What Florida's Amendment 3 Would Actually Do to Your Taxes

By Jeff Riber

Jeff Riber is the Broker and Owner of Pursuit Real Estate, a premier real estate firm located in Jacksonville, Florida. Leading a high-performing local operation, Jeff Riber successfully closed 25 real estate transactions in the last 12 months.

A property tax amendment is heading to Florida voters this November, and it has already generated enough argument that the language printed on the ballot had to be rewritten. Amendment 3 is worth understanding before you fill in that bubble. It matters whether you own a home in Florida, own rentalor commercial property here, or are thinking about moving to the state. I want to simplify what it does, who it benefits, what doesn’t change, and where the trade-offs are. If we’re reducing taxes on one side of the ledger, we’re reducing revenue on the other.

The homestead exemption gets bigger. The biggest change sits with your primary residence. Today, your homestead exemption reduces the taxable value of your property by $50,000. If Amendment 3 passes, that figure moves to $150,000 in 2027 and then to $250,000 in 2028. The detail people miss most often is that the additional exemption applies only to non-school taxes.

Taxable value drops, not your bill. There’s some confusion built into the number. When we say $250,000, nobody is handing you $250,000, and nobody is cutting $250,000 off your tax bill, because what’s actually changing is your taxable value. I worked through this on the board behind me with some chicken-scratch handwriting, so here it is in plain numbers. If the millage rate were 16, you’d be paying $1,600 in real estate taxes for every $100,000 of real estate value. At that rate, a $250,000 exemption saves you roughly $4,000 a year. On a $500,000 house, you’re cutting that bill close to in half for non-school taxes. School taxes are still untouched, and there are additional details to work into the math to see how it lands on paper, but that’s the general idea.

Rentals and commercial get a cap. Beyond primary residence owners and future buyers, the other group worth mentioning is anyone holding rentals, second homes, or commercial property in Florida. Right now, the state, by way of the county, can raise the taxable value on those properties by up to 10% every year. Even in an incredible real estate market, a county can play catch-up pretty quickly with 10% a year. Amendment 3 would change that to 5%, so taxable value on non-homesteaded property could only climb half as fast. On homesteaded property, the county can still only raise your taxable value by 3% a year, and that part is unchanged.

New Florida residents wait five years. This piece hasn’t gotten much attention, and it matters. If you weren’t a Florida resident on December 31, 2026, and the amendment passes, you can still qualify for your homestead exemption, but you don’t get the additional Amendment 3 benefit until the fifth year of your homestead. There’s language that could change that down the road. As it reads today, someone moving to Florida and applying for homestead doesn’t pick up the added benefit right away. They have to own and live in that homesteaded primary residence for five years first.

Counties lose real revenue here. Every dollar of that savings comes out of a county budget, so the flip side deserves a look. I went and found a St. Johns County report estimating about $68 million in lost non-school revenue in 2028, then roughly $136 million in 2029. Those are estimates, because you can’t fully predict how this plays out or how it gets applied. Dollars in that range go toward public safety, county infrastructure, government operations, and other services. Future county commissions would decide what changes, whether that’s spending, millage rates, or other sources of revenue.

Homeowners gain; local services absorb it. For homeowners, this potentially lowers your non-school property taxes, and substantially in some cases. For investors, it keeps a tighter cap on how aggressively the county can raise taxable value. It could also boost housing affordability by attracting people to move to Florida and buy their next primary residence here, since the real estate tax picture becomes more favorable. Local governments, on the other hand, lose tax revenue and have to decide which services to cut, including ones that add real value to the community. To weigh both sides evenly, the open question is whether the economic activity from people moving here offsets enough to improve tax revenue in other ways. Nobody can forecast that cleanly, which is part of why this one is a genuine judgment call.

The vote happens November 3. Amendment 3 is a constitutional amendment, which means it needs 60% voter approval to pass. If it clears that bar, it takes effect January 1, 2027, with the exemption at $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.

Tax bills are not home values. One sidebar while we’re on the subject of property taxes. I’ll get the occasional buyer or seller who looks at their property tax bill and thinks that number is what their house is worth. The county is not the be-all and end-all for assessing what a buyer is willing to pay for your home in a given market.

If you have questions about Amendment 3 or anything else real estate-related, I’m happy to jump in and have a conversation. If you want a more accurate, detailed perspective on your home’s real value, reach out by phone or email, and I’ll walk you through it. Call or text me at 904-405-1995, email me at jeff@pursuitrealestate.com, or visit pursuitrealestate.com. Whether you’re voting on this one or just trying to plan around it, I’d rather you have the real numbers than a headline.