Property Tax · Statewide · June 2026
Peter Tumbas
REALTOR®, BHHS New England Properties · June 2026 · Sources: Palm Beach County Property Appraiser; Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; Florida Department of Revenue
Quick Answer
Save Our Homes portability lets a Florida homeowner transfer the accumulated gap between a previous homestead's market value and its capped assessed value, up to $500,000, to a new Florida homestead. You must establish the new homestead within three tax years of abandoning the old one and file by March 1. Without portability, that accumulated benefit simply disappears the moment you sell, because the buyer's assessment resets to full market value. With it, years of suppressed tax bills convert directly into a lower starting point on the next property.
Every Florida homeowner with a Homestead Exemption is also building a second, less visible asset: the gap between what their home is actually worth and what the county taxes it on. Save Our Homes caps the annual growth in assessed value at 3 percent, or the Consumer Price Index if lower, regardless of how much the market value actually appreciates. In a strong Florida market, that gap widens every year. Most homeowners only notice it once, when they receive a tax bill far lower than a recently purchased neighbor's. Few realize that gap is portable.
Portability was added to the Florida Constitution in 2008, specifically to solve a problem the original 1995 Save Our Homes amendment created. Save Our Homes rewarded staying in place and penalized moving, because the moment a homeowner sold and bought again, their new home was reassessed at full market value with no cap history behind it. Portability lets that history travel with the person rather than staying locked to the address. The mechanism matters enormously to the buyer profile this platform serves, because Palm Beach, Jupiter, and Naples buyers frequently move within Florida itself, upgrading from a starter purchase into a larger estate, or downsizing from a seasonal property into a primary one, after several years of ownership elsewhere in the state.
The portable amount is the difference between your previous home's just, or market, value and its assessed value at the time you abandon the homestead. Say a Jupiter buyer purchased a home in 2018 for $900,000. By 2026, the market value has climbed to $1.6 million, but the assessed value, capped at 3 percent annual growth, sits at roughly $1.1 million. That $500,000 gap is the portable benefit, and it happens to land right at the statutory cap. If that buyer sells and purchases a new $3 million home elsewhere in Florida, the new home's assessed value starts at $2.5 million instead of the full $3 million, because the $500,000 gap transfers directly onto the new property's assessment.
The transfer works differently if the new home is worth less than the old one. In that case, the county calculates a percentage rather than a flat dollar transfer. The assessed value of the old home is divided by its market value to produce a ratio, and that ratio is applied to the new home's market value to determine its starting assessment. A homeowner moving from a $2.5 million Naples estate with a $1.5 million assessed value into a $1.2 million Stuart condo would transfer 60 percent of the gap proportionally rather than the full dollar figure, since the new purchase is smaller. Palm Beach County, Miami-Dade, and every other county appraiser in the state uses the identical statutory formula, so the mechanics do not change based on which of the five markets on this platform you are moving between.
The three-year window is measured in tax years, not calendar years from your closing date, and that distinction has cost more than a few Florida sellers their portability benefit. If you abandon a homestead at any point during 2025, even in December, the entire year counts as one tax year. You then have until January 1, 2028, three tax years later, to establish the new homestead. A buyer who sells in early 2025 and assumes they have until early 2028 based on the closing date, rather than the calendar tax year, can miscalculate the deadline by nearly a year. Once the window closes, the accumulated benefit is gone permanently and cannot be reinstated.
Filing itself happens on Form DR-501T, the Transfer of Homestead Assessment Difference, submitted to the new county's property appraiser alongside the standard Homestead Exemption application. Both are due by March 1 of the year you want the benefit applied. There is no fee for either filing. If you have already filed for homestead on the new property in a prior year and only need to add the portability transfer, most counties, including Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Collier, accept the DR-501T as a standalone follow-up filing. The portability amount, once approved, shows up on the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes, the TRIM notice, mailed out each August.
Every owner named on a jointly titled homestead must abandon that exemption before any portion of the assessment difference becomes portable to anyone. This becomes relevant in divorce, in a second marriage where one spouse is selling a previous homestead, and in any situation where co-owners are not moving together. Spouses who jointly owned the prior homestead and are establishing separate new homesteads file Form DR-501TS, a Designation of Ownership Shares form, to specify how the portable benefit splits between them. Without that designation, the split defaults to equal shares regardless of each spouse's original ownership percentage, which is not always the outcome either party expects.
An unrelated but increasingly common scenario among the buyer profile on this platform: two individuals who each owned a separate Florida homestead, with two separate Save Our Homes histories, move in together and establish one new joint homestead. Florida law allows the higher of the two prior assessment limitations to transfer to the new shared homestead, not an average of the two or the lower figure. This is worth raising proactively with a property tax professional in any blended-household relocation within Florida, since it is not always something a closing attorney surfaces unprompted.
From Peter Tumbas
If you're moving within Florida, the portability math should be part of the offer conversation before you go under contract, not an afterthought at closing. Submit an inquiry and I'll walk through what your specific move looks like.
Three proposed constitutional amendments are scheduled for the November 2026 statewide ballot, and all three touch the Save Our Homes framework in some way, though none eliminates portability itself. HJR 211 would remove the current $500,000 cap on the portable amount entirely, letting a homeowner with, for example, $700,000 of accumulated benefit transfer the full figure rather than losing the excess above $500,000. For the highest-tier Palm Beach and Naples sellers who have held property for a decade or more, this is the proposal worth watching most closely, since it is the only one of the three that could meaningfully increase the dollar value of an existing benefit.
HJR 67 moves in the opposite direction for future accumulation, proposing to lower the annual assessment growth cap from 3 percent to 1.5 percent, or CPI if lower. A smaller annual cap means the gap between market value and assessed value would widen more slowly going forward, producing a smaller portable benefit over any given holding period than under the current 3 percent structure. HJR 213 is more procedural, proposing to shift non-school property reassessment to once every three years rather than annually, with growth over that three-year window still capped at 3 percent or CPI in aggregate.
All three require approval from 60 percent of Florida voters in November 2026 to take effect, and even if approved, none would apply until January 1, 2027. As of June 2026, the current rules, the 3 percent cap and the $500,000 portability ceiling, remain fully in effect for any sale or purchase completed this year. Buyers and sellers transacting in 2026 should plan against the existing framework rather than speculating on amendments that have not yet gone to a vote.
Portability has no bearing on a buyer's first Florida purchase. An out-of-state relocation into Palm Beach, Jupiter, Naples, Stuart, or Miami starts the Save Our Homes clock from zero, with the standard Homestead Exemption applied and the 3 percent cap beginning to accumulate from that year forward. That mechanic, along with the exemption amount and the broader domicile case, is covered fully in our Florida Homestead Exemption guide and our piece on establishing Florida domicile to escape state income tax.
Portability becomes relevant the second time a Florida buyer transacts: trading up from a starter purchase into a larger estate, consolidating two households into one, or relocating between the markets covered on this platform after the original Save Our Homes benefit has had several years to accumulate. A buyer who purchased in Jupiter in 2017 and is now evaluating a move to Naples or Palm Beach should treat the portable assessment difference as a real line item in the financial comparison between markets, not an afterthought handled passively at the new closing. On a $500,000 portable benefit, the annual tax savings at a typical 17 to 18 mill combined county rate runs $8,500 to $9,000 every year the benefit remains in place, which compounds meaningfully over a multi-decade hold.
What is Save Our Homes portability in Florida?
A constitutional provision, established in 2008, allowing a homesteaded property owner to transfer the accumulated difference between a previous home's market value and its capped assessed value to a new Florida homestead, up to $500,000. Without it, that accumulated benefit disappears at sale, since the buyer's assessment resets to full market value.
How long do I have to use my Save Our Homes portability benefit?
Three tax years from abandoning the previous homestead, with the portability application due by March 1. Abandoning in any part of 2025 counts as one tax year, meaning the new homestead must be established by January 1, 2028. Missing the window forfeits the benefit permanently.
What form do I need to file for Save Our Homes portability?
Form DR-501T, filed with the new county's property appraiser alongside the Homestead Exemption application, both due March 1, with no filing fee. Jointly owned previous homesteads establishing separate new homesteads may also need Form DR-501TS to designate ownership shares.
Can I use Save Our Homes portability more than once?
Yes, an unlimited number of times over a homeowner's life, provided each move satisfies the three-year window and March 1 deadline. Each new Florida homestead can port the accumulated benefit from the home just left, subject to the $500,000 cap per transfer.
Will the 2026 Florida ballot measures change Save Our Homes portability?
Three proposals on the November 2026 ballot touch related mechanics if approved by 60% of voters, effective January 1, 2027. None eliminates portability. HJR 211 would remove the $500,000 cap. HJR 67 would lower the annual growth cap from 3% to 1.5% or CPI. HJR 213 would move non-school reassessment to once every three years. As of June 2026, the existing rules remain in effect.
Does Save Our Homes portability matter for buyers relocating to Florida from out of state?
Not on the initial move, since portability only transfers an existing Florida benefit between two Florida homesteads. A first-time Florida buyer starts accumulating Save Our Homes savings from year one. Portability becomes relevant the next time that buyer sells one Florida homestead and buys another within the state.
For related analysis, see our guide on the Florida Homestead Exemption and our piece on establishing Florida domicile to escape state income tax. Not legal, tax, or financial advice. Data as of June 2026.
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