Save Our Homes is a Florida constitutional cap (Art. VII, s. 4) that limits how fast the assessed value of a homesteaded property can rise: 3% a year, or the change in CPI, whichever is lower.
Market values often climb faster than that. Over years, the cap opens a gap between what the Property Appraiser says your property is worth (just value) and the lower number you are actually taxed on.
The cap resets when the property changes hands, which is why a new owner's tax bill can be far higher than the previous owner's on the same house.
This is the single most common reason a Florida appeal is not worth filing, and it is invisible if you only look at the just value on your notice.
Any honest Florida savings estimate has to be calculated against the capped assessed value, not the just value. Deriving it from the just-value reduction can overstate savings several times over.
We check the gap before recommending a petition.
A homesteaded property has a just value of $600,000 but an assessed value of $410,000 after a decade under the cap.
The owner successfully argues the just value should be $540,000 — a $60,000 reduction. Their bill does not change, because $540,000 is still well above the $410,000 they are taxed on.
Only a reduction below $410,000 would reach the bill.
No. The 3% cap applies only to homesteaded property. Non-homestead residential and commercial property has a separate 10% cap on assessment increases, which behaves similarly but is more generous.
Partly. Florida's portability provision lets you transfer accumulated Save Our Homes benefit, up to $500,000, to a new Florida homestead within the statutory time limit.
Most likely they have owned longer. Their assessed value has been held down by the cap for years while yours reset to market value when you bought. Same house, same just value, very different bills.