Episode 2 · Property Types & Supply Dynamics
Surfside Homes: Size, Age, Land, Tax Cap, Owners
Surfside is an oceanfront town where condo buildings outnumber houses, and the houses sit on small lots of nearly the same size. This page shows what is built here, how big and how old it is, how much of a house's value is land, how the homestead cap changes what the county assesses, and how long owners hold on.
💡 Key Insights & Takeaways
- Condo units are 64.0% of Surfside's 3,239 residential parcels and single-family houses are 33.5%, counted by parcel and not by home, as of 15 October 2026.
- The median house has 1,824 square feet of living area on a lot of 5,600 square feet (n = 1,084 houses), and the median condo unit has 1,285 square feet (n = 2,073 units).
- On 684 of 1,084 houses, or 63.1%, the county values the lot at a flat $980,000, so land is 89.0% of the median house's just value, which is a tax estimate and not a sale price.
- The median Surfside house was built in 1950, and 43.8% carry a recorded renovation, which moves the median effective year to 1960 (n = 1,084 houses).
- The median house has gone 7.9 years since its latest recorded transfer, and 19.8% have gone more than 20 years (n = 1,081 houses), both too low because the newest recorded transfer is dated 28 January 2026.
Surfside houses that the county values at almost the same amount carry assessments that differ by a factor of two. As of 15 October 2026, the median house with a homestead exemption was assessed at $486,808, against $964,620 for the median house without one (716 and 368 houses), because a cap limits how fast the first can rise.
At a glance
Surfside in five figures, as of 15 October 2026. Condo units and houses are counted apart, and assessed values are the county's figures, not sale prices.
| Measure | Value | Group | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential parcels | 3,239 | Every residential parcel in the town | 15 October 2026 |
| Condo units | 2,073, or 64.0% | Condo group | 15 October 2026 |
| Single-family houses | 1,084, or 33.5% | House group | 15 October 2026 |
| Median living area | 1,824 square feet per house · 1,285 square feet per condo unit | Each group, on the county's measure | 15 October 2026 |
| Homestead exemption | 66.1% of houses · 22.8% of condo units | Each group | 15 October 2026 |
What kinds of homes are in Surfside?
Condo units are the biggest group in Surfside, and houses are the second. As of 15 October 2026, the county lists 3,239 residential parcels in the town. Of those, 2,073 parcels, or 64.0%, are condo units, and 1,084 parcels, or 33.5%, are single-family houses.
This page counts parcels, not homes or the people in them. A parcel is one piece of property that the county assesses on its own, and each condo unit is its own parcel. The 3,239 parcels are the residential ones among the 3,414 parcels inside the town line. The other 175 are commercial, hotel, government, institutional and reference parcels, and no figure here includes them.
This table shows the residential parcels in Surfside by type, as of 15 October 2026 (n = 3,239 parcels).
| Parcel type | Parcels | Share of residential parcels |
|---|---|---|
| Condo units | 2,073 | 64.0% |
| Single-family houses | 1,084 | 33.5% |
| Vacant residential lots | 46 | 1.4% |
| Multi-family buildings | 36 | 1.1% |
The 36 multi-family parcels are too few to describe, so they appear here as a count and nothing more. The county's data gives a condo unit no land value or building value of its own, so the land and building figures further down describe houses only.
How big are Surfside houses and condos, and how are they laid out?
A Surfside house is much bigger than a condo unit. As of 15 October 2026, the median house has 1,824 square feet of living area (n = 1,084 houses), and the median condo unit has 1,285 square feet (n = 2,073 units). Living area here is the county's measure, so a sales listing can show a different figure for the same home.
This table shows the median living area and lot size for each group, as of 15 October 2026.
| Group | Parcels counted (n) | Median living area | Median lot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houses | 1,084 | 1,824 square feet | 5,600 square feet |
| Condo units | 2,073 | 1,285 square feet | No lot of its own |
The houses are low. Of the 1,084 houses, 86.3% have one storey and 13.7% have two or more. The median house has 2 bathrooms, 6.5% have a single bathroom, and 22.2% have 3 or more. The county gives 89.0% of the houses the same single-family use code, so the houses are close to one type.
A house here sits on a lot of its own, with a median of 5,600 square feet (n = 1,084 houses). Lot size is a house-only measure.
How old are Surfside houses, and how many have been renovated?
The houses are old, and many have been updated. As of 15 October 2026, the median house was built in 1950 (n = 1,084 houses). Of those houses, 40.7% were built before 1950 and only 5.1% were built after 2000.
A recorded renovation means the county dates a house's effective year later than its year built. In Surfside, 43.8% of the 1,084 houses, or 475 houses, carry one, and that moves the median effective year to 1960. Among those 475 renovated houses, 185 show a gap of more than 30 years between the two years. A recorded renovation is the county re-dating a house after major work, and it does not capture every project inside a house.
A scoring rule that flags age, lot size and the lack of a recorded renovation marks 25.5% of the houses as strong rebuild candidates and 15.1% as moderate (n = 1,084 houses). Read the strong share as an upper bound and not as a count of houses that will be torn down. A small-lot street of mid-century houses meets most of the rule's conditions by default.
Is the land or the house the bigger part of a Surfside house's value?
The land is the bigger part. For the median house, land is 89.0% of just value as of 15 October 2026 (n = 1,084 houses), and land is more than half of just value on 98.0% of the houses. Just value is the county's full estimate of what a property is worth for tax purposes before the cap lowers the taxable figure, and it is not a sale price.
The reason is a flat land figure. Of the 1,084 houses, 684, or 63.1%, sit on a lot of 5,600 square feet with land valued at exactly $980,000. That is one standard charge per lot and not the price a lot would sell for, so the building is the part that differs from one house to the next.
The median house has an assessed value of $723,642, or $374 per square foot of living area (n = 1,084 houses). Assessed value is the county's tax value under the governing cap. It is not market value, not worth and not what a house would sell for.
Among the 619 houses with a qualified recorded sale, the median assessed value is 1.09 times the price at the last recorded sale, and 11.8% are assessed at twice that price or more. Comparing two assessments shows the year each property was acquired more than it shows how much one house is worth next to the other.
How does the homestead cap change what a Surfside home is assessed at?
The cap makes two houses of the same value carry very different assessments. A homestead exemption marks an owner who claims a home as a primary residence, and in Florida the Save Our Homes cap limits how much that home's assessed value can rise each year. As of 15 October 2026, 66.1% of Surfside houses carry the exemption (n = 1,084 houses), against 22.8% of condo units (n = 2,073 units).
This table compares homesteaded and non-homesteaded houses, as of 15 October 2026. Values are the county's figures and are not sale prices.
| Group | Houses (n) | Median assessed value | Median just value | Assessed value as a share of just value | Median amount the cap removes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With the exemption | 716 | $486,808 | $1,124,458 | 36.1% | $740,108 |
| Without the exemption | 368 | $964,620 | $1,114,211 | 80.5% | $221,319 |
The two groups have almost the same median just value, so the gap comes from the cap and not from the houses. The exemption is a floor under owner occupancy and not a count of it, because a home without the exemption is not shown to be rented or empty. Under the county's rules a qualifying transfer starts a new assessment, so a gap like this describes the current owners and not a future owner's bill.
The county's data used here holds assessed values and not tax bills. This page gives no tax rate and no yearly tax amount.
What else does it cost to hold a Surfside condo?
A condo unit carries an association fee, and houses show none in this data. Among condo and townhouse units that have appeared in for-sale listings (n = 600 units, 18.5% of residential parcels), the median monthly fee is $1,246 as of 15 October 2026. That is a listed sample and not a town-wide figure, and the fee is converted to a monthly amount.
The county's parcel data cannot show a building's reserves, repair bills or inspection results, and those shape much of what a condo costs to hold. Ask the association for its declaration, its budget, its reserve study, its assessment schedule and its meeting minutes.
Florida law sets several separate checks for condo buildings, and they are not the same thing. Milestone inspections apply to covered buildings at 30 years and every 10 years after, and the county's rules start some coastal buildings at 25 years, so a building's first inspection is not always a 40-year one. Florida also requires specified associations to complete a structural integrity reserve study, with a deadline of 31 December 2025 and a conditional exception that runs to 31 December 2026 for some buildings. Ask which of these applies to the building in front of you. Whether any given building has met them is not in the data on this page.
The Town offers to reimburse an association's eligible permit and review fees for these inspections, up to $200,000 per cycle, if it qualifies and funds remain. The offer does not cover engineering, repairs, legal fees or fines, and it does not erase a special assessment.
Who owns Surfside homes, and how long do they keep them?
Most Surfside houses are not held under an entity name. As of 15 October 2026, 26.5% of the 1,084 houses carry one, made up of 12.0% in a trust and 14.7% under a corporate or LLC name. A trust is often a way to plan for heirs, so it is not read as an investor. The corporate or LLC share is the nearest investor-type figure, and it is a ceiling and not a count of investors. Among condo units, the corporate or LLC share is 29.6% (n = 2,073 units).
Owner mail shows where owners live, at a minimum. Mail for 6.3% of the houses goes to another US state and mail for 0.9% goes outside the United States (n = 1,084 houses). Those shares are floors, because an owner can receive mail in Florida and live somewhere else.
The median house has gone 7.9 years since its latest recorded transfer (n = 1,081 houses), 19.8% have gone more than 20 years, and 8.0% more than 30. Every one of those periods runs short. The county's newest recorded transfer is dated 28 January 2026, 8.5 months before 15 October 2026, so each holding period is low by about that gap.
Surfside has 46 vacant residential lots, and entity names hold 60.9% of them (n = 46 lots). That is a small group, so read it as a description of those 46 lots, and read the trust share as estate planning and not as investing.
Common questions
Interested in Off-Market Listings in Surfside?
Connect with our advisory desk for private parcel alerts and valuation reports.