Villages of Seloy sits inside St. Augustine city limits, which adds a city millage (approximately 5.10 mills for 2025) on top of the county rate — a combined rate of roughly 18.57 mills there, versus county-only millage for suburban communities like Parkland Preserve and Reverie at Silverleaf. On a $350,000 home at that combined rate, year-one tax after the homestead exemption runs approximately $5,571/year (~$464/month) — noticeably higher than the same price point would produce outside city limits.

A CDD is a separate government taxing entity created under Florida Statutes Chapter 190 to repay infrastructure bonds — it is not the HOA, it does not go away if you pay the HOA, and it typically runs 20–30 years from bond issuance. It shows up as its own line item on your property tax bill, and two homes in the same community on different construction phases can carry meaningfully different CDD amounts.

What Drives Cost Up or Down Here

Four factors move the total number more than anything else in this market. First, CDD presence and phase: Parkland Preserve and WaterSong both carry CDD assessments that vary by which construction phase a specific lot was built in, while Reverie at Silverleaf has none — that single variable can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over a 10-year hold. Second, city versus county limits: Villages of Seloy's location inside St. Augustine proper adds a city millage on top of the county rate that suburban, unincorporated communities do not carry. Third, flood zone exposure: WaterSong's riverfront setting on the St. Johns River makes flood insurance — a cost entirely separate from HOA, CDD, or homeowners insurance — a real budget line to confirm before touring, while inland communities like Parkland Preserve and Reverie rarely face the same exposure. Fourth, resale versus new construction: Villages of Seloy's builder is no longer in business, so every purchase there is a resale with no builder warranty and higher special-assessment risk if HOA reserves are underfunded — a reserve study and HOA financials become required reading before an offer, in a way they are not for active new-construction communities.

None of these factors show up cleanly on a listing sheet. The honest total cost comparison is community- and parcel-specific — the fastest way to get an accurate number for a home you're seriously considering is to pull the parcel at sjcpa.us and request the HOA and CDD disclosures directly.