Amendment 3 Passed, and the Tax Line on a Listing Still Is Not the Tax You Will Pay

By Brenden Rendo, Realtor · Updated November 11, 2026

Florida voters approved Amendment 3 on November 3. It raises the homestead exemption for all non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, cuts the annual assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10 percent to 5 percent, and takes effect January 1, 2027. That is the part almost everyone has right. What came next were social posts telling movers to buy before December 31 or wait five years for the savings, and that part is wrong. December 31, 2026 is a residency date. It is not a closing date. Meanwhile the number most buyers actually look at, the annual tax figure printed on a listing, tells you what the current owner pays, not what you will pay. I pulled the active single-family listings Stellar MLS returns for Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties to measure how big that gap already is.

What Amendment 3 does, and what it does not do

The measure on the ballot was HJR 1F, ballot number 3. Its official summary raises the homestead exemption for all non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 and adjusts it for inflation after that, reduces the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property from 10 percent to 5 percent, requires the Legislature to prescribe a uniform procedure for counties and municipalities to raise the homestead exemption further, restricts what counties and municipalities may spend property tax money on, and takes effect January 1, 2027. You can read the resolution itself through the Florida House bill page for HJR 1F.

A constitutional amendment needs 60 percent of the statewide vote to pass. Amendment 3 got 61.98 percent, 4,922,070 yes to 3,019,235 no on the unofficial count, as reported by the Orange Observer. The 60 percent bar applies statewide, not county by county. Orange and Seminole both came in below 60 percent, per an Orlando Sentinel editorial; in Orange the count was 230,055 yes to 222,263 no, per the same Orange Observer report. Lake voted about 65 percent yes, per Villages-News. I could not confirm a Volusia figure from a source I could open, so I am not giving one. Every result in this post is unofficial until the state certifies the election, which FOX 35 reports is expected November 17.

Two things the amendment does not do. It does not touch school property taxes, so the school portion of a bill is untouched by the larger exemption. And it does not change the rules for getting a homestead exemption in the first place, which still turn on owning and occupying the home on January 1 and filing by March 1.

Separately, and purely as a tax fact: in our four counties, Orange and Lake had school tax questions on the November 3 ballot, and both passed. Orange County voters renewed the existing one mill that has been in place since 2010, by a wide margin, per the Orlando Sentinel; it runs from July 1, 2027 through June 30, 2031 and is projected to generate about $255 million this year. Lake County's measure was not a straight renewal: it raised the existing 0.75 mill school levy to a full mill for the same four-year window, and it passed with 69.26% of the vote, 112,718 to 50,019 on the unofficial count with 88 of 92 participating precincts reporting, per Lake and Sumter Style, citing the Lake County Supervisor of Elections. Both are school levies, which means the bigger non-school exemption does not reduce them.

The tax line on a listing is the seller's bill, not yours

This is the part that costs buyers real money, and Amendment 3 makes it matter more, not less. On November 10 I pulled the active single-family homes for sale that Stellar MLS returns for Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties, rental listings excluded: 9,388 listings. Every one of them carries a homestead flag, and 306 (3.26%) show a $0 tax line. I kept the 7,819 listings that report a 2025 tax year with a tax amount, and treated the other tax years separately further down. Every figure below describes that 7,819-listing group, not the whole market.

In that group, 3,679 listings (47.05%) show no homestead exemption on the seller's side. Here is what the tax line looks like split by that flag:

Stellar MLS, active single-family listings in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties with a tax year of 2025, a reported annual tax amount and a reported homestead flag, pulled November 10, 2026. Share of list price is the median of each listing's own tax divided by its own list price, not the ratio of the two medians. Every cell shown rests on at least 30 listings. These are figures sellers and their agents entered, not computed bills.

Homesteaded listings also carry a higher median list price, $475,000 against $429,270, so the percentages on their own could be a price-mix effect. Comparing the two groups inside the same price band, pooled across the four counties, the non-homesteaded median tax line sits above the homesteaded one in every band, both in dollars and as a share of list price:

Same pull and same 7,819-listing group as the table above. Each gap is the difference between the two medians in that band, and the percentage measures that difference against the homesteaded median. In the $600,000 and up band the non-homesteaded listings are pricier (median list price $949,135 against $849,000) and newer (median year built 2018 against 2004), so part of that band's dollar gap is price mix; the share-of-list column points the same way.

I ran the same four bands county by county, which gives 16 cells. Fifteen cleared my 30-listing floor, and in all fifteen the non-homesteaded median tax line came in above the homesteaded one. The sixteenth, homesteaded listings under $300,000 in Seminole County, holds only 22 listings, so it is suppressed rather than reported. Two things worth saying about what this is and is not. Pooled, the median year built is 2000 in both groups, but age is not ruled out, because inside the bands it differs: 1982 for homesteaded listings against 1971 for the rest under $300,000, and 2004 against 2018 at $600,000 and up. And this is a comparison between two groups of sellers, not a measurement of any one buyer's future bill.

Tax year 2026 behaves differently, and I am not leaning on it. Only 585 listings in the pull report a 2026 tax year with a tax amount, 220 homesteaded and 365 not, and there the pooled medians are 0.85% and 0.77%, with the non-homesteaded group coming in lower. The reason is visible in the same pull: the median year built among those 365 non-homesteaded listings is 2026, so a large share are brand-new homes whose 2026 tax line can reflect a partial year or land only. By county, Orange shows 0.97% on 115 homesteaded listings and 0.45% on 170 that are not; Lake 0.79% on 54 and 0.95% on 122; Volusia 0.83% on 34 and 1.08% on 49. Seminole's 2026 cells hold 17 and 24 listings, under the floor, so they are suppressed. A 2026 tax line on a new build is the least useful tax figure a buyer can anchor to. I also left out 617 listings on a 2024 tax line, which point the same way as 2025 (0.82% homesteaded against 1.09% not), and 61 on other tax years.

The gap fits how Save Our Homes works. Once a home carries a homestead exemption, its assessed value can rise only by the lesser of 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index each year, and the accumulated difference between assessed value and market value becomes the owner's benefit. When the property sells, that benefit goes away. The Florida Department of Revenue states it plainly in its homestead exemption brochure, form PT-112: a change in ownership means the property loses the Save Our Homes benefit and is assessed at just value the following January 1. The longer a homesteaded seller has owned the home, the larger the reset a buyer inherits, and nothing on the listing sheet shows the size of it.

December 31 is a residency date, not a closing date

Here is the sentence that is driving the confusion, taken straight from the official summary: persons who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026 will receive the existing homestead exemption upon qualifying for one, with the increased exemption beginning with the fifth year of exemption, to the extent permitted by the U.S. Constitution. Read it again. The test is whether you are a Florida resident on that date. It says nothing about whether you own a house on that date.

That distinction matters most to the people moving in, and that is a large group; the U.S. Census Bureau tracks the flows in its state-to-state migration tables. If you are already a Florida resident, you are in the group the larger exemption reaches first. If you are not, establishing residency is a separate act from buying, and the ballot language ties the benefit to the first one.

What the amendment does not settle is what counts as proof of residency for someone who has not bought yet. The same summary requires the Legislature to prescribe procedures, and the implementing law is not written. Until it is, treat anyone who tells you exactly how a renter proves December 2026 residency as guessing. The people who actually decide are the county property appraisers, and the Florida Department of Revenue keeps a directory of every county property appraiser in the state. Ask yours what evidence they accept, and ask a tax professional about your own situation. I am a Realtor, not your tax adviser, and nobody should promise you eligibility, a dollar figure or a closing date on this.

On the timing question, the Central Florida data shows no outsized year-end rush. Across the four counties, December 15 through 31 accounted for 4.42% of the year's single-family sales in 2023, 4.89% in 2024 and 4.84% in 2025, close to the 4.66% of the calendar those 17 days cover. Median days from contract to close on December sales were 34 in 2023, 33 in 2024 and 32 in 2025, computed from each sale's own contract date and close date on 2,114, 2,420 and 2,484 December sales; rental closings are excluded throughout. In a separate count on November 11, 2,868 single-family homes for sale in the four counties were under contract, counting both Pending and Active Under Contract status: 1,167 in Orange, 790 in Lake, 552 in Volusia and 359 in Seminole. At those medians, a contract signed this week would close around mid-December, but that is a description of how long contracts take, not a reason to chase a date. For the larger exemption, what the ballot language cares about is residency status on December 31 and, as always, owning and occupying on January 1.

What the higher exemption is worth against each county's own levy

The exemption increase applies to non-school taxes. The current non-school homestead exemption is $50,000, so the increase is $100,000 of additional exemption in 2027 and $200,000 in 2028. Each taxing authority applies its own millage to that, and the county government's countywide rate is only one line on a bill that also carries school, city, fire, water management and special district levies. Using each county's adopted countywide rate for the fiscal year that began October 1, here is what the additional exemption is worth against that one line:

Adopted rates: Orange County's total countywide millage of 4.4347, 4.58% above the rolled-back rate, from the county's FY 2026-27 budget public hearing millage summary. Seminole County's countywide 5.3751, 4.18% above its rolled-back rate of 5.1595, with an aggregate of 7.3620 mills across all commission taxing districts, from the September 22 second budget public hearing record. Lake County's countywide 5.0254, 4.19% above its rolled-back rate of 4.8235, from the final public hearing book. Volusia County's general fund rate of 3.1007, adopted at full rollback on September 22, down from 3.2007, per the Volusia County Property Appraiser's 2026 final tax roll. These figures cover the county government's own levy only, not city, school, fire, water management or special district millage, and they assume assessed value high enough to absorb the full exemption. Millage varies by city, MSTU and community development district, so this is an illustration of one line, not an estimate of anyone's bill.

What people are actually saying about their tax bills

I ran a 30-day sweep of Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Hacker News and GitHub on November 10 for Amendment 3, homestead, tax bills and the December 31 date. It returned 92 items dated October 11 through November 10, and I should flag the coverage gaps before quoting any of it: the X search failed outright, the general web search was unavailable, and the Reddit, TikTok and Instagram sources cut off early on paywall errors after 9 threads, 25 videos and 8 reels. The run also surfaced no threads specific to Orange, Seminole, Lake or Volusia counties; the Reddit items that landed came from r/Florida_Mortgage_Help, r/georgism and r/florida. So treat what follows as Florida homeowner sentiment, not local buzz I can document.

Two framings are competing, and they are not compatible. The first is urgency. On November 4, @parrishfloridahomes posted on TikTok: "But if you don't buy and lock in your residency by December 31st, you could be forced to wait FIVE YEARS to see these massive savings." On November 5, @kellycammrealtor framed the same date as something movers "NEED to know."

The second framing is the one that matches the ballot language. On November 8, @cazirealestate posted: "If you establish permanent Florida residency by Dec. 31, 2026, you may qualify for the increased homestead exemption when you buy your primary residence, even if you don't buy until later." The YouTube channel Found Your Florida, whose November 4 video drew 341,042 views, opened by telling viewers not to rush a closing before explaining the rule. Both of those read the summary correctly. The urgency version does not.

Underneath the amendment talk, the comments are about the bills themselves. On the FOX 13 Tampa Bay segment, @dr.pendyke4887 wrote, with 174 likes: "I live in an unincorporated county area on 1 acre with a modest house, my property taxes have gone up by about $300 a year for the last three years. I pay almost $8,000 a year and don't really get very many services anyway." Under the Found Your Florida video, @paular601 wrote: "Mine was 4700 this year. This is ridiculous. I'm tired of renting a house I own." And on Lisa Alford's November 4 video, @mannyandrade1756 wrote: "We shouldn't be paying home taxes. After you paid twice the price of your house."

That is the dominant thread: not whether the exemption helps, but the feeling that the annual bill has outrun the house. The nine YouTube videos the sweep found drew 1,345,866 views between them, four of them with transcripts, which is a lot of attention for a tax mechanic. It is also why the gap in section two is worth knowing before you make an offer.

The rules that did not change

None of these moved on November 3, and all of them outrank the amendment for anyone buying in the next few months.

• Own and occupy on January 1, file by March 1. Homestead eligibility turns on your status on January 1 of the tax year, and the filing deadline with your county property appraiser is March 1.
• Save Our Homes resets on a sale. Per Department of Revenue form PT-112, a change of ownership removes the benefit and the property is assessed at just value the following January 1.
• Portability still has a three-year clock. If you are moving from one Florida homestead to another, you may transfer part or all of your assessment difference, but you must establish the new homestead within three years of January 1 of the year you abandoned the old one, and file form DR-501T with your exemption application by March 1.
• Your assessed value can rise while the market falls. The Save Our Homes cap for 2026 is 2.7 percent, the lesser of 3 percent and the change in the Consumer Price Index, per the Department of Revenue's Save Our Homes annual increase table, revised January 2026. PT-112 is explicit that even when a home's value decreases, its assessed value may still increase by that limited amount.

That last one is doing real work right now, because many asking prices in our four counties are going the other direction. In our weekly price-reduction report for the week to November 8, 1,287 active listings across Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia, all property types, cut their asking price, and the latest cut averaged 3.45%. Another 93 listings that had already cut in the prior week's report cut again, with a median further cut of $7,000, or 2.13%, and, among the 90 that carry an original price, a median total of $30,065 off the original asking price, or 7.44%. A homesteaded owner can watch comparable homes reprice downward and still open a notice showing a higher assessed value, because the two numbers are not the same measurement. Market value is the thing the FHFA House Price Index tracks; capped assessed value is a legal construct that climbs toward it. I wrote about that divergence in more detail in why higher home values mean higher property taxes.

For the pre-vote version of the math, including household modeling by county, see the Amendment 3 property tax math post from October 14. If you want the mechanics of the exemption itself, this walkthrough of Florida's homestead exemption covers the filing side, and how property taxes are assessed on a new construction home explains why a builder's first-year tax line is so misleading. The fine print on the earlier Florida property tax proposals is useful background on how we got here, and the lock-in effect post covers why owners with a large assessment benefit are slow to move. If you are the mover this section is about, the driver's license migration data for 2026 shows where people are arriving from.

Questions buyers and sellers are asking this week

Do I have to close on a house before December 31, 2026 to get the bigger exemption?

No. The official summary ties the outcome to whether you are a Florida resident on December 31, 2026, not to whether you own a home by then. Anyone telling you to rush a closing for this reason is misreading the ballot language. Confirm your own situation with your county property appraiser and a tax professional.

Why is the tax figure on a listing usually lower than what I would pay?

Because it is the current owner's bill. If the seller has a homestead exemption, their assessed value has been capped under Save Our Homes, and that benefit ends when the property changes hands and is reassessed at just value the following January 1. In my November 10 pull of 7,819 active single-family listings in the four counties with a 2025 tax year, the median tax ran 0.86% of list price on homesteaded listings and 1.18% on listings with no homestead exemption, and the median tax as a share of list price was higher for non-homesteaded listings in every price band.

When will I actually see the lower bill?

The amendment takes effect January 1, 2027, so it applies to the 2027 tax roll, and Florida property taxes are billed in arrears late in the year. The larger exemption also applies only to non-school taxes, so the school portion of a bill does not shrink.

What changed for landlords and second-home owners?

The annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property drops from 10 percent to 5 percent. That is a limit on how fast an assessment can climb, not an exemption, and it starts with the same January 1, 2027 effective date.

I am selling. Does my low tax line help or hurt me?

It can cut either way. A low number looks attractive in a search result, but a buyer who understands the reset will price the real figure into the offer, and a buyer who does not may walk later when their lender recalculates escrow. Disclosing that the figure reflects your exemption is the cleaner path, and it keeps the deal from wobbling at underwriting.

Everything above describes groups of listings and closings in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties. None of it is a prediction about your parcel, and none of it is tax advice. Want the actual numbers for a specific address before you write an offer? Send me a message or call 407-616-9019 and I will pull the parcel record, the exemption history and the comps with you. If you are on the selling side, start with the home value estimator, then look at what is already repricing on the Orange County price reductions, Seminole County, Lake County and Volusia County pages, or dig into the data on the Central Florida housing market hub.