Paying Up: How Rising Property Values Could Impact Your Property Tax Bill

South Florida’s hot housing market means more tax dollars will be flowing into cities and counties in the area, even if tax rates stay the same.

“Significant amounts of revenue are coming in,” said Marty Kiar, Broward County's property appraiser.

The 2022 estimate of the taxable values of properties in Broward County show an increase of about 10% this year. In Miami-Dade County, taxable values jumped 10.2% from last year.

“I’ve been 55 years in the business of real estate, including my property appraiser time, and I’ve never seen anything like this on the increase in values,” said Pedro J. Garcia, Miami-Dade’s property appraiser.

Those who will probably feel the biggest impact on their tax bill are people who recently purchased a new home.

“The people moving in are paying top dollar for properties,” Kiar said. “So they’re going to pay a significant amount in property taxes.”

How much a new homeowner will pay depends on several factors, including the market value of the new home and whether they qualify for any exemptions. If they are moving to another home within the state, they may also benefit from portability.

“If you buy a home of equal value or greater value, you can take whatever difference that was between your market value and your assessed value with you to your new home and not pay taxes on it,” Kiar said. “Right now it’s helping people a lot more than before because property values are so very, very high.”

You can learn more about portability by clicking here. Broward County has a portability calculator you can use by clicking here.

Still, there’s a good chance many South Florida homeowners will see an increase in their tax bill the year after they bought their homes. 

NBC 6 took a look at a random home in Miramar that was sold in 2020 for $540,000. The 2020 tax bill for the home, which was based on the previous owner’s assessed value, was $7,160.34. The 2021 tax bill jumped to $9,275.11 – a nearly 30% increase. The home’s assessed value also jumped over $100,000 in 2021.

If you have not recently purchased a home and qualify for the homestead exemption, Kiar said you are protected from drastic increases by the Save Our Homes cap.

“The vast majority of residential property owners are really not going to see a very big increase in their property taxes because of that very important assessment cap,” Kiar said.

Under the cap, even if the market value of your home significantly rises, the assessed value can’t increase more than 3% each year or the CPI change, whichever is lower. This year’s assessed value for that same Miramar home NBC 6 looked at only increased about 3%, even though the market value jumped over $50,000.

“It keeps the property value you’re taxed on manageable, so it won’t skyrocket with your market value,” Kiar said. “So your property taxes don’t skyrocket with your market value.”

You can read more about the Save Our Homes cap here.

The deadline for applying for a new Homestead exemption was March 1, but you can still submit an application.

Click here for Miami-Dade’s homestead exemption application.

Click here for Broward’s homestead exemption application.

If you feel the assessed value of your property is too high, you should reach out to your county’s property appraiser’s office and ask them to take a second look. 

You can also file an appeal with the county’s value adjustment board.  To read more about the process, click here for Miami-Dade and here for Broward.

Click here to learn more about the different exemptions you may qualify for in Miami-Dade and here in Broward.