Florida Amendment 3: how much would the homestead exemption save you?

Long story short: if Amendment 3 takes effect, a City of Miami homestead assessed at $150,000 or more would pay about $1,307 less property tax in 2027, which is about $109 a month in escrow. From 2028 a homestead assessed at $250,000 or more would pay about $2,633 less. Both figures use 2025 millage rates. What you save depends on two things: the non-school tax rate where you live and whether you lived in Florida on December 31, 2026. Non-school tax means every property tax rate on your bill except the school district's. The Volusia County elections guide lists it as Amendment 3 for Election Day, November 3, 2026.

What Amendment 3 would change

Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption for every tax except school taxes, in two steps, and give people who move to Florida after 2026 a smaller exemption for their first four years. The table compares today's amounts with the joint resolution the Legislature passed (CS/HJR 1F).

The 2026 row is current law, and its non-school amounts are upper limits. A newcomer is someone who was not a Florida resident on December 31, 2026; their amount applies until the fifth year of exemption and, because a homestead first claimed during 2027 starts on the 2028 roll, in practice from 2028. From 2029 the $250,000 is indexed to inflation.

The current non-school figure is $25,000 plus a second band that applies to assessed value between $50,000 and an inflation-indexed ceiling, which the state's Revenue Estimating Conference puts at $76,411 for 2026 and a band of $27,143 for 2027. What does it mean for you? It means that under current law the 2027 non-school exemption would be $25,000 plus that $27,143 band, so up to $52,143, and that is the figure every saving below is measured against.

The resolution's text also lowers the yearly cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property from 10% before January 1, 2027 to 5% from that date, for non-school levies. It limits what counties and cities may spend property tax on to a list: public safety, schools, infrastructure, natural resources, debt, retirement benefits and the operations of county officers and cities, plus other spending their governing bodies approve unless general law prohibits it. It tells the Legislature to set a procedure for counties and cities to raise the exemption as far as the home's full assessed value, and it takes effect January 1, 2027. Passing it takes 60% of the votes cast on it, per the House final bill analysis. Without it, the current-law row applies.

How the Florida homestead exemption is calculated, now and under Amendment 3

So basically, an exemption takes dollars off your home's assessed value before the tax rate is applied. Think of it as a coupon on the value of the house: it comes off first, and the rate hits whatever is left. Assessed value and market value are two different numbers. For a homestead, Save Our Homes caps the yearly rise in assessed value at 3% or the inflation rate, whichever is lower, so long-time owners can have an assessed value well below what the house would sell for. After a sale, the same statute resets the home to just value on January 1 of the following year, so a recent buyer starts from roughly the market value.

Florida law defines an ad valorem tax as a tax based on assessed value and a mill as one one-thousandth of a dollar, so a rate of 1 mill is $1 per $1,000 of taxable value. The exemption only reduces these taxes. Flat non-ad valorem assessments on the same bill are not affected, because the homestead exemption statute excludes assessments for special benefits.

The saving from Amendment 3 for a resident homestead is:

(new non-school exemption − current non-school exemption) × non-school mills ÷ 1,000

The amendment exempts value "up to the assessed valuation" of each amount, so a home assessed at $100,000 can only use $100,000 of the new exemption. For a City of Miami homestead assessed at $150,000 or more in 2027, that is ($150,000 − $52,143) × 13.3548 ÷ 1,000 = $1,307.

To run your own numbers you need your assessed value and your non-school millage. Both are on your TRIM notice, the notice of proposed property taxes your county property appraiser mails to every taxpayer each year, and on the appraiser's website. Add up every rate on the notice that is not a school board levy.

How much would you save? Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville

The tables apply the formula to three assessed values in three cities. The rates are the 2025 adopted non-school millage for a parcel inside each city, from the Florida Department of Revenue's taxing authority files for Miami-Dade (City of Miami: 19.9878 total, 13.3548 non-school), Hillsborough (City of Tampa: 19.8428 total, 13.5028 non-school) and Duval (Jacksonville: 17.7412 total, 11.3982 non-school). The non-school figure includes city and county debt levies, since the new exemption applies to all levies other than school district levies.

Assumptions: 2025 rates stay the same, the current-law exemption is $52,143 in 2027 and $52,805 in 2028 (the conference's 2028 band is $27,805), and the owner lived in Florida on December 31, 2026. A home assessed at $100,000 saves a little less in 2028, because it already uses all of its value in 2027 and the current-law exemption it is compared with keeps growing.

For a parcel-level estimate in Palm Beach County, the property appraiser publishes an Amendment 3 homestead calculator. Other county appraisers may publish their own.

Bought or moving in 2027: who gets the bigger exemption

The five-year wait depends on where you lived on December 31, 2026. The amendment's text gives anyone "who had not maintained a permanent residence in this state as of December 31, 2026" an exemption of $25,000 from school taxes and $50,000 from non-school taxes, then the full amount "beginning with the fifth year of exemption." The Revenue Estimating Conference's reading gives three cases:

1. You already have a Florida homestead. The text gives $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 from 2028.
2. You live in Florida and buy a different Florida home after 2026. The conference says anyone with a permanent residence in Florida on December 31, 2026 is eligible for the larger exemption in 2027 or later, starting with the first roll after your January 1 homestead date.
3. You move to Florida after December 31, 2026. You get $50,000 off non-school taxes, indexed from 2028, for your first four years of exemption, a little below today's exemption of up to $51,411. The conference assumes no $50,000 exemptions in 2027, because a homestead first claimed during 2027 starts on the 2028 roll, so for a 2027 buyer those years are usually 2028 to 2031 and the full exemption applies from 2032. The text lets a county or city shorten the wait from 2030 by a two-thirds vote of the membership of its governing body for a "critical local need."

The gap between two neighbors can be large. The conference's own 2028 example compares a $250,000 resident exemption with a $51,220 newcomer exemption, a difference of $198,780 of value. At Miami's 2025 non-school rate that is about $2,655 a year, or $221 a month, on a home assessed at $250,000 or more.

What it would do to your monthly mortgage payment

If your lender collects property tax with your payment, the saving reaches you through escrow, at the servicer's yearly review. The servicer must run an escrow account analysis at the end of each 12-month computation year to set your monthly escrow payment for the next one. Once the analysis uses a lower tax bill, the escrow part of your payment drops by roughly the yearly saving divided by 12: about $109 a month on the Miami example in 2027 and up to about $219 from 2028. If the account has collected more than it needs, the same rule requires the servicer to refund a surplus of $50 or more within 30 days of the analysis, as long as you are current on your payments.

For a buyer, January 1 decides the first year. The exemption goes to whoever holds title on January 1 and makes the home their permanent residence, and the application is due by March 1. A lender's estimate based on the seller's bill can also be off, because the home is reassessed at just value on January 1 of the year after the sale. To see the payment line, enter the new yearly tax in the property tax field of the UnityCalc mortgage calculator, which adds property tax, homeowners insurance and HOA fees to the loan payment. Any calculator that includes escrow costs works the same way.

What your actual saving depends on

Three things can move your real number away from the tables.

1. Local rates. Each county and city fixes its millage every year under Florida's millage-setting statute. A higher rate makes the exemption worth more in dollars but raises the tax on the rest of your value; a lower rate does the opposite.
2. Your assessed value. A long-time owner with a low Save Our Homes value may not use the full $150,000 or $250,000.
3. Inflation. From 2029 the $250,000 is adjusted for inflation, so the saving moves a little each year.

The other side of the saving is local revenue. Florida's Revenue Estimating Conference estimated local non-school property tax revenue $4.93 billion lower in 2027-28 and $11.83 billion lower a year once fully in effect, for the higher exemption and the 5% non-homestead cap together. How counties and cities would respond is outside this calculation. The conference estimates no change in school tax revenue.

What supporters and opponents say

The Volusia County elections guide sums up both sides. Supporters argue that the amendment gives homeowners direct relief at a time when rising values have pushed up the cost of owning a home, sets a path toward eventually ending non-school homestead taxes and makes local governments more accountable by tying property tax to core services.

Opponents argue that it takes away one of the main revenue sources of cities and counties without a reliable replacement, so local officials could cut other services, raise fees and assessments or raise millage on property that remains taxable. They also argue that the different exemption schedules and caps would make the system harder for homeowners, businesses and property appraisers to understand and run.

Questions people ask