Florida property tax reassessment is the reason state law has carried this warning for years, in capital letters, in the disclosure every residential buyer receives at contract: "BUYER SHOULD NOT RELY ON THE SELLER'S CURRENT PROPERTY TAXES AS THE AMOUNT OF PROPERTY TAXES THAT THE BUYER MAY BE OBLIGATED TO PAY IN THE YEAR SUBSEQUENT TO PURCHASE." The problem has always been timing. That warning arrives at signing — long after the buyer built their numbers off the tax figure printed on the listing. Starting February 1, 2027, Florida listing sites have to stop feeding the confusion.
The change came in HB 7031E, the 2026 special-session tax package the Governor signed on June 29, 2026 as Chapter 2026-239. Buried at Section 39 is a rewrite of how residential listings present property taxes in Florida. For anyone buying below-market property, it is the most useful line in the bill.
What Florida's new property tax disclosure law requires
Section 39 of HB 7031E adds a new subsection (3) to Florida Statutes 689.261, the statute that already governs tax disclosure to residential buyers. It defines a listing platform as "any public-facing online real property listing service, including, but not limited to, websites, web applications, and mobile applications," excluding social media platforms. Property means "residential real property located within this state."
The operative command is short: "Beginning February 1, 2027, any property visible on a listing platform must include the estimated ad valorem taxes for such property." And the estimate has a hard constraint — "the current owner's ad valorem assessment or taxes may not be used to calculate the estimated ad valorem taxes."
That single clause is the whole reform. The seller's tax bill can still appear, but only "as part of historical tax information" — never as the buyer's estimate.
Why a seller's tax bill was never your tax bill
Two assessment caps explain the gap between what a seller pays and what a buyer will pay.
For a homesteaded property, the Save Our Homes cap in F.S. 193.155(1) reassesses the home each January 1 but limits any increase to the lower of "[t]hree percent of the assessed value of the property for the prior year" or the change in the Consumer Price Index. Hold a house through two decades of Florida appreciation and its assessed value drifts far below its just (market) value. The longer the hold, the wider the gap.
Then the house sells. F.S. 193.155(3): "property assessed under this section shall be assessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership." The accumulated benefit does not transfer with the house — under F.S. 193.155(8) it follows the seller to a newly established homestead, not the buyer of the old one. A buyer who will not live there also loses the homestead exemption itself, which F.S. 196.031(1) conditions on holding title and making the property "his or her permanent residence."
So the new owner inherits the house, the roof and the plumbing — but not the tax basis.
The two ways a listing site can comply
Where a platform uses a tax estimator or buyer payment calculator, the statute gives it two methods.
| Method | How the estimate is built | Extra requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Listing price at current millage | Taxes that would be due if the purchaser were taxed on the listing price at current millage rates, using data and a formula published by the Department of Revenue. The statute states that using them "constitutes a reasonable estimate of ad valorem taxes." | Disclaimer about millage variation and excluded assessments |
| Countywide average millage | Taxes due on the listing price at the countywide aggregate average millage rate published by the Department of Revenue. | Must link to the county property appraiser's tax estimator, or its homepage |
| No estimator at all | Permitted — but then the platform "may not display the current owner's ad valorem taxes." | Must link to the appraiser; prior-year taxes may not run as historical information |
The Department of Revenue has its own deadline: beginning December 15, 2026, and annually after that, it publishes both the formula and each county's aggregate average millage rate. Printed materials are covered too — from February 1, 2027, the current owner's taxes "may not be included in any printed listing materials."
What the estimate still won't tell you
The statute is candid about its own limits, and requires platforms to say so. Estimates must carry a disclaimer that millage rates "may vary within a county" and that the figure does "not include all applicable non-ad valorem assessments or exemptions, discounts, and other tax benefits."
There is also no one to sue if the number is wrong: "There is no liability on the part of, and no cause of action may arise against, any person for an inaccurate estimation of ad valorem taxes for a property listed on a listing platform."
Read that as intended — a better starting point, not an underwriting document. A listing-price-based estimate is still only as good as the listing price, and an investor buying below market will land somewhere different again.
How big is the reset? What 5,833 distressed Florida properties show
Public statute explains the mechanism but not the magnitude. So we measured it across the properties behind our own Florida court-record leads — every active lead created since May 1, 2026 across Lee County, Pinellas County, Collier and Sarasota, covering Florida probate leads, pre-foreclosure leads, divorces and evictions. That is 5,833 properties with county-reported assessed and just values.
The gap below is the accumulated cap differential — the amount by which a property's assessed value currently sits under its market value. It is the part that disappears the January after a sale.
| Lead type | Properties | Share with homestead exemption | Median assessed value below market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Probate | 3,152 | 78% | 44% (about $149,600) |
| Eviction | 702 | 12% | 35% (about $91,400) |
| Divorce | 563 | 82% | 26% (about $96,600) |
| Pre-foreclosure | 1,416 | 52% | 25% (about $66,300) |
Translated into a tax line: on the homesteaded properties in that set, the median current annual tax is $2,168 for a probate property. Apply that same property's current effective tax rate to its full market value — what happens once the cap and the exemption are gone — and the median increase is about $2,905 a year, roughly 149%. For pre-foreclosure properties the median modeled increase is about $1,723 (73%); for divorce, $2,117 (70%).
Those modeled figures are an estimate, not a quote. They assume the buyer does not homestead the property and that millage rates hold, and — like the statute's own disclaimer — they exclude non-ad valorem assessments. Treat them as the order of magnitude, then run the county's estimator on the specific parcel.
Why probate properties carry the deepest caps
The pattern in that table is not a coincidence, and it is not about the lead type as such. The cap differential is a function of one thing: how long the current owner has held the home.
Estate properties sit at the far end of that distribution. The median probate filing in our four counties involves a house built in 1987, owner-occupied, carrying a homestead exemption in about 78% of cases. Two to three decades of 3%-capped assessment growth against Florida's actual appreciation produces exactly the 44% gap above. The same homestead protections that make these properties attractive to work — covered in our guide to Florida homestead rules in probate — are what deepened the cap in the first place.
Eviction filings are the informative contrast. Only about 12% carry a homestead exemption, because they are rentals — the owner never lived there. They sit under the separate non-homestead cap instead, and the median one was built in 1986. Old, but capped on gentler terms.
How to underwrite the reset now, before February 2027
February 1, 2027 is eighteen months of deal flow away. Until then the burden stays with the buyer, and the fix is mechanical:
- Never carry the seller's tax line into a pro forma. If it came off a listing, assume it reflects the seller's cap and exemption, not yours.
- Underwrite on your purchase price, not the assessment. The new assessment is set at just value as of January 1 following the sale.
- Run the county property appraiser's estimator on the parcel. Every Florida county publishes one, and after December 15, 2026 the Department of Revenue will publish the underlying millage data too.
- Drop the homestead exemption from the model unless you are moving in. It requires permanent residence.
- Budget the increase against the hold. For buy-and-hold investors, a $2,900 annual swing is roughly $240 a month off net operating income — see our rental underwriting workflow. For fix-and-flip investors, it lands in carrying costs, and it lands in the year the reassessment takes effect, not at closing.
The timing detail catches people. Because reassessment happens as of January 1 following the change of ownership, a buyer can spend most of the first year at the seller's old rate and then absorb the full step-up. That is a cash-flow surprise rather than a valuation one — which is precisely why it kills thin deals. It is also an argument for working sellers directly, as in buying a pre-foreclosure directly from the owner, where you control the price the assessment will eventually be set against.
What changes — and what doesn't — on February 1, 2027
What changes: every residential listing visible on a Florida listing platform must show estimated taxes, calculated without reference to the current owner's assessment. The seller's figure survives only as labeled history, and printed listing materials lose it entirely.
What doesn't: the underlying tax law. Reassessment at just value on change of ownership was already the rule, the homestead exemption still requires residence, and the 10% non-homestead cap under F.S. 193.1554 still applies only after the reset year. The new law does not lower anyone's taxes — it removes a misleading number from the top of the funnel.
For investors working court-record filings, the practical effect is modest but real: one fewer bad input, and a state-published millage dataset to underwrite against. The reset itself is unchanged. It was always coming; now it is at least disclosed.
Frequently asked questions
Do property taxes go up when you buy a house in Florida?
Usually, yes — if the seller held the property a long time. Under F.S. 193.155(3), a homesteaded property is reassessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership, which erases the accumulated Save Our Homes cap. The size of the jump depends on how far the seller's assessed value had drifted below market.
When does Florida's new listing tax-estimate rule take effect?
February 1, 2027. HB 7031E was signed June 29, 2026 as Chapter 2026-239 and the act took effect July 1, 2026, but the listing-platform requirement in F.S. 689.261(3) begins February 1, 2027. The Department of Revenue starts publishing the supporting formula and millage data on December 15, 2026.
Does the Save Our Homes benefit transfer to me when I buy?
No. Under F.S. 193.155(8) the assessment difference is portable to the seller's next Florida homestead, provided they held a homestead exemption in one of the three immediately preceding years. It does not stay with the house for the buyer.
What's the difference between assessed value and just value in Florida?
Just value is the county's estimate of market value. Assessed value is just value after any applicable annual cap — 3%-or-CPI for homestead, 10% for qualifying non-homestead residential property. Taxable value is what remains after exemptions. The gap between assessed and just value is the benefit that resets on sale.
Does the 10% cap protect an investor who buys a rental?
Eventually, not immediately. F.S. 193.1554 caps annual increases at 10% for residential property with nine or fewer dwelling units that does not receive the homestead exemption — but the same statute reassesses at just value as of January 1 following a change of ownership or control. The cap starts working from the new, higher basis.
Can I rely on the tax estimate a listing site shows me?
Only as a starting point. The statute requires a disclaimer that millage rates vary within a county and that estimates exclude non-ad valorem assessments and various exemptions, and it expressly bars any cause of action for an inaccurate estimate. Verify with the county property appraiser before the number reaches your model.
See what the filings look like before the reassessment does
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