Solterra by Lennar Review (2026): Prices, Floor Plans, HOA, CDD, and Who It's For

If you’re comparing new construction near Fort Lauderdale, Solterra by Lennar in Sunrise deserves a real look, and this Solterra by Lennar review for 2026 covers prices, floor plans, HOA, CDD, and who it’s actually for, not just the marketing version. The community sells villas, townhomes, and single-family homes starting at $543,990, and it’s one of the few new-construction options in west-central Broward where the entry-level product is FHA eligible. That’s the good news. The part most listings gloss over is the CDD assessment stacked on top of the HOA, and that changes what “starting at $543,990” actually costs you every month. Here’s the full breakdown, collection by collection, dollar by dollar, so you walk into the sales center already knowing more than most buyers who show up cold.

What Solterra Is

Solterra is a gated, master-planned community at 7440 NW 24th Place in Sunrise, built by Lennar under its “Everything’s Included” program. It sits in west-central Broward, close enough to the Sawgrass Expressway, I-95, and the Florida Turnpike that commuting toward Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, or even Boca Raton is realistic without a brutal drive.

The community is manned-gate secured and built around a resort-style amenity core: clubhouse, pool, fitness center, green space, a playground, and a lounge area. It’s not a golf course community and it’s not marketed as luxury. It’s positioned as attainable new construction with real amenities, which is exactly why it draws comparison to communities like Solterra itself gets pulled into conversations about Sunrise’s broader new-construction pipeline, and why we cover it in more depth in our Solterra Sunrise new construction guide.

One thing worth stating plainly up front: Solterra is inside a Community Development District. That’s confirmed directly from the builder’s HOA and tax disclosure page, not a guess. CDDs aren’t unusual in new-build Florida communities, but they’re often under-explained by builder reps focused on closing the sale, so we’re leading with it here instead of burying it at the bottom.

It’s also worth understanding what “Everything’s Included” actually means at Lennar before you tour. It’s Lennar’s branding for homes that come with a defined package of finishes already installed, things like stainless steel appliances, quartz or similar countertops, and window coverings, rather than a base price that assumes you’ll upgrade everything at the design center. It doesn’t mean there are zero options. It means the starting price is closer to a move-in-ready price than the stripped-down base price you’d see from some other production builders. That matters when you’re comparing Solterra’s “starting at $543,990” to a different builder’s advertised price that assumes thousands in structural and design center add-ons before the home is livable.

Solterra by Lennar Review 2026: Prices, Floor Plans, HOA, CDD, and Who It’s For

Solterra is organized into three product collections, each with its own price band, HOA, and CDD structure. Here’s the full picture as of the July 15, 2026 availability sheet.

A few things jump out. First, the Aurora villas carry the highest HOA of the three collections despite being the cheapest product, likely because villa maintenance (roofs, exterior, common walls) is more HOA-managed than the single-family homes. Second, every collection pays a CDD on top of the HOA, and the Radiance single-family collection actually carries the highest CDD despite the lowest HOA. Third, the tax rate (1.55%) is consistent across all three, so it’s not a lever that changes your decision between collections, it’s the HOA plus CDD combination that does.

It’s also worth noticing the spread within each collection. Aurora runs from $543,990 to $563,990, a $20,000 gap between the two floor plans. Lusso runs from $615,990 to $630,990 across its plans, a tighter spread. Radiance jumps the most, from the low $750s to $838,990, which tells you the single-family collection has the widest range of lot sizes and floor plan options, and that homesite premiums are doing a lot of the work on the higher end of that range. If you’re budget-constrained, ask the sales office directly which specific homesites carry premiums and which don’t, because two homes on the same floor plan can differ by tens of thousands of dollars based on lot alone.

The Three Collections and Floor Plans

Aurora (Villas)

The Aurora collection is the entry point into Solterra and the most budget-conscious option in the community. Both floor plans are two-story villas with no garage, which keeps the price down but is worth knowing before you tour.

• Elaris: 1,426 sq ft, 2 bedrooms plus a den/office, 2.5 baths, starting at $543,990
• Olaria: 1,633 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, starting at $563,990

Both Aurora plans are FHA eligible, which is the headline feature of this collection. For a first-time buyer or someone relocating to Broward with a smaller down payment, this is one of the only genuinely new-construction, gated, amenity-rich options in this price range where 3.5% down gets you in the door. The tradeoff is size and no garage, so if covered parking or storage matters to you, budget for that separately or look at Lusso instead.

Think about who actually fits Elaris. A single professional or a couple without kids, relocating for a job in Sunrise, Plantation, or Sawgrass corridor, who wants a brand-new home instead of a decade-old condo, and who values the den as a home office over a third bedroom. Olaria makes more sense for a small family or a couple planning for a child, where the third bedroom does real work instead of sitting empty. Both are two-story, so if stairs are a dealbreaker for an aging parent or a mobility concern, Aurora isn’t the right collection regardless of price.

Lusso (Townhomes)

The Lusso collection steps up in size and adds a one-car garage, while staying FHA eligible.

• Amara: 1,776 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1-car garage, starting at $615,990
• Bellini: 1,785 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1-car garage, starting at $630,990
• Marani: a third townhome plan rounds out the Lusso lineup, sized similarly to Amara and Bellini

Lusso carries the lowest HOA of the three collections ($385/month) alongside the lower CDD tier ($2,160/year), which makes it, dollar for dollar, one of the more efficient monthly-cost options in the community once you factor in the added garage and square footage versus Aurora.

The jump from Aurora to Lusso is roughly $70,000 to $90,000 depending on which plans you compare, and what you get for that is a garage, about 150 to 350 more square feet, and the same lower HOA tier as Radiance. For a lot of buyers, that’s the collection that actually makes sense: FHA eligible like Aurora, but with the garage that Aurora skips. If you’re deciding between the top of Aurora (Olaria at $563,990) and the bottom of Lusso (Amara at $615,990), the real question isn’t the roughly $52,000 price gap, it’s whether a garage and 143 extra square feet are worth that gap to you, because the monthly HOA and CDD costs are close enough between the two that they’re not the deciding factor.

Radiance (Single-Family)

Radiance is the top collection: detached single-family homes, more square footage, and pricing that runs from the low $750s up toward $838,990 at the top of the current availability sheet. This collection carries the highest CDD ($2,544/year) of the three, which makes sense given the larger lots and infrastructure footprint of detached homes versus attached product.

Detached also means no shared walls, your own yard, and typically a two-car garage rather than the one-car garage in Lusso, though you should confirm garage count on the specific Radiance plan you’re touring since single-family lineups usually include more than one floor plan option at different price points. If privacy, yard space, or long-term resale value tied to detached product matters more to you than saving $150,000 to $250,000 up front, Radiance is the collection to focus your tour time on.

If you’re cross-shopping single-family new construction in this price range, it’s worth putting Radiance next to what’s available in nearby Cooper City, where Hanson Preserve offers a different take on detached new-build product with its own HOA and pricing structure. Comparing the two side by side, rather than taking either builder’s pitch in isolation, is how you actually figure out which fits your budget and priorities.

The Real Monthly Cost: HOA vs CDD Explained

This is the section builder reps tend to rush through, so let’s slow down.

HOA (Homeowners Association) fee pays for ongoing community operations: amenity upkeep, common area landscaping, gate staffing, and at Solterra specifically, likely a share of exterior maintenance for the attached villa and townhome products. It’s a recurring monthly bill for as long as you own the home.

CDD (Community Development District) assessment is different. A CDD is a special local government unit that issued bonds to fund the infrastructure that made the community possible in the first place, roads, utilities, drainage, sometimes the amenity center itself. You’re paying down that infrastructure debt over time, typically for 20 to 30 years, and it shows up as a line item on your annual property tax bill rather than a separate HOA invoice. It doesn’t disappear once amenities are built. It’s closer to a long-term assessment than a membership fee.

Here’s what that means in real numbers for an Aurora villa buyer: $496/month HOA plus $2,160/year CDD works out to roughly $180/month in CDD on top of the HOA, so your actual recurring community cost is closer to $676/month, not the $496 the HOA line alone suggests. For a Lusso townhome buyer, it’s $385 HOA plus $2,160 CDD, or roughly $180/month in CDD, landing around $565/month total, the lowest combined number of the three collections. For a Radiance single-family buyer, it’s $385 HOA plus $2,544 CDD, or roughly $212/month in CDD, landing around $597/month total.

Lay all three side by side and the pattern is clear: Aurora costs the most per month in HOA plus CDD despite being the cheapest home to buy, Lusso costs the least per month despite sitting in the middle price tier, and Radiance lands in between. That’s a genuinely useful thing to know before you fall in love with a specific floor plan, because the “cheapest” home on paper isn’t automatically the cheapest home to actually live in every month.

One more piece most buyers miss: the CDD assessment is typically deductible as part of your property tax bill in the way it’s billed (confirm the specific breakdown with your tax preparer, since portions can vary), and lenders generally include it in your debt-to-income calculation the same way they include property taxes and HOA dues. That means the CDD isn’t just a cost, it’s a number your lender is already factoring into how much home you qualify for. If your pre-approval was run without a CDD estimate baked in, ask your loan officer to rerun the numbers with Solterra’s actual figures before you get attached to a specific collection.

None of this makes Solterra a bad deal. It makes it a deal you need to budget accurately, and that’s the entire point of writing this review the honest way instead of the marketing way. We cover the same HOA-versus-CDD math for other Lennar and builder communities in our reviews of Marigold and Estates by Turnberry, because it’s a pattern buyers run into across nearly every newer master-planned community in Broward and Palm Beach right now, not something unique to Solterra.

Financing Solterra: FHA, Conventional, and What Changes

FHA eligibility is the headline on Aurora and Lusso, but it’s worth understanding what that actually unlocks and where it stops helping you. FHA loans allow as little as 3.5% down for qualifying buyers, which on an Elaris at $543,990 is roughly $19,000 down instead of the $108,798 you’d need for 20% down on a conventional loan. That’s the difference between “saving for a few more years” and “buying this year” for a lot of relocating buyers and first-time buyers in Broward right now.

The tradeoff is FHA mortgage insurance, which stays on the loan for the life of the loan in most cases unless you refinance out of it later, and FHA has its own loan limits and property requirements. Radiance, at the low $750s and up, is more likely to bump against FHA loan limits or simply make more sense with conventional financing if you’re putting down more than the FHA minimum anyway. If you’re planning to use a conventional loan with 10% or 20% down regardless of collection, the FHA eligibility of Aurora and Lusso isn’t a deciding factor for you, it’s the HOA, CDD, and layout that should drive the decision instead.

Either way, get pre-approved with the actual HOA and CDD numbers from this article before you tour, not generic estimates. A loan officer running your numbers with $496/month HOA and the correct CDD line will give you a real qualifying picture instead of one that changes once you’re already emotionally attached to a floor plan.

Location and Commute

Solterra’s address, 7440 NW 24th Place, puts it in west-central Sunrise, minutes from the Sawgrass Expressway. That’s the practical selling point beyond the amenities: quick access to I-95 and the Florida Turnpike means a commute toward Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Coral Springs, or even south toward Miami-Dade is realistic without cutting through surface street traffic the whole way.

Sunrise itself sits west of Fort Lauderdale and east of the Everglades buffer, an established suburb with Sawgrass Mills nearby for retail, and a mix of older 1990s-2000s product alongside newer builds like Solterra. It’s not a beach town and it’s not marketed as one. It’s a commuter and family suburb, and Solterra fits that identity: new construction, gated, amenity-driven, priced for working professionals and young families rather than second-home buyers.

For day-to-day life, that Sawgrass Expressway proximity means Costco, Sawgrass Mills, and the broader retail corridor along Flamingo Road and University Drive are a short drive, not a project. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is a realistic 25 to 35 minute drive depending on traffic and time of day, which matters if you’re relocating for a job that involves regular travel or you’ve got family flying in from out of state.

If you’re relocating from out of state and Sunrise is on your shortlist alongside other Broward suburbs, it’s worth reading how it stacks up against comparable family-oriented markets further west, like our breakdowns of Weston and the Weston vs. Coral Springs comparison. Weston runs a different price tier and a different school-district reputation than Sunrise, so the two aren’t interchangeable, but they’re often cross-shopped by the same relocating buyer trying to figure out which Broward suburb actually fits their budget and commute.

Who Solterra Is For

First-time buyers using FHA financing. The Aurora villas and Lusso townhomes are FHA eligible, and at $543,990 to $630,990, this is genuinely one of the more accessible new-construction entry points in Broward right now. If 3.5% down and a brand-new, gated home matter more to you than square footage or a garage, Aurora is worth touring.

Buyers who want new construction without a massive commute penalty. Being minutes from the Sawgrass Expressway, I-95, and the Turnpike means Solterra works for people commuting into Fort Lauderdale or Plantation for work without wanting to pay Fort Lauderdale prices.

Move-up buyers who want a detached home with more room. The Radiance collection, running from the low $750s to $838,990, is a reasonable single-family option for buyers who’ve outgrown a townhome but aren’t trying to spend $1M+.

Relocating buyers who want predictable new-construction costs. Because Solterra is a Lennar “Everything’s Included” community, buyers moving from out of state who don’t want to navigate a design center full of a la carte upgrades get a clearer starting point than they would with a builder that prices bare-bones and upsells everything after.

Who Should Think Twice

Buyers whose #1 priority is school district reputation. Solterra’s location in Sunrise means you should verify current zoned schools directly with Broward County Public Schools before writing an offer, not assume based on the community’s price point. If school zoning is your primary driver, that verification step isn’t optional.

Buyers who want a garage on a budget. The Aurora villas, the cheapest and most FHA-friendly option, come with no garage. If covered parking is a hard requirement, you’re looking at Lusso or Radiance minimum, which raises your entry price by $70K to $200K+.

Buyers who haven’t budgeted for the CDD. If your mortgage pre-approval and monthly budget were built only around the advertised HOA, go back and add the CDD math above before you fall in love with a specific plan. It’s not a dealbreaker for most buyers, but it does change your real monthly number by $150 to $215, depending on collection.

Buyers who need single-story living. Every floor plan across all three collections at Solterra is two-story. If stairs are a nonstarter, whether for an aging parent moving in, a mobility limitation, or simply a personal preference, Solterra isn’t going to work regardless of how the price and location line up.

How Solterra Compares

Solterra isn’t the only Lennar or builder community in this part of Broward, and it shouldn’t be the only one you tour. If you’re doing real due diligence, put it side by side with Marigold and Estates by Turnberry, both of which we’ve reviewed with the same prices-floor-plans-HOA-CDD framework, because HOA and CDD structures vary meaningfully community to community even within the same builder’s portfolio, and the “starting price” on a builder’s website is never the full monthly picture.

The short version: Solterra wins on FHA accessibility and its Sawgrass Expressway location. Whether it wins on total monthly cost or long-term value depends on which collection you’re comparing it to, and that’s a conversation worth having with real numbers in front of you rather than a sales brochure. If your priority is the lowest possible combined HOA and CDD, Lusso is the number to beat among Solterra’s own collections. If your priority is the lowest entry price with FHA financing, Aurora wins that comparison outright. And if detached living and long-term resale flexibility matter more than either, Radiance is the one to walk before you decide.

Bottom Line

Solterra by Lennar in Sunrise is a legitimate option for FHA-eligible new construction starting at $543,990, with gated security and resort-style amenities that are genuinely there, not just rendered on a brochure. The honest caveat is the CDD assessment stacked on the HOA across all three collections, which adds $150 to $215 a month to your real cost depending on which collection you choose. Neither fact should be a surprise on closing day.

If you’re weighing Solterra against other new-construction options in Broward or trying to figure out whether Sunrise fits your commute and budget better than Weston, Cooper City, or another suburb, that’s exactly the kind of decision worth talking through before you tour. DM me “SOLTERRA” and I’ll send you the current floor plans, availability, and a real monthly cost breakdown for the collection that fits your budget.

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Solterra: Everything You Need to Know Before You Visit

Solterra: Everything You Need to Know Before You Visit