Every dues figure attached to WindMark Beach is technically accurate and also out of date. Pull up one listing aggregator and quarterly HOA dues show as $490. Pull the association's own fee schedule and the number is $600 a quarter, which works out to $2,400 a year. Neither document is wrong exactly. They're just describing a community that has changed shape more than once since the first lots sold, and the paperwork hasn't fully caught up to the version of WindMark Beach that exists today.

That gap matters more here than it would in a stabilized subdivision, because WindMark Beach is not stabilized. It's a St. Joe Company master-planned community that has been adding neighborhoods in phases since 2001, and as of this year it's still adding them.

Why the Number Keeps Moving

WindMark's first 110 lots went on the market in 2001 under Arvida, the community development arm of The St. Joe Company. Phase two lot sales opened in 2007, and individual owners built out at what locals have described as a slow but steady pace for the next decade. Then D.R. Horton bought 64 lots in early 2018 and started building fast. By February 2019, St. Joe had sold Horton another 94 homesites to create two new neighborhoods, Village Center East and Creekside, on top of the 77 homes that already existed and the 14 under construction at the time. Those new sections came with their own roads, drainage, water and sewer connections tying into the community's shared infrastructure.

That construction hasn't stopped. This year, CWR Contracting handled the sitework for Creekside Phase 1B and an expansion of Village Center East, clearing land and installing stormwater drainage, water systems and sanitary sewer ahead of paving. Every new phase means new common infrastructure for the HOA to eventually inherit and maintain, and every new rooftop changes the math on how many owners are splitting the reserve fund. A fee schedule printed two years ago describes a smaller, different community than the one being built out right now.

For a buyer, that means the dues figure on a listing sheet is a snapshot, not a fact you can bank on through closing. The number worth asking for is the current invoice and the most recent reserve study, not whatever a portal or an old PDF happens to display.

Here's how the numbers compare against a neighboring St. Joe Company community for context:

Two St. Joe Company communities a short drive apart, and the quarterly bill differs by hundreds of dollars. That's not a red flag on its own. It's a reminder that "master-planned" doesn't mean "one fixed cost," even within the same developer's portfolio.

A Neighborhood That's Still Under Construction

If you're comparing WindMark Beach against a standalone lot elsewhere on the Forgotten Coast, the phased build-out cuts both ways. On one hand, you're buying into shared infrastructure. BeachWalk, the paved multi-use trail running along the St. Joseph Bay coastline, connects Village Center East and Creekside to green space and parks that a lone parcel wouldn't have. The Village Center itself carries retailers, an amphitheater, a pool and playground, and The Mill hosts open mic nights that give the community a gathering spot most subdivisions don't bother building.

On the other hand, an active construction environment is a variable cost environment. New phases mean new shared assets to maintain, which means the reserve fund conversation isn't finished. If you're the kind of buyer who wants a fixed, predictable monthly number for the next ten years, ask directly whether the association has a funded reserve study that accounts for Creekside Phase 1B and the Village Center East expansion, not just the neighborhoods that existed when the last schedule was printed.

It's also worth knowing what sits just outside the HOA boundary. Land equidistant between Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach, tucked off Discovery Lane and Watermark Way near the old Highway 98 corridor, carries no HOA and no dues at all, while still sitting close enough to use WindMark's beach access points by golf cart. That's not a knock on WindMark. It's the actual tradeoff: pay for the shared amenities and the aesthetic consistency, or buy adjacent and skip the bill.

The Rental Math Looks Different Here

If you're weighing WindMark Beach as a short-term rental play, the community's own marketing has put the owner-occupancy mix at roughly 80 percent primary residences, not vacation rentals. That's a meaningfully different profile than a rental-dominated condo building down the coast, and it shapes what you should expect both from your neighbors and from your returns.

A local property manager who oversees more than a dozen WindMark properties, spanning Phase 1 through WindMark North, has reported gross rental income on individual homes ranging from roughly $30,000 to as high as $54,000 over a year, with cap rates in the area reaching 8 or 9 percent in some cases. Those are real numbers, but they come with two caveats worth taking seriously before you run your own projections. First, furnishing a D.R. Horton purchase for rental use is a cost buyers routinely underestimate, since move-in-ready construction doesn't include ceiling fans, blinds or the furniture package a rental guest expects. Second, investment property purchases here typically require a larger down payment, often around 10 percent more than an owner-occupant loan, which changes your cash-on-cash return before you've bought a single throw pillow.

Combine that with an owner-occupant majority and you get a community where short-term rental income is achievable but not the default assumption baked into every home. Check the specific sub-neighborhood's rental rules before you underwrite a purchase around vacation income, since covenants can vary by phase.

What to Verify Before You Write an Offer

Given how much has changed inside WindMark Beach since 2001, and how much is still changing in 2026, a few questions are worth asking before you get to a purchase agreement:

• Request the current HOA invoice and the most recent reserve study directly from the association, not a number pulled from a listing aggregator.
• Ask whether the property sits in an original phase, in Creekside, in Village Center East, or in WindMark North, since dues and rules can differ by sub-neighborhood.
• If you're planning to rent the home, ask the association about short-term rental restrictions specific to that phase rather than assuming community-wide rules.
• If you're comparing WindMark against a no-HOA lot nearby, price out what the dues actually buy: BeachWalk access, the Village Center, the pool, and shared maintenance, against what you'd spend maintaining those things yourself.
• Budget separately for furnishing costs and the higher down payment that typically comes with an investment purchase, rather than folding them into your rental income projections.

None of this means WindMark Beach is a bad buy. It means it's an active, growing community rather than a finished product, and the paperwork you're handed on day one may not describe the community you're closing on. Buyers who ask for the current numbers, not the printed ones, are the ones who don't get surprised at closing or at renewal.

If you're weighing a purchase in WindMark Beach against something further down the coast, I can pull the current HOA invoice, walk you through what each phase actually costs to own, and run real numbers on what a rental plan would look like for your specific property. Carter Dorsch — Let's Connect.