If you own and live in your Florida home, the next twelve months could permanently change what you pay in property taxes. On June 2, 2026, the Florida Legislature passed the constitutional amendment officially titled "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" (CS/HJR 1F) on a 75–26 House vote and a 30–9 Senate vote. The measure would raise the homestead exemption from today's $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. It now goes on the November 3, 2026 ballot, where it needs 60% voter approval. This guide skips the politics (we cover that in our full DeSantis plan breakdown) and focuses on one thing: what the number means for your bill.
How the $250,000 Exemption Works
Today, Florida's homestead exemption shields the first $50,000 of your home's assessed value from property taxes (technically $25,000 from all taxes and another $25,000 from non-school taxes). The proposed amendment supersizes that shield in two steps:
- 2027 tax year: the exemption rises to $150,000 of assessed value
- 2028 tax year and beyond: the exemption rises to $250,000, then grows automatically with inflation every year
- Long term: the amendment requires the Legislature to develop, through general law, a schedule for full elimination of homestead property taxes (no dollar figure is specified for that schedule in the bill itself)
Three details matter enormously, and most news coverage glosses over them:
1. It applies to your assessed value, not your market value. If you have owned your home for years, your assessed value is likely far below what the home would sell for, because the Save Our Homes cap limits assessed-value growth to 3% per year. A home worth $600,000 on the market might carry an assessed value of just $280,000. That gap is exactly why so many homeowners will fall under the new exemption.
2. It only covers non-school taxes. During the special session, lawmakers carved school district levies out of the proposal. School taxes are roughly 40% of a typical Florida bill, and you will keep paying them no matter how large the exemption gets.
3. It is not law yet. The amendment needs 60% approval from Florida voters on November 3, 2026. If it fails, everything stays as it is today.
How Much You Would Actually Save
The savings formula is simple: the newly exempted value × your local non-school tax rate. Compared with today's $50,000 exemption, the 2028 exemption shields an additional $200,000 of assessed value from county, city, and special-district taxes. How much that is worth in dollars depends on your local millage rates — the Broward and Miami-Dade property appraisers estimate average savings of roughly $1,500 to $1,800 per year for homeowners in their counties. You can look up your own rates on your county property appraiser's website or our county-by-county rate guide.
What we can show precisely is how much of your home's value stops being taxed. Here is the arithmetic at different assessed values:
| Your assessed value | Non-school taxable today | Non-school taxable in 2028 | Value no longer taxed |
|---|---|---|---|
| $150,000 | $100,000 | $0 | $100,000 |
| $250,000 | $200,000 | $0 | $200,000 |
| $350,000 | $300,000 | $100,000 | $200,000 |
| $500,000 | $450,000 | $250,000 | $200,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $950,000 | $750,000 | $200,000 |
Today's non-school taxable value = assessed value minus the current $50,000 exemption. 2028 value = assessed value minus the proposed $250,000 exemption. Multiply the "value no longer taxed" column by your local non-school millage rate to estimate your own savings.
The newly exempted value caps out at $200,000 no matter how valuable your home is — a $1 million homestead gets the same dollar benefit as a $350,000 homestead. The proposal is deliberately structured this way: the benefit is proportionally largest for modest homes and long-time owners.
Selling or moving? Your biggest tax benefit is on the line.
Most Florida homeowners have tens of thousands of dollars in Save Our Homes protection — and lose it by accident when they move. Check what yours is worth and what happens to it if you sell.
Who Would Pay Nothing at All
The Governor's office estimates that at $250,000, about 60% of homesteaded Florida homeowners would owe zero non-school property tax. That sounds dramatic, but the math checks out — and the reason is a benefit you may already have without realizing it.
Florida's Save Our Homes cap has limited assessed-value growth to 3% per year since 1995. Meanwhile, market values have roughly doubled in many counties just since 2019. The result: long-time owners carry assessed values dramatically below what their homes are worth. The median homesteaded property in Florida has an assessed value near $200,000 — comfortably under the proposed exemption.
Two identical homes in St. Petersburg, both worth $450,000 today. Neighbor A (left) bought in 2008; Save Our Homes has held her assessed value to $230,000. Under the new exemption, her non-school tax bill goes to zero. Neighbor B (right) bought last year at full price; his assessed value is $440,000. He still pays non-school tax on $190,000 of value. Same houses, very different outcomes. The difference is the Save Our Homes benefit Neighbor A built up over 18 years.
This is also why protecting your Save Our Homes benefit when you move matters more than ever. Florida lets you transfer (port) up to $500,000 of accumulated benefit to your next home — but only if you claim it correctly and on time. Homeowners who botch the transfer reset to full market value, which under the new system can be the difference between paying nothing and paying thousands.
The Catch: What the Exemption Does NOT Do
Before you mentally spend the savings, here is the honest list of what stays on your bill:
School taxes survive untouched. Lawmakers amended the proposal during the special session specifically to protect school funding. On a typical bill, school levies are around 40% of the total. A homeowner paying $5,500 today would still pay roughly $2,200 of it even with a full exemption.
Non-ad valorem assessments survive too. Solid waste fees, stormwater fees, CDD bonds, and special assessments are not property taxes — they are flat charges, and the exemption does not touch them. In some newer communities these run $2,000–$4,000 per year. Check your TRIM notice to see how much of your bill they represent.
Second homes and rentals get nothing. The exemption is homestead-only. Investment properties, vacation homes, and commercial buildings stay fully taxable (their assessment growth cap does improve from 10% to 5% per year). And anyone who establishes Florida residency after January 1, 2027 gets only the current $50,000 exemption for their first five years as a resident — the full exemption is reserved for established Floridians, by design, so the tax cut does not fuel a new migration wave.
Local services have to be paid for somehow. The amendment creates a state trust fund to help counties — especially rural ones — replace lost revenue, but critics including the Florida League of Cities warn the fund's size is unspecified. Some counties may respond with higher fees, new assessments, or service cuts. The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser projects local agencies there would lose $725 million within two years.
The amendment is officially titled "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" — but it is not the same thing as your existing Save Our Homes cap. They are two separate benefits that work together. Do not let the similar names confuse you when you read your ballot in November.
What You Should Do Now
The vote is months away, and nothing about your current bill changes until 2027 at the earliest. But there are four things worth doing today, and every one of them pays off whether or not the amendment passes:
1. Confirm you actually have a homestead exemption. It is the gateway to every benefit discussed in this article, and thousands of eligible Florida homeowners never file. Look up your property on your county property appraiser's site to check in seconds. If you are missing it, file Form DR-501 before the March 1 deadline.
2. Find your assessed value. Not your market value — your assessed value, listed on your TRIM notice and your property appraiser's website. If it is under $250,000, you are in the group whose non-school taxes would disappear entirely.
3. Know your Save Our Homes benefit before you move. If a move is anywhere in your plans — upsizing, downsizing, relocating — your accumulated Save Our Homes benefit is the single most valuable tax asset you own, and it remains essential under the new system (it is what keeps your assessed value low enough to fall under the exemption). Check what yours is worth before you list your home, not after.
4. Vote in November. Whatever your view, the amendment needs 60% to pass. Florida constitutional amendments routinely poll above 60% and then fail at the ballot box — the 2024 abortion-rights amendment got 57% and failed. Your vote will genuinely matter.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most common questions Florida homeowners are asking about the proposed $250,000 homestead exemption, answered plainly.
Selling or moving? Your biggest tax benefit is on the line.
Most Florida homeowners have tens of thousands of dollars in Save Our Homes protection — and lose it by accident when they move. Check what yours is worth and what happens to it if you sell.
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