Question 1

What are impact fees on a new single-family build in Palm Beach County?

Accepted Answer

Effective January 1, 2026, a single-family house of 2,000 to 3,599 net square feet carries $15,917.22 in impact fees in unincorporated Palm Beach County, or $14,687.66 inside the City of West Palm Beach. The county schedule itemizes it: schools $7,905.90, roads $5,597.40, parks $1,225.26, fire rescue $393.30, public buildings $317.30, libraries $295.45, and law enforcement patrol $182.61. The city figure drops the county's library and public-safety line items (the city covers those itself) and prices parks lower, at $867.06. School fees alone are roughly half the total in either case. Confirm the current schedule with the county Planning, Zoning and Building department before you finalize a construction budget, since these fees moved on January 1, 2026 and can move again.

Question 2

Does Palm Beach County fall under Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone rules?

Accepted Answer

No. The High-Velocity Hurricane Zone under the Florida Building Code covers only Miami-Dade and Broward counties, not Palm Beach. That means your build follows the general Florida Building Code wind provisions rather than the HVHZ product-approval and impact-protection regime, which requires a different and more expensive set of window, door, roof and shutter products in the two counties to the south. We don't have a dollar figure for how much that saves on a Palm Beach build, so budget your envelope package against the general code and confirm specifics with your architect or the local building department.

Question 3

How long does permit review take for a new build in Palm Beach County or the City of West Palm Beach?

Accepted Answer

Florida sets a statutory floor, not a courtesy target: 30 business days for a single-family permit under 7,500 sq ft, and 60 business days for a larger single-family project, multifamily up to 50 units, or commercial under 25,000 sq ft. The local government must give written notice of anything missing within 5 business days, and the permit fee drops 10% per business day of delay past the deadline. That's the statewide clock under Florida Statutes section 553.792. We don't have observed, jurisdiction-specific review times for Palm Beach County or the City of West Palm Beach beyond that statutory backstop, so budget to the statute and confirm the working timeline with the local building department before you set a draw schedule.

Question 4

Why does Palm Beach County's condo safety law matter for a builder or investor here, not just a condo owner?

Accepted Answer

Buildings three habitable stories or taller carry a milestone inspection at 30 years (or 25, at local option) and a structural integrity reserve study every 10 years, and associations can no longer vote to underfund reserves on those items. Where an association can't fund repairs from operations, the statute now names special assessment, line of credit, or loan as the routes, and all three land on the unit owner's carry. The practical result: a building behind on its milestone inspection or reserve funding is commonly non-warrantable for agency financing, which is exactly the gap a portfolio loan or DSCR product fills for a ground-up or gut-rehab project that ends up competing with that older stock. Confirm any specific building's inspection and reserve status before you underwrite around it; we don't have per-building data to cite.

Question 5

How much does insurance carry cost on a finished build in Palm Beach County?

Accepted Answer

Palm Beach County has the highest average homeowners insurance premium of any mainland Florida county: $6,323 a year including wind, as of March 31, 2026, ahead of both Miami-Dade ($5,975) and Broward ($6,136). Against Orange County's $3,610 average, that's about $2,713 a year of extra carry on an otherwise similar house. If your build-to-rent exit runs through a DSCR rental loan, underwrite that premium into the operating expenses before you set the rent target, not after. Rates are trending down statewide, but the level here is the highest on the mainland.

Question 6

Does a build near Lake Okeechobee, in the Glades communities, carry extra flood risk to plan for?

Accepted Answer

Belle Glade, Pahokee, and South Bay sit against the Herbert Hoover Dike, the 143-mile earthen structure that rings Lake Okeechobee, and the federal government completed a major rehabilitation of that dike in the early 2020s. That's the relevant federal context for building or holding property in the western county, but we don't have a specific insurance rating or flood-zone consequence tied to the dike work to cite, so confirm flood-zone status and any flood insurance requirement for the specific parcel before you fund the lot.

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