What it costs to buy a home in Orlando: down payment, closing costs, taxes and insurance

Down payment

The minimum depends on the loan:

• FHA: 3.5% with a credit score of 580 or higher, or 10% with a score from 500 to 579. FHA loans carry their own mortgage insurance.^1,2
• VA: no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance for eligible veterans and service members, as long as the price isn’t above the appraised value.³
• Conventional: you can put down less than 20%, but then you’ll usually pay private mortgage insurance (PMI), which protects the lender.⁴

On Hamlin’s lowest base price of $434,990, that works out to:

Closing costs: Florida’s taxes

Florida taxes the documents recorded when you buy with a mortgage, the deed and the loan. These documentary stamp taxes are usually called “doc stamps” or “deed stamps”:

• Documentary stamp tax on the deed: 70¢ per $100 of the price.⁵ Who pays it is set by the contract; in new construction, check the builder’s purchase agreement.
• Documentary stamp tax on the mortgage: 35¢ per $100 of the loan.⁶
• Intangible tax on the mortgage: a one-time 0.2% of the loan.⁷

On top of those come lender fees, title insurance, recording fees and prepaid taxes and insurance for your escrow account. Builders may offer to cover some closing costs as an incentive, sometimes on the condition that you use their lender; compare the full offer with another lender’s quote.

Property tax and the homestead exemption

If the home is your permanent residence on January 1, Florida’s homestead exemption takes $25,000 off its assessed value for all property taxes, and another $25,000 off the value above $50,000 for taxes other than school taxes.⁸ Apply with the county property appraiser by March 1.⁹

Once you have the exemption, Save Our Homes caps how much the assessed value can rise each year: 3%, or the change in the Consumer Price Index if that’s lower.¹⁰ The cap resets when a home sells, so a new owner is taxed on the full value.¹⁰

Tax rates are set in mills: one mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value. Rates differ by district. In 2026, homes in the communities we cover pay from 13.83 mills in unincorporated Osceola County (district 300) to 18.03 mills in the City of Orlando; each community page shows its rate. Counties value homes as of January 1, so the first bill on a newly built home may cover only the land.

Insurance

Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation puts the average homeowners premium including wind coverage at $3,610 a year in Orange County and $2,940 in Osceola County, as of March 31, 2026.¹¹ Your quote depends on the home, the roof, the deductible and the insurer.

• A new home built to the current Florida Building Code can qualify for wind mitigation discounts; see our safety guide.
• Standard policies don’t cover flooding. If the home is in a high-risk flood zone and you have a federally backed mortgage, flood insurance is required.¹² Each community page shows its flood zone.

Worked example: Hamlin

The lowest-priced plan in Hamlin, in Horizon West, at its base price of $434,990, with 20% down and a 30-year fixed loan at Freddie Mac’s average of 7.32% (week of October 22, 2026).¹³

Plus lender, title and escrow costs, which your lender’s Loan Estimate lists.

Property tax uses Hamlin’s 2026 rate of 16.0306 mills (unincorporated Orange County) after the homestead exemption. Insurance is the Orange County average, not a quote. County fees for garbage, stormwater and street lights add a few hundred dollars a year on the tax bill. To compare this with other communities, see the most affordable communities by monthly cost.

Rules and rates change; this guide isn’t tax, legal or lending advice.