What Happens to Your Homestead Exemption When You Sell a House in Florida?

These are two separate benefits. The homestead exemption takes up to $50,000 off the taxable value of your permanent home. The first $25,000 applies to all property taxes. The additional amount applies only to non-school taxes and is adjusted each year for inflation. Save Our Homes is a cap that comes with the exemption. After the first year, section 193.155 limits any yearly rise in assessed value to 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower.

Over time, your home’s just value (the property appraiser’s market value) can rise well above the capped assessed value. That gap is the Save Our Homes benefit, and it is what portability moves. The exemption itself cannot be transferred. Nothing passes to your buyer either: section 193.155(3) resets the house to just value on January 1 after a sale. Only homestead property has this cap, so a rental or second home has nothing to port.

Florida uses a property’s status on January 1 for the whole year. The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser explains that a seller’s exemption may remain on the property for the entire calendar year and is removed as of January 1 of the next year. Miami-Dade says that if the home was still your permanent residence on January 1, the exemption is valid for the entire year. So a June closing does not erase your exemption in June. Broward adds that a seller’s exemptions will not carry over beyond the year of the sale, and the buyer must apply for their own.

Moving out before you sell is different. A house you have left does not qualify for the new year just because it has not sold, and losing homestead means it is reassessed. Miami-Dade asks owners who moved out before January 1 to submit a Homestead Exemption Cancellation Form. Broward says the law requires you to tell its office by March 1 if you no longer qualify, and warns of back taxes going back as far as ten years, plus 50 percent penalties and 15 percent interest. Renting the home can also end homestead under section 196.061.

Florida property taxes are billed late in the year. Section 197.333 makes them due November 1, or as soon after as the certified tax roll reaches the tax collector, and section 197.122 makes them a first lien from January 1. If you close in the spring, the year’s bill does not exist yet, but you owned the house for part of the year it covers.

That share is usually handled through a proration at closing. Federal Closing Disclosure rules for most mortgage loans describe it as the prorated amount of unpaid taxes due from the seller to reimburse the buyer. If you already paid the bill, it can run the other way. For federal income tax, the IRS treats the seller as paying the taxes up to, but not including, the date of sale. Read the tax clause in your contract, and ask the closing agent what tax figure the proration uses.

Prorated taxes are separate from closing costs, so a buyer who covers closing costs may still show a tax line on the statement. If a bill reaches you after the sale, the Palm Beach County Tax Collector asks you to forward it to the new owner or use its Property Sold form.

You qualify if you received a homestead exemption on your old home as of January 1 of any of the three years before you establish the new homestead. That comes from Article VII, section 4(d)(8) of the Florida Constitution and section 193.155(8). Both homes must be in Florida. You establish the new homestead by owning the home and making it your permanent residence by January 1.

The clock does not run from your closing date. The Department of Revenue says it runs from January 1 of the year you abandoned the old homestead, “not three years after the sale.” Miami-Dade’s example: an exemption abandoned in March 2024 means a new homestead by January 1, 2027. So a 2026 sale means a new homestead by January 1, 2029, with the application due by March 1, 2029. Renting in between does not stop the clock.

Form DR-501T asks for the date the old home was sold or no longer used as your homestead, so moving out can set the date. If you buy in 2026 and live there on January 1, 2027, you file by March 1, 2027, and the lower assessment first shows on the 2027 notice in August and the bill in November. If you close just after January 1 while still living in the house, the year of abandonment moves forward one year, along with your deadline and the values used in the math. Ask the property appraiser how dates around New Year will be treated.

A storm rule also applies. If a named tropical storm or hurricane significantly damaged or destroyed your homestead, section 193.155(8)(m) lets you elect, in the calendar year after the storm, to treat it as abandoned on the storm date, if you establish a new homestead as of January 1 of the third year after the storm.

First compare the new home’s just value with the old home’s just value on January 1 of the year you left it. These are the property appraiser’s values, not your sale and purchase prices. If the new home’s value is the same or higher, you subtract the full gap, up to $500,000, from its just value. If it is lower, the gap is scaled down: new just value, divided by old just value, times old assessed value. The transfer still cannot exceed $500,000.

Illustration only. These numbers are made up and do not come from any real property. Say your old home had a just value of $600,000 and an assessed value of $350,000 on January 1 of the year you sold. The gap is $250,000.

Upsizing illustration: your new home’s just value is $800,000, which is more than $600,000, so the whole gap moves. $800,000 minus $250,000 gives a new assessed value of $550,000.

Downsizing illustration: your new home’s just value is $450,000, which is less than $600,000, so the gap is scaled. $450,000 divided by $600,000 is 0.75, and 0.75 times $350,000 gives a new assessed value of $262,500. You transfer $187,500, which is 75 percent of the gap, because the new home is worth 75 percent of the old one.

Cap illustration: if the gap were $700,000 and you moved to a home of equal or greater value, only $500,000 would transfer.

In the upsizing illustration the assessed value still rises, from $350,000 to $550,000. Portability softens the jump, but it does not keep your bill where it was. Your exemption then comes off the assessed value, and the actual tax depends on local millage rates. Broward has a Portability Estimator, Palm Beach has a Portability Calculator, and Miami-Dade publishes worked examples. If lower taxes are part of why you are moving, run the numbers first, because staying put may cost less.

If the same owners move together, the math above applies as is. If co-owners split up, the total transferred cannot exceed $500,000. Under section 193.155(8)(d), each share is generally the gap divided by the number of owners who received the exemption, unless the title states specific shares.

Spouses leaving jointly titled property can choose their own split on Form DR-501TS. They must be married on the date the home is abandoned, and the form goes to the property appraiser in the old home’s county before either spouse files Form DR-501T. It cannot be changed once filed. This comes up in a divorce sale, and a family law attorney can explain how it fits your case.

Palm Beach and Miami-Dade both say all owners of a jointly owned homestead must abandon it before the difference can be transferred. If two people who each had a homestead move into one new home, only the higher of their two gaps can transfer, up to $500,000.

You file in the county of the new home, and portability is not automatic. Form DR-501T is an attachment to Form DR-501, the homestead application, and both are due by March 1. Palm Beach says the deadline moves to the next business day when March 1 falls on a weekend, and Broward’s 2026 deadline was March 2. If the old home was in another county, the new county’s property appraiser gets the numbers from that county’s office.

In Miami-Dade County, the Property Appraiser says the application must be submitted by March 1, and you can file and track it online. If you are moving to another Florida county, you complete its Homestead Exemption Cancellation Form, get a receipt, and include a copy with your new application.

In Broward County, bcpa.net says you must first apply for homestead to be eligible for portability, and the online homestead application prompts you to complete a portability application if you held an eligible prior homestead. On-time filing for 2027 runs through March 1, 2027, and Broward’s last late-filing date for any 2027 exemption is September 20, 2027. Portability questions go to 954-357-6892.

In Palm Beach County, pbcpao.gov says to apply for portability when you apply for homestead, and you can e-file both together. If you already have homestead, there is a separate portability application. Its calendar shows denial notices on July 1 and a mid-September deadline to appeal a denied portability application to the Value Adjustment Board. Portability staff are at 561.355.2866.

If you miss March 1, section 193.155(8)(j) lets a qualified person file late and petition the value adjustment board by the 25th day after the notice of proposed taxes is mailed. The petition costs a nonrefundable $15, and you must show particular extenuating circumstances. You can also file in a later year, but the reduction starts the year it is first approved, with no refunds for earlier years.

In the 2026 Florida Statutes, the $500,000 cap and the three-year window still stand. One change does affect portability. Chapter 2026-239 (House Bill 7031-E, approved June 29, 2026) removed the word “immediate” from “immediate prior homestead” in section 193.155(8)(a) and (b), starting with the 2027 tax roll. The House staff analysis says this allows a port from any homestead abandoned in the prior three years, which could help people who change homes twice in that period. Ask the property appraiser how it applies to you. The 2025 change to section 193.155, in chapter 2025-190, covers rebuilding damaged homes, not portability.

Amendment 3 is on the November 3, 2026 ballot. If at least 60 percent of voters approve it, the homestead exemption for non-school taxes would rise to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with inflation adjustments after that. People who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026 would get the increase beginning with their fifth year of exemption, to the extent the U.S. Constitution allows. The amendment does not change the portability wording in Article VII, section 4(d)(8). The vote had not happened when this guide was updated, so check the result with your property appraiser.

No. Portability depends on your homestead history and dates, not on whether you sell with an agent, by owner or to a cash buyer. A cash sale gives you no extra tax benefit. If your house is in good shape and you have time, a listing may net more, and our cash offer vs. listing guide shows how to compare.

A cash sale can help with timing and condition. If you are relocating within Florida and want to be in the new home by January 1, a set closing date makes that easier to plan. Florida Cash For Home buys as-is, makes a written offer within 24 hours of the walkthrough, and can close in about 10 days when title is clear, or later if you prefer, with no seller commissions or closing costs. The homestead and portability filings stay yours to make.