Free calculator · For HOA boards
How far funded is our reserve, and how much should we be saving each month?
A 120-home community holds $85,000 in reserve against a clubhouse roof ($60,000, 25-year life, 12 years old), pool resurfacing ($45,000, 12-year life, 7 years old), asphalt paving ($180,000, 25-year life, 14 years old) and a perimeter fence ($30,000, 20-year life, 9 years old), with costs rising 3% a year.
The fully funded balance is $169,350, so the reserve is 50.2% funded (the fair band), $84,350 behind pace. Keeping every component paid for when it is due takes about $2,890 a month, or $24.08 per home.
For each component, the fully funded amount is its replacement cost times the share of its useful life already used. A roof 12 years into a 25-year life should have 48% of its cost set aside.
Percent funded is your reserve balance divided by the total of those amounts. Community Associations Institute’s reserve study standards define percent funded the same way.
For the monthly contribution, today’s balance is shared across the components in proportion to what each should already hold. Each one then needs its future cost, grown by your cost-growth rate until it is due, less its share, spread over the years it has left.
It is the reserve balance divided by the fully funded balance: what the community would hold today if it had set money aside as each component wore. A reserve at 50% funded holds half of the wear already on its components.
Reserve professionals and CAI-aligned guidance generally read 70% and up as strong, 30% to 70% as fair, and under 30% as weak, where a large repair is likely to need a special assessment or a loan.
No. A reserve study by a credentialed specialist inspects every component and sets the costs and lives this calculator uses. Use this to understand the numbers and to check the plan between studies.
Leaving interest out keeps the monthly contribution on the safe side. If your reserve earns a steady return, the real amount needed is a little lower.
Rebel HOA keeps the reserve balance, and every dollar the board sets aside, in one set of books the whole board can read.