Buying a Home in Miami-Dade · What You Are Told, What You Sign, What You Pay

When you borrow to buy, two federal documents frame the loan. You receive a Loan Estimate within three business days of applying, and a Closing Disclosure at least three business days before you close. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes both.

The first comes at the start: "The lender must provide you a Loan Estimate within three business days of receiving your application." The second comes at the end: "The lender is required to give you the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before you close on the mortgage loan."

The closing itself, in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's words, "is when you and all the other parties in a mortgage loan transaction sign the necessary documents".

Sources: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, "What is a Loan Estimate?", last reviewed August 9, 2024; "What is a Closing Disclosure?", last reviewed May 2, 2023; "What is a mortgage 'closing?' What happens at the closing?", last reviewed February 2, 2024. Read October 4 and 5, 2026.

You need flood insurance in Florida when your lender requires it: for any federally backed mortgage on a property inside a Special Flood Hazard Area, Miami-Dade County states. Your homeowners' policy does not cover flood damage. A flood policy you buy with a loan takes effect at the loan closing, if you apply and pay for it by then.

Miami-Dade County states: "Flood insurance is required for any federally backed mortgage in a Special Flood Hazard Area."

That area is defined by federal regulation as "the land in the flood plain within a community subject to a 1 percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year". The flood maps mark it with zones the regulation names, among them AE, AH and VE. "The current FEMA maps became effective on September 11, 2009", by Miami-Dade County's page, which also offers a tool to see the zone of an address.

When a policy takes effect is a federal rule too. In general a new policy of the National Flood Insurance Program becomes effective on the 30th calendar day after the application and the payment of the premium. A purchase with a loan is an exception: the coverage "shall be effective as of the time of the loan closing" when the policy is applied for and paid at or before that closing.

The seller's flood disclosure of chapter 5 carries one more sentence for the buyer: "Homeowners' insurance policies do not include coverage for damage resulting from floods."

What wind and flood insurance cost on average in Miami-Dade County is in the Coral Gables guide, in its chapter on the cost of owning.

Sources: Miami-Dade County, "Flood Zone Maps"; 44 CFR 59.1 and 61.11(b) and (d), eCFR current; Florida Statutes § 689.302. Read October 4, 2026.

Cost of Owning in Coral Gables → · Market Reports →

If you are buying a resale condo in Florida, you get the association's documents and 7 days to cancel after you sign and receive them, not counting Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. From a developer you get 15 days. A building of three habitable stories or more also owes a milestone inspection and a structural integrity reserve study. That is Florida Statutes §§ 718.503, 553.899 and 718.112, as read in October 2026.

The documents, and a period to cancel. A buyer under contract for a resale unit "is entitled, at the seller's expense, to a current copy of" the association's documents: the declaration, the articles and the bylaws and rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the summary of the milestone inspection where one applies, the most recent structural integrity reserve study, and the association's "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers". The contract tells the buyer of a right to cancel within 7 days, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays excluded, after signing it and receiving them; from a developer, 15 days. Fla. Stat. § 718.503.

The milestone inspection. A condominium or cooperative building "that is three habitable stories or more in height" must have one "by December 31 of the year in which the building reaches 30 years of age", "and every 10 years thereafter". Fla. Stat. § 553.899.

The structural integrity reserve study. An association "must have a structural integrity reserve study completed at least every 10 years" for each building of three habitable stories or more. It covers, at a minimum, the roof, the structure, fire protection, plumbing, electrical systems, waterproofing and exterior painting, and windows and exterior doors. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(g).

What the contract itself says. A contract entered into after December 31, 2024 states, in conspicuous type, whether the association is required to have a milestone inspection or a structural integrity reserve study, and whether it has completed it. Fla. Stat. § 718.503.

Sources read October 4, 2026.

Condos and Townhomes in Coral Gables → · Market Reports →

At the closing, you and the other parties sign the documents of the sale and the loan, and you provide an affidavit that Florida law requires of every buyer of real property. Most lenders require a lender's title insurance policy, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau states. You can sign from somewhere else: a notary located in Florida may notarize online.

The closing, in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's words, "is the last step in buying and financing a home".

Every buyer provides an affidavit. Florida law: "At the time of purchase, a buyer of real property in this state must provide an affidavit signed under penalty of perjury". It belongs to the part of the statutes that chapter 13 describes. The statute has the Florida Real Estate Commission establish the form.

Title insurance. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes two policies. An owner's policy "protects the homeowner if someone sues and says they have a claim against the home from before the homeowner purchased it". And: "Most lenders require you to purchase a lender's title insurance policy, which protects the amount they lend." In Florida the premium is set by a rule of the State; the Sellers Guide gives it.

In Miami-Dade, who pays for the owner's policy is the contract's choice, and the standard form puts the choice in one paragraph. In the residential contracts of Florida Realtors and The Florida Bar (revision of December 2024), paragraph 9(c) offers three options, and the parties check one:

The form sets no default for this choice.

Signing from somewhere else. Florida law allows a notarization online: a notary located in Florida may notarize "regardless of whether the principal or any witnesses are physically located in this state at the time of the online notarization".

Sources: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, "What is a mortgage 'closing?' What happens at the closing?" and "What is owner's title insurance?", last reviewed October 19, 2023; Florida Statutes § 692.204(6) and § 117.265(1). Read October 4 and 5, 2026. Florida Realtors/The Florida Bar, Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase and "AS IS" Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase, Rev. 12/24, paragraph 9(c), read October 25, 2026.

What does title insurance cost? →

Yes. After you buy, Florida assesses the home again at its just value as of January 1 of the following year, so your property tax will not be the seller's (Florida Statutes § 193.155). Your tax is the taxable value times the millage of the place: in Miami-Dade County's 2025 adopted table, from 15.5108 mills in Key Biscayne to 20.3778 in downtown Miami.

After a sale the property is "assessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership". The tax a listing shows is the seller's. That is what the disclosure summary of chapter 5 tells the buyer.

How Julian Acosta reads this. The line to read first on any home is the tax. A listing shows the seller's bill; yours is set again the January after you close. And where the home sits changes it: between Key Biscayne and downtown Miami the 2025 rates are almost five mills apart, and a mill is a dollar a year on each thousand of taxable value. Two homes at the same price can carry different bills.

How it is calculated. The Florida Department of Revenue gives the equation in three lines: "Just Value - Assessment Limits = Assessed Value", "Assessed Value - Exemptions = Taxable Value" and "Taxable Value X Millage Rate = Total Tax Liability".

The millage depends on where the property is. The Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser publishes each year the total millage of every taxing jurisdiction; a mill is one dollar on each thousand of taxable value. The markets of this site lie in seven of them. In the 2025 adopted table the totals read: Key Biscayne 15.5108; unincorporated Miami-Dade, where High Pines, Ponce-Davis and part of the South Miami market are, 16.9317; Pinecrest 17.5257; Coral Gables 18.1852; Miami Beach 18.7601, or 19.4906 under the city's second code; the City of South Miami 18.9727; and the City of Miami, where Coconut Grove and Brickell are, 19.9878, or 20.3778 inside its Downtown Development Authority's district.

What the bill adds. Non-ad valorem assessments, which the Florida Department of Revenue defines as charges "that local governments (county, municipality, or special district) levy on property on a unit basis, rather than on value".

When it is due. Taxes are "due and payable on November 1 of each year" and "delinquent on April 1 following the year in which they are assessed". Paying early is discounted, from 4 percent in November down to 1 percent in February.

Sources: Florida Statutes § 193.155(3)(a), § 197.333, § 197.162(1); Florida Department of Revenue, frequently asked questions 1663 and 1666; Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser, "2025 Adopted Millage Rates". Read October 4 and 5, 2026.

Some foreign buyers, not all, are restricted by Florida's statutes. A part of chapter 692, enacted in 2023, restricts what it calls a foreign principal of seven foreign countries of concern, and for a person its test is domicile, not nationality. Every buyer of Florida real property provides an affidavit under it.

The seven, in the statute's words: "the People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Cuba, the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro, or the Syrian Arab Republic" (Florida Statutes § 692.201(3), 2026). For a person, a foreign principal is "Any person who is domiciled in a foreign country of concern and is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States" (§ 692.201(4)(d)). The definition also reaches those countries' governments and political parties, entities organized or based there, and, in the 2026 edition, a controlling interest any of them holds in an entity formed to own Florida real property.

What the part restricts, by section of the 2026 Florida Statutes:

Both of the last two sections allow a natural person one exception: one residential property of up to 2 acres. It must be more than 5 miles from any military installation, the person must hold a current United States visa not limited to tourist travel or have been granted asylum, and the purchase must be in that person's name. An owner that section 692.204 covers registers with the Florida Department of Commerce within 30 days of acquiring the property.

At the time of purchase, every buyer of real property in Florida provides an affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, that the buyer is not a person the law prohibits from buying it (§ 692.204(6)). It is the affidavit of chapter 9.

Source: Florida Statutes §§ 692.201, 692.202, 692.203 and 692.204, 2026 edition. Read October 25, 2026.

Can I buy a house in Florida from out of state? →

Will my property tax change after I buy a house in Florida? Yes. Florida assesses a property again, at its just value, as of January 1 of the year after a change of ownership. The law has the buyer told so in writing before signing: the seller's current property tax is not the amount the buyer may owe after the purchase.

How long does it take to close on a home in Miami? No statute sets a length, and this guide states no typical figure: none comes from a public record. With a loan, federal rules set two waits: the Loan Estimate arrives within three business days of the application, and the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before the closing, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau states.

Every rule in this guide was read at the source named beside it on October 4 or 5, 2026.