What a St. Augustine Condo Association Pays for Flood Insurance (2026): The 1980s Anastasia Island Building, Priced
By Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors · November 8, 2026
Key Takeaways
- FEMA's policy file holds 567 condo association flood policies for St. Augustine's two ZIPs, 468 of them on Anastasia Island and the beaches south of it; the median building is a two- or three-story, slab-on-grade, 1980s structure of 8 units carrying $2,000,000 of coverage, and it pays a median of $3,893 a year, about $489 per unit [1].
- The most common building, three stories in Zone X built in the 1980s with 12 units and $3,000,000 of coverage, pays a median of $4,160, $267 per unit and $0.83 per $1,000 of coverage; its Zone AE neighbors pay a median of $4,825 [1].
- St. Augustine is mostly repriced already: only 27% of association policies are still below their full-risk premium, and the 31 policies first written since September 2024 carried a median cost of $4,725, close to the renewal median [1][8].
- The same building earns three different discounts within a mile: 30% inside the City of St. Augustine (Class 4 since April 1, 2026), 25% in unincorporated St. Johns County, and 10% inside St. Augustine Beach, which has been Class 8 since 2008 [4].
- Hurricane Matthew produced 90 association claims and $4.09 million here, half of the $8.03 million ever paid to St. Augustine condo buildings, and 2,782 claims of all kinds worth $124.9 million in the two ZIPs [2].
The typical condo association building in St. Augustine, three stories on a slab in Zone X built in the 1980s with 12 units and $3,000,000 of NFIP coverage, pays about $4,160 a year for its master flood policy in 2026, $267 per unit; across all 567 association buildings the median is $3,893, about $489 per unit. The Zone AE version pays $4,825, a new policy on a comparable building runs near $4,725, and the discount on the declarations page depends on which side of the St. Augustine Beach city line the building sits.
St. Augustine has more than three times as many condo buildings in FEMA's flood file as the Jacksonville Beaches, and most of them are the same building: a two- or three-story walk-up from the 1980s on Anastasia Island, A1A South or Vilano, with four to sixteen units and a slab at street level. FEMA publishes every master flood policy on those buildings with the address removed, so I pulled every association policy term effective since September 2025 for ZIPs 32080 and 32084 and priced the building that appears most often: what boards renew at, what a new policy costs, where the policy stops paying, and what one storm in 2016 did to the whole file.
The St. Augustine surprise is not the premium, which is the lowest of the three coastal markets I have priced this way. It is the discount: three Community Rating System classes inside one ZIP code.
The most common insured association building in St. Augustine
FEMA's file for the two ZIPs holds 567 association policies and 1,021 unit-owner policies effective September 1, 2025 or later [1]. The association buildings are rated to unincorporated St. Johns County (292), the City of St. Augustine Beach (161) and the City of St. Augustine (114), which is the same shoreline under three floodplain programs [1][4]. The profile that appears most often [1]:
| Attribute | Most common value | Share of association buildings |
|---|---|---|
| Stories | Two (52%) or three or more (44%) | One story 4% |
| Foundation | Slab on grade | 97% |
| Elevated building | No | 99% |
| Decade built | 1980s, then 2000s and 1970s | 269, 133 and 98 buildings |
| Rated flood zone | X | 63% (355); AE 35% (198); AO 7; VE 7 |
| Units in the building | 8 (median); 4 to 12 is the middle half | Derived from the $47-per-unit federal policy fee |
| Building coverage | $2,000,000 (median); $250,000 per unit | 53% of buildings carry the full $250,000 per unit |
| Building deductible | $1,250 | 53%; $5,000 34%; $25,000 10% |
| HFIAA surcharge | $250 | Every association policy |
The modal building, three stories, slab, not elevated, Zone X, built in the 1980s, is 108 policies with units from 6 to 18 [1]. Its two-story cousin from the same decade is another 88, most of them four-unit and eight-unit buildings. Together they are a third of every association flood policy in St. Augustine.
What it pays: FEMA's number, by zone, by size and by city line
The 108 modal buildings paid a median of $4,160 a year, with the middle half between $2,568 and $6,479; the 12-unit version paid $3,620, the 18-unit version $3,024 and the 9-unit version $1,942 [1]. Per unit the median is $267 a year, and per $1,000 of coverage $0.83, the lowest rate of any profile in the three coastal files I have priced [1].
The rest of the file [1]:
| Building | Policies | Median annual cost | Per unit | Coverage (median) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone X, all | 355 | $3,650 | $420 | $2,000,000 |
| Zone AE, all | 198 | $4,825 | $616 | $1,581,000 |
| Zone VE, all | 7 | $5,695 | $331 | $2,000,000 |
| X, three stories, 1980s (the modal building) | 108 | $4,160 | $267 | $3,000,000 |
| X, two stories, 1980s | 88 | $3,386 | $755 | $1,021,500 |
| X, two stories, 1980s, four units | 42 | $3,843 | $961 | $570,000 |
| X, two stories, 1980s, eight units | 22 | $1,971 | $246 | $2,000,000 |
| AE, two stories, 2000s | 51 | $4,606 | $423 | $2,500,000 |
| AE, two stories, 2000s, 16 units | 18 | $5,074 | $317 | $2,775,000 |
| AE, two stories, 1970s | 31 | $8,323 | Varies | $1,936,000 |
| 1 to 7 units | 200 | $3,194 | $806 | $783,000 |
| 8 to 19 units | 292 | $4,041 | $404 | $2,250,000 |
| 20 units or more | 30 | $12,301 | $349 | $10,250,000 |
Size does more than the zone. A four-unit 1980s building in Zone X pays $961 per unit; the eight-unit building next to it pays $246 per unit, because the $250 surcharge, the reserve fund assessment and the federal fee are spread across twice as many owners [1]. The 1970s AE buildings are the expensive corner of the file at $8,323, which is the pre-map construction showing up in the rate [1][7].
Then there is the city line. Under Risk Rating 2.0 the Community Rating System discount is applied to every NFIP policy in a participating community regardless of flood zone, and the three communities in this file carry three classes: the City of St. Augustine moved to Class 4 and 30% on April 1, 2026; unincorporated St. Johns County, which includes most of Anastasia Island, Crescent Beach and Vilano, has been Class 5 and 25% since May 1, 2016; the City of St. Augustine Beach has been Class 8 and 10% since May 1, 2008 [4]. A building on the beach side of A1A inside the St. Augustine Beach limits carries 15 points less discount than the same building a block past the city line, every year, on the same coverage. Boards do not choose the community, but they should know which one the declarations page says.
The policy and the building: where the $250,000 per unit stops
An RCBAP, the Residential Condominium Building Association Policy, insures the whole building including every unit and the improvements inside the units, the opposite of the walls-in split on the association's wind policy [3]. Its limit is the lesser of the building's replacement cost or $250,000 times the number of units, and it carries a coinsurance clause: unless the building is insured to at least 80% of its full replacement cost, or to the NFIP maximum, the program imposes a penalty on every loss payment [3].
FEMA's file reports a replacement cost for 436 of the 567 St. Augustine buildings [1][9]:
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Median replacement cost | $1,951,800 |
| Median coverage carried | $2,000,000 |
| Median coverage as a share of replacement cost | 100% |
| Buildings insured below the 80% coinsurance line | 4% (17 of 436) |
| Buildings carrying less coverage than their replacement cost | 102 of 436 |
| Median shortfall in those 102 buildings | $48,551 |
| Buildings at the full $250,000 per unit | 53% of all 567 |
St. Augustine's boards insure to value. Four percent below the coinsurance line and a median shortfall under $50,000 are the best figures of the three coastal markets, and the reason is the building: a 1980s walk-up with eight units rebuilds for well under $250,000 a unit, so the NFIP's ceiling is above the rebuild cost and the program can insure the whole structure. The 20-unit-and-up buildings are the exception, with a median $10.25 million of coverage against rebuild costs that can run past the per-unit cap; those are the boards that need the private excess layer, and the ones for whom the 2016 claim record below matters most.
Lenders read the same ratio. Fannie Mae requires an attached condo building in a Special Flood Hazard Area to carry an RCBAP or equivalent private coverage for the entire building and its common elements, at no less than the lesser of 80% of replacement cost or the NFIP maximum per unit; when the per-unit share falls short, the unit owner has to carry a supplemental policy [5].
Renewal, new policy and full risk
St. Augustine is the market where the renewal price and the new-policy price have nearly met. The 567 policies carried a median premium of $2,832 before fees against a median full-risk premium of $3,011, and only 27% of them are still charged less than full risk; the median policy is already at 100% of its full-risk rate [1][9]. Federal law caps the annual increase on an existing policy at 18% for most properties, and most St. Augustine buildings have finished the climb [8].
The 31 association policies first written since September 2024 show the same thing: a median cost of $4,725, with the middle half between $4,048 and $6,464, against the $3,893 median for the file, and $562 per unit on a typical eight-unit building [1]. A board changing carriers here should budget the new-policy number and expect to land near it, not far above it.
Two St. Augustine Beach boards I reviewed this year carried identical buildings on identical coverage and paid a different premium, and the difference was the community number on the declarations page: one was rated to the city at 10%, the other to the county at 25%. Both were right. Neither board knew the line ran between them.
— Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors
The claim record for St. Augustine condo buildings
FEMA's claims file lists 161 NFIP claims by condo associations in the two ZIPs since 1978, with $8.03 million paid; 91 of them paid something, at a median of $71,143 and a maximum of $368,105 [2].
| Event | Association claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane Matthew, October 7, 2016 | 90 | $4,090,752 |
| Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole, 2022 | 38 (27 Ian, 11 Nicole) | $2,357,497 |
| Hurricane Irma, September 11, 2017 | 28 | $1,580,413 |
| Hurricane Milton, October 2024 | 5 | $3,946 |
| All years | 161 | $8,032,608 |
Zone AE buildings account for 101 of the claims and Zone X buildings for 54 [2]. For scale, the two ZIPs hold 5,711 NFIP claims across every kind of building, with $197.5 million paid; Matthew alone produced 2,782 of them and $124.9 million, Irma 1,198 and $38.7 million, and the 2022 pair 874 and $27.4 million [2]. The per-building premium in this post is small because the file says most of these buildings sit above the water most years. The 2016 line says what the policy is for when they do not.
The unit owner's side of the same building
The 1,021 unit-owner flood policies in the two ZIPs carried a median cost of $712 a year with a median building limit of $110,000, and 764 of them are in Zone X [1]. The RCBAP already covers the floors, cabinets and fixtures inside the unit, so the owner's policy is for contents, which the master policy never pays, and for the owner's share of an assessment when flood damage outruns the master limit: the NFIP's dwelling form includes condo loss assessment coverage for that, up to the owner's building limit, but not for assessments caused by the association's flood deductible [3]. In a file where a third of buildings carry a $5,000 deductible and one in ten carries $25,000, the deductible share is the owner's most likely flood bill, and the loss assessment endorsement on a standard HO-6 generally does not respond to flood at all. The special assessment calculator prices that share.
Florida-Specific Considerations
- Flood is permissive under the condo statute. s. 718.111(11) says an association "may" obtain flood insurance for common elements, association property and units; the mandate comes from the lender [6].
- Citizens' flood requirement does not reach associations. s. 627.351(6)(aa) applies to personal lines residential policies, not to a commercial residential policy on an association building [10].
- The federal cap is 42 U.S.C. 4015(e): 18% a year on most existing policies, 25% on certain categories [8].
- The map is the St. Johns County flood insurance rate map effective December 7, 2018; the City of St. Augustine's initial map was October 11, 1972, St. Augustine Beach's September 29, 1972, and the county's July 6, 1973 [4].
- The three discounts are the City of St. Augustine at Class 4 and 30% since April 1, 2026, unincorporated St. Johns County at Class 5 and 25% since May 1, 2016, and St. Augustine Beach at Class 8 and 10% since May 1, 2008 [4].
- The NFIP is authorized through December 11, 2026 under legislation signed September 2, 2026 [11].
- The program's own limits are in 44 CFR Part 61, Appendix A(3): $250,000 times the number of units, the 80% coinsurance clause, and eligibility for buildings at least 75% residential by floor area [3].
Your 7-Step Master Flood Review for a St. Augustine Condo Board
| Step | What to do | When |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pull the declarations page | Note the zone, the building limit, the deductible, the replacement cost the policy was rated on, and the community number | This month |
| 2. Check the community | City of St. Augustine 30%, unincorporated county 25%, St. Augustine Beach 10%; confirm the number matches the building's actual jurisdiction | This month |
| 3. Compare with the appraisal | Divide the flood limit by the statutory appraisal's rebuild cost and write the percentage on the page | Before renewal |
| 4. Test the 80% line | Below 80% is a coinsurance penalty and a lender problem; raise the limit or document that the NFIP maximum binds | Before renewal |
| 5. Price the layer above | For buildings of 20 units or more, the difference between units times $250,000 and the rebuild cost is the excess flood quote | 90 days before renewal |
| 6. Weigh the deductible | A $5,000 or $25,000 deductible lowers the premium and raises the first assessment; the owners' HO-6 policies will not cover their share | At renewal |
| 7. Tell the owners what the policy does not do | Contents, the deductible share and anything above the limit are the owners' problem; put it in the budget letter | Annual meeting |
FAQ for St. Augustine Condo Boards
Q: How much does condo association flood insurance cost in St. Augustine?
A: FEMA's policy data for ZIPs 32080 and 32084 shows 567 association master flood policies with a median annual cost of $3,893 as of September 2026, about $489 per unit. The most common building, three stories in Zone X built in the 1980s with 12 units, pays a median of $4,160, or $267 per unit; Zone AE buildings pay $4,825.
Q: Does St. Augustine Beach get the same flood discount as the rest of Anastasia Island?
A: No. The City of St. Augustine Beach has been CRS Class 8 at 10% since 2008, while unincorporated St. Johns County is Class 5 at 25% and the City of St. Augustine moved to Class 4 at 30% on April 1, 2026. The discount follows the community the policy is rated to, regardless of flood zone.
Q: What is an RCBAP?
A: The Residential Condominium Building Association Policy, the NFIP's master flood policy for a condo building that is at least 75% residential. It covers the whole building including the units and the improvements inside them, up to the lesser of replacement cost or $250,000 times the number of units, with an 80% coinsurance clause.
Q: Are St. Augustine condo buildings insured to value for flood?
A: Mostly. Of 436 buildings with a reported replacement cost, the median carries coverage equal to 100% of it, only 4% sit below the 80% coinsurance line, and the median shortfall among the 102 buildings carrying less than replacement cost is $48,551. The exceptions are the 30 buildings of 20 units or more, where the per-unit cap can bind.
Q: Will a new master flood policy cost more than our renewal?
A: Less so here than elsewhere. Only 27% of St. Augustine association policies are still charged below their full-risk premium, and the 31 policies written since September 2024 carried a median cost of $4,725 against the $3,893 renewal median. Budget the new-policy figure if the board is changing carriers.
Q: How often have St. Augustine condo buildings collected on flood claims?
A: 161 association claims since 1978 with $8.03 million paid. Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 produced 90 of them and $4.09 million; Irma in 2017 produced 28 and $1.58 million; Ian and Nicole in 2022 produced 38 and $2.36 million. The two ZIPs hold 5,711 NFIP claims of all kinds with $197.5 million paid.
Q: Does the master flood policy cover the inside of my unit?
A: The building parts, yes: floors, cabinets and fixtures inside units are covered by the RCBAP, unlike the wind policy. Your belongings are never covered by the master policy, and your share of an assessment above the master limit is covered only by your own NFIP policy's loss assessment provision, which excludes assessments caused by the association's deductible.
Q: Why does our four-unit building pay more per unit than the big building across the street?
A: The fixed parts of the policy, the $250 HFIAA surcharge, the reserve fund assessment and the federal fee, are spread across fewer owners. In FEMA's file a four-unit 1980s Zone X building pays $961 per unit and an eight-unit building from the same decade pays $246; buildings of 20 units or more pay a median of $349 per unit.
Related Reading
- St. Augustine Flood Insurance in 2026: The City's New CRS Class 4 Discount, Zone by Zone — the 30% discount, and the homes it applies to.
- St. Augustine Commercial Insurance in 2026: Historic-District Flood, Coquina Replacement Cost, and the Business-Interruption Gap When King Street Floods — the commercial half of the same flood map.
- St. Johns County Homeowners Insurance in 2026: New-Construction Credits, Coastal Pricing, and the Citizens Rate Cut — the county's wind market.
- Does Your Florida Condo Need Its Own Flood Insurance? RCBAP, the Master-Policy Gap, and Zone X Units (2026) — the unit owner's half of the building.
- What Insurance Costs for a 3-Story, 48-Unit Florida Coastal Condo in 2026: The Full Budget, Line by Line — the whole program this flood line sits inside.
How Atesa Risk Advisors Can Help
We are an independent Florida agency based in Jacksonville, and we write RCBAPs through the NFIP's Write Your Own program alongside the private excess layer above the program's $250,000 per unit. For a St. Augustine board that means confirming the community number before anything else, reading the master flood policy against the property appraisal, fixing the 80% line where a larger building has drifted under it, pricing the excess layer, and telling owners in plain language what their own policy still has to cover.
Start with the condo association flood insurance page and send us the flood declarations page and the appraisal. I can't tell you whether the next Matthew stays offshore. I can tell you that the typical St. Augustine building pays about $4,000 a year for this policy, that most of them are insured to value, and that the cheapest improvement in the file is making sure the discount on the page is the one the building earned.
Want the master flood policy checked against the appraisal and the city line? Get your free quote and consultation at atesariskadvisors.com/get-quote or call (904) 900-5063.
Sources
[4] FEMA, OpenFEMA NFIP Community Status Book (St. Johns County: City of St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach and unincorporated county CRS classes, effective dates and map dates), data refreshed August 2026 and FEMA, Community Rating System
[6] Florida Statutes s. 718.111(11), Insurance (association may obtain flood insurance)
[7] FEMA, Risk Rating 2.0 Discount Explanation Guide (March 2025, PDF)
[8] 42 U.S.C. 4015(e), Chargeable premium rates: annual limitation on premium increases
[11] FEMA, Congressional Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program
External Resources for St. Augustine condo boards:
Ricardo Alonso is the Founder of Atesa Risk Advisors, a Florida independent insurance agency. Licensed 2-20 General Lines Agent and 2-15 Health & Life Agent, with a Master of Liberal Arts in Finance from Harvard University. He places master flood, excess flood and the full association program for condo boards from Vilano Beach to Crescent Beach.