Florida Homestead Portability

What the Save Our Homes benefit is

Once a home has homestead, its assessed value can rise each year by no more than 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. Market value can rise faster. Over time the two numbers drift apart, and property tax is charged on the lower, capped figure (minus exemptions).

That gap is the Save Our Homes benefit. Take a homestead with a market value, which Florida calls just value, of $400,000 and an assessed value of $250,000. The benefit is $150,000.

When you sell, the new owner's assessment resets to market value, and so would yours on the next home you buy. Portability is the exception: it lets you take that $150,000 with you, within limits, so your new home starts with an assessed value below its market value.

The size of the benefit depends on how long you held the old home and how fast prices rose. With the assessment cap at most 3% a year, five years of maximum increases compound to about 15.9%, while Zillow's statewide index rose 18.6% in the same period. Owners who bought ten or twenty years ago usually have a much wider gap than that.

Upsizing: buying a home worth more

If the new homestead has a higher just value than the old one, you can transfer the full benefit, up to $500,000. The transferred amount is subtracted from the new home's just value to get its first assessed value.

Using the example above, a $150,000 benefit moved to a new home with a just value of $500,000 gives a first-year assessed value of $350,000. Homestead exemptions then come off that figure, and from there the 3% cap applies again.

At Florida's typical home value of $375,361, the difference is concrete. A buyer arriving with a $150,000 benefit and buying a home at that value would start with an assessed value of about $225,361 instead of the full price.

Downsizing: buying a home worth less

If the new home has a lower just value, you transfer a proportional share of the benefit. The formula is the new home's just value divided by the old home's just value, multiplied by the old benefit.

Same example: old home just value $400,000, benefit $150,000, new home just value $300,000. The share is 75%, so $112,500 transfers. The new home's first assessed value is $300,000 minus $112,500, or $187,500.

The transferred amount can never exceed $500,000, whichever direction you move. Downsizers often leave this on the table because they assume a smaller home won't need it. The proportional benefit can still be large, and on a fixed income the annual savings matter. Retirees moving from a long-held family house in, say, Palm Beach County ($475,754 typical value on Zillow) to a condo in a lower-cost county get a share sized to the new price, not zero.

Deadlines and how to file

The timing rule is three years. You must establish the new homestead by January 1 of a year that is within three tax years after January 1 of the year you gave up the old homestead. Florida voters extended this from two years in 2020, which gives people room to sell, wait and buy.

To claim it:

• Apply for homestead on the new home with that county's property appraiser by March 1 of the year you want it to start.
• File the portability form, DR-501T, with the same application. The new county requests the benefit amount from the old county if they differ.
• Keep records of the old home's sale date and parcel number.

You can apply for portability later than the first year of the new homestead if you missed it, but only within the three-year window, and you lose any years you didn't claim. Portability moves between Florida counties without a problem. It doesn't come from another state, because Save Our Homes only applies to Florida homesteads.

Couples, divorce and two old homesteads

A few situations come up often:

• Married couple, one old home, one new home: the benefit transfers to the new homestead. If only one spouse is on the new deed, check with the property appraiser how the benefit is allocated.
• Spouses splitting into two homes: the benefit is divided between the owners of the old homestead, and each can take their share to a new home.
• Two people combining: when two homestead owners marry and buy one home, they can each bring a benefit, but the combined amount transferred can't exceed $500,000, and specific rules apply. The appraiser's office can run the numbers.
• Sale after the owner's death: the benefit belongs to the homestead owner, so heirs generally can't port it.

This isn't legal or tax advice. For anything beyond a simple one-home-to-one-home move, a call to the property appraiser before you sign is free and saves surprises.

Using portability when you pick the next home

Portability changes what a home costs you to own, so it belongs in the comparison when you're choosing between homes. I run the numbers this way:

• Find the benefit on your current property's record. Most appraiser websites show just value and assessed value side by side.
• Estimate the transferred amount for each candidate price, full or proportional.
• Subtract it from the candidate's price to estimate the first assessed value, then apply exemptions and the local millage.
• Compare that with the seller's current tax bill, which tells you little about yours.

Between two candidates priced below your old home, the cheaper one receives a smaller share of the benefit, so the tax gap between them is narrower than the price gap suggests. Timing matters too. If you sell in 2026 and wait to buy, the window runs through the 2029 tax year, but the clock starts January 1 of the year you abandon the old homestead, not your sale date.

Amendment 3, on the November 3, 2026 ballot, proposes changes to homestead and non-homestead taxes and needs 60% to pass. The result was not known when this was written, so check how it turned out before you rely on any estimate. If you'd like each listing on a shortlist shown with its estimated tax after portability, send me your current parcel and I'll do the math.