Florida Homestead Portability Calculator for Duval, St. Johns & Clay County Moves

What homestead portability is

Florida's Save Our Homes cap limits how much a homestead's assessed value can rise each year to 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. If you've owned your home for a while, that cap has likely built up a gap between what your home is worth and what you're taxed on. The gap between your home's just value (the property appraiser's market value) and its assessed value is your Save Our Homes benefit.

When you sell and buy another Florida homestead, the new home's assessed value normally resets to its market value. Portability lets you carry up to $500,000 of your old benefit to the new home, so you don't start over from scratch. It isn't automatic. You have to apply for it.

Buying up vs. downsizing in Northeast Florida

How much transfers depends on whether your next home's just value is higher or lower than your current home's. Both numbers come from the property appraiser, not from sale prices:

• Buying up (new home's just value is higher): your full benefit transfers, up to $500,000.
• Downsizing (new home's just value is lower): a proportional share transfers. Divide your benefit by your current home's just value, then apply that percentage to the new home's just value.

Examples use current tax rates and include school and non-school property taxes. They assume the new home's purchase price equals its just value.

How portability and Amendment 3 work together

Amendment 3, approved by Florida voters on November 3, 2026, doesn't change portability. It raises the homestead exemption for non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The two stack in this order:

1. Portability lowers your new home's assessed value. That lower value is used for all property taxes, including school taxes.
2. The $25,000 homestead exemption comes off for school taxes.
3. The larger Amendment 3 exemption comes off for county, city and other non-school taxes.

Staying in your current home instead? Use the Amendment 3 savings calculator to see what the new exemption means for your current bill.

Deadlines and how to file for portability

1. When you sellYour old homestead is considered abandoned once you move out or sell. Your three-year clock is measured from January 1 of that year.
2. January 1 after you buyYou need to own the new home and live in it as your primary residence on January 1 of the year you're applying for.
3. By March 1File your homestead application and your portability application (Form DR-501T) with the property appraiser in the county where your new home is. Same deadline for both.
4. AugustYour TRIM notice should show the homestead exemption and the portability benefit applied. Check both, and call the property appraiser's office quickly if either is missing.
5. NovemberYour first tax bill with your own homestead, portability and Amendment 3 exemption arrives.

The deadline to use portability: your new homestead must be in place within three years of January 1 of the year you gave up the old one. Sell during 2027, for example, and you'd need your new homestead established by January 1, 2030.

File with the county where the new home is: Duval County Property Appraiser, St. Johns County Property Appraiser or Clay County Property Appraiser.

Plan for the first-year tax bill on your new home

This catches a lot of buyers off guard. In the year you buy, the tax bill is usually based on the previous owner's assessed value and exemptions. The following January 1, the assessed value resets to market value, and your own homestead exemption and portability are applied if you filed on time.

If your taxes are paid through escrow, your lender may set up your escrow based on the seller's tax bill. When the bill changes in your second year, you could see an escrow shortage or a payment change. It's worth estimating your own number up front, with portability included, so your monthly budget reflects what you'll actually pay. That's exactly what the calculator above is for.

Your sale price vs. your portability

Selling for more than the property appraiser's just value won't increase your portability. The benefit is locked to the appraiser's values on January 1 of the year you sell. Appraisers don't use your sale price directly. They estimate market value from sales and other factors, after subtracting typical costs of sale, so their just value often trails what homes actually sell for.

Your sale price still matters a lot, because it's what funds your next purchase. The two numbers work together: the sale price sets your budget, and portability helps keep the taxes on the next home lower. You can get a home value estimate here, or reach out and I'll run both numbers with you, including what the taxes could look like in the neighborhoods you're considering.

Homestead portability questions