Florida likes to advertise itself as a low-tax state, no income tax, and that’s true as far as it goes. What it doesn’t capture is how differently two neighbors can be taxed on identical houses, or how much of the last five years’ growth in local government revenue has come from rising values rather than rising rates. Understanding where Florida’s property tax has actually been, and where it’s actually headed, means separating the statewide average from the real distribution underneath it.
Short version: Florida’s property tax system has been shaped by two constitutional interventions thirteen years apart, Save Our Homes in 1995 and Amendment 1 in 2008, both written to blunt the effects of a housing boom. The state’s average effective rate (0.78%) is genuinely below the national average, but that average hides a widening gap: long-tenure homesteaded owners are increasingly insulated, while new buyers, renters, and non-homestead property absorb a growing share of a growing bill. A new measure, Amendment 3, is on the November 3, 2026 ballot and would raise the homestead exemption further, but it’s a scaled-down version of what Governor DeSantis originally proposed, and its passage at the required 60% is genuinely uncertain, not a done deal.
Three decades of change
1995 — Save Our Homes. The rule that defines everything downstream: annual assessment growth on a homesteaded property is capped at 3% (or the CPI, whichever is lower), no matter what’s happening to the home’s actual market value. It was popular, effective at protecting long-term owners from being taxed out of homes they’d owned for years, and it created a structural gap that’s still growing thirty years later.
2000–2006 — the first boom. Florida home values roughly doubled. Save Our Homes did exactly what it was designed to do for existing homesteaded owners, but non-homestead property, rentals, second homes, businesses, had no cap at all and absorbed the full increase. New buyers, meanwhile, reset to full market value the moment they closed. The backlash produced the next major change.
January 2008 — Amendment 1. Doubled the homestead exemption to today’s $25,000-plus-$25,000 structure, made Save Our Homes savings portable when a homesteaded owner moves, and, for the first time, capped annual assessment growth on non-homestead property at 10%.
2007–2011 — the crash. Values fell statewide, but Save Our Homes is a one-way ratchet for anyone who bought near the top: assessed value can fall, but the gap that built up during the boom between assessed and market value doesn’t fully close for owners who stay put.
2012–2020 — slow recovery. Values climbed back gradually, and the assessed-to-market gap widened again, as it always does in an up market.
2020–2026 — the second, bigger boom. This is the run that’s actually driving the current political moment. At the county level alone, ad valorem revenue went from roughly $14.08 billion in FY2021 to $18.82 billion in FY2024, a 33.7% increase in three years. Looked at across all local governments combined (counties, cities, school districts, and special districts), the Governor’s office frames it as revenue nearly doubling in seven years, from $32 billion to $60 billion, on a trajectory toward $83 billion by 2032.
The detail worth sitting with: this growth has been overwhelmingly a values story, not a rates story. Fifty-five of Florida’s 67 counties have actually lowered or held their operating millage rate since 2020. Bills went up because homes got dramatically more valuable, not because local governments raised the rate on them.
Why the statewide average is misleading
Florida’s average effective property tax rate, 0.78% of home value, is genuinely below the national average, and the state ranks 5th overall on the Tax Foundation’s State Tax Competitiveness Index. If you only look at that number, Florida looks like a low-tax state, full stop.
What that average doesn’t show is the gap between what a longtime owner and a brand-new buyer pay for the identical house next door. This is where most of the real financial pain actually sits, and it’s become common enough to have a name: Save Our Homes sticker shock. Orange County’s property appraiser has described it plainly: a home that sold for $535,000 in 2025 showed an advertised tax bill of about $4,108, reflecting the previous owner’s years of accumulated Save Our Homes protection. A new buyer without a transferable exemption actually owed somewhere between $8,225 and $9,194, roughly double, because the cap resets to market value the moment the deed transfers. (This is exactly the “year two surprise” covered in our homestead exemption guide and in property tax rates by county, it’s just far more pronounced after several years of rapid appreciation than it was a decade ago.)
The burden has also shifted structurally by property type. Homestead property makes up 46.6% of Florida’s total assessed value statewide, but generates only 35.1% of property tax revenue. Non-homestead property, rentals, second homes, commercial, vacant land, is 53.4% of value but carries 64.9% of the tax burden. Landlords and businesses are effectively subsidizing the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes cap, and since landlord costs pass through to rent, tenants feel this indirectly even though they never see a property tax bill of their own.
Where it hits hardest, and where it doesn’t
County-to-county, the spread is real. Based on combined millage (county, school, and any city or special district that applies) on a roughly $400,000 homesteaded home:
| Combined millage | Est. annual bill | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest — St. Lucie County | ~21.56 mills | ~$7,545 |
| Alachua County | ~20.89 mills | — |
| Dixie County | ~19.87 mills | — |
| Lowest — Monroe County (Keys) | ~8.24 mills | ~$2,883 |
| Walton County | ~9.15 mills | — |
| Collier County | ~9.82 mills | — |
The counterintuitive part: several of the lowest-millage counties, Monroe, Collier, Walton, are also among the most expensive real estate in the state. They can run a low rate precisely because sky-high property values generate plenty of revenue per mill. Counties like St. Lucie and Bradford (which sits at the 10-mill constitutional ceiling for county operating millage) are leaning on rate rather than value to fund services.
Of the five counties covered on this site, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, and Polk, all sit in the moderate middle of this statewide range, see property tax rates by county for the exact current figures. None of them are anywhere near either extreme, which is itself worth knowing if you’re comparing Central Florida to, say, the Treasure Coast or the Panhandle.
What Amendment 3 would actually change
Here’s where it gets timely. Governor DeSantis’s original proposal, unveiled May 27, 2026 under the banner “Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes,” was far more ambitious than what’s on the ballot: a path toward eliminating the non-school homestead tax entirely, a future $500,000 exemption, and a state trust fund to backfill local government budgets.
The Legislature significantly scaled that back. What passed on June 2 and landed on the ballot as Amendment 3 / HJR 1-F is the version already described in our homestead exemption article: raising the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes from today’s $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, then $250,000 in 2028, lowering the non-homestead assessment cap from 10% to 5%, and requiring five years of Florida residency for new homeowners to access the expanded exemption. The path to $500,000 and the state backfill trust fund were both stripped out.
What’s genuinely new since that earlier coverage: on June 29, 2026, DeSantis said he will not formally campaign for the amendment, because the version that passed wasn’t the proposal he’d put forward, though he still plans to vote for it himself. Legislative economists estimate the measure would cut local government revenue by roughly $12 billion a year by 2031, with no replacement funding mechanism written into the amendment itself. Opposition has been building through the summer, and the 60% supermajority required for any Florida constitutional amendment is a real hurdle on its own.
Put together: this is not a settled outcome. It could pass. It could also fail, in which case expect the Legislature back at a version of this within a cycle or two.
What this means if you own, or are buying, in Florida
A few practical takeaways that hold regardless of how November goes:
- If you’ve owned your home for years, Save Our Homes is very likely doing more for you than any ballot measure will. Your actual leverage point is making sure you’re homesteaded and that your exemption is current, not tracking legislation.
- If you’re buying, do not trust the tax figure on a listing. It reflects the seller’s years of accumulated protection, not what you’ll actually owe. Run the math assuming reassessment at your purchase price, and budget for the “year two” jump.
- If you own rental or investment property, you’re carrying a disproportionate and growing share of the statewide tax base, and that dynamic doesn’t change whether Amendment 3 passes or not, it changes the size of the gap, not the direction of it.
- County choice matters more than people assume. The difference between a St. Lucie-level rate and a Collier-level rate on an otherwise identical home is thousands of dollars a year, and it has nothing to do with home price.
Frequently Asked Questions
On average, yes, Florida’s effective rate of 0.78% is below the national average, and the state ranks 5th nationally on overall tax competitiveness. But that average hides wide variation by county and, more importantly, by how long you’ve owned your home.
It’s the jump a new buyer sees when a home’s property tax resets from the previous owner’s Save Our Homes-protected assessed value to full market value at the point of sale. A home advertised with a $4,000 tax bill can genuinely cost a new owner $8,000 or more, because the listing reflects the seller’s years of accumulated protection, not what a buyer will actually pay.
Non-homestead property, rentals, second homes, businesses, vacant land, makes up about 53% of Florida’s total property value but generates nearly 65% of property tax revenue. Homestead property is the reverse: a larger share of value, a smaller share of the bill.
It would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, lower the assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10% to 5% annually, and require five years of Florida residency before a new homeowner can access the expanded exemption. It does not eliminate property taxes, that was an earlier, broader proposal the Legislature did not pass.
It’s genuinely uncertain. It needs 60% voter approval, Governor DeSantis has said he won’t formally campaign for the version that passed, and local governments and other critics have raised concerns about the roughly $12 billion a year in revenue the measure would redirect with no replacement funding built in.
Sources:
https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2026/governor-ron-desantis-announces-special-session-property-tax-relief-unveils-save
https://taxfoundation.org/blog/florida-property-tax-proposal/
https://taxfoundation.org/location/florida/
https://www.fl-counties.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Florida-County-Property-Tax-Report-All-Counties.pdf
https://movewithmomentum.com/blog/florida-property-tax-desantis-2026
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2026/06/02/florida-homebuyers-can-face-property-tax-sticker-shock-after-purchase-heres-why/
https://www.floridaforboomers.com/highest-and-lowest-florida-county-property-tax-rates/