Save Our Homes and Florida's Assessment Caps

Florida has two different assessment caps, and they are not interchangeable. Confusing them is the single most common mistake in online explanations of Florida property tax.

1. Save Our Homes (homestead property)

For property receiving the homestead exemption, the assessed value may not increase in a year by more than the lower of:

• 3% of the assessed value for the prior year, or
• the percent change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the preceding calendar year.

Because the limit is the lower of the two, the effective limit changes every year — it is not a flat "3% annual cap" the way Texas's 10% rule works. If the capped assessed value would ever exceed just value, it is lowered to just value.

What resets Save Our Homes

• Change of ownership: the property is assessed at just value on January 1 of the year following the change (with statutory exceptions, such as transfers between spouses, certain transfers to surviving owners, and other enumerated situations).
• Additions or improvements: assessed at just value the first January 1 after substantial completion — the cap never covered new construction.
• Losing the exemption: ends the limitation.

Florida also has a portability provision: part of the accumulated benefit can transfer to a new Florida homestead. The specifics are beyond this site's scope; confirm them with the property appraiser.

2. The non-homestead residential cap

A separate rule limits residential property with nine or fewer dwelling units that does not receive the homestead exemption: the assessed value may not increase more than 10% of the prior year's assessed value — but only for levies other than school district levies. It has its own change-of-ownership reset rules, including transfers of more than 50% of the owning entity.

Do not confuse this with the Texas 10% homestead cap. They share a number, nothing else: Florida's 10% cap applies to non-homestead residential and excludes schools; Texas's 10% cap applies to homesteads.

Worked example (illustrative)

Illustrative example with made-up numbers — the real annual limit depends on the applicable CPI change for the year, which this site does not publish.

1. Inputs: last year's assessed value $320,000; this year's just value $390,000; homestead exemption in place.
2. Step — the fixed leg: 3% of $320,000 = $9,600, so assessed value could rise to $329,600 before this leg is exceeded.
3. Interpretation: if your notice shows an assessed value above $329,600, either the CPI leg was higher this year, the property lost and regained the exemption, there was a change of ownership or an addition, or something is worth checking with the property appraiser.

What this tells you: a single-year comparison of assessed values can identify when the limitation did not move your assessed value as far as you expected — a legitimate starting point for a question to the property appraiser.

What it does not tell you: whether the just value itself is correct, how much accumulated Save Our Homes benefit you hold (that needs the just-vs-assessed gap), or whether a specific reset applied to your property.

Common misunderstanding

A large gap between just value and assessed value on a long-held homestead is the normal effect of Save Our Homes compounding for years. It is not evidence of an over-assessment by itself. The question a review would answer is whether the just value is supported by the market — not whether the cap "worked".

Next steps

• Read the TRIM notice to see where these figures appear on your notice.
• Understand the VAB petition process if you believe the just value is wrong.