Residential
Florida Amendment 3 Would Cut Homestead Tax Bills Starting in 2027
By Real Estate Wire Staff, . Real Estate Wire.
Florida voters will decide November 3 whether to expand the state's homestead exemption, and Realtor.com News has published an opinion piece from Chuck Bonfiglio Jr., the 2026 president of Florida Realtors, arguing that the measure has been misrepresented in earlier coverage.
Bonfiglio's core correction: Amendment 3 does not eliminate Florida property taxes. It raises the homestead exemption that shields a portion of a home's value from nonschool property taxes. Under the proposal, that exemption would climb from $51,411 today to $150,000 in 2027, then to $250,000 in 2028, with annual inflation adjustments starting in 2029. School district property taxes are carved out entirely and would not be affected.
The practical effect for a qualifying homeowner is that a larger slice of their home's assessed value would be untaxed, reducing their annual bill. Bonfiglio writes that savings would range from hundreds to thousands of dollars per year, depending on local tax rates, which vary across Florida.
The amendment also addresses assessment growth. Currently, the annual cap on how fast a homestead property's taxable assessed value can rise is 10%. Amendment 3 would cut that ceiling to 5%, and the change would extend to rental and commercial properties as well. Bonfiglio argues this gives landlords and business owners more predictability, which could ease some pressure on tenants, though he stops short of promising lower rents.
On the fiscal side, Bonfiglio cites figures showing Florida's local property tax collections have nearly doubled over seven years, rising from $32 billion to $60 billion, with projections pointing toward $83 billion by 2032. His argument is that homeowners have already absorbed that growth and are entitled to some relief in return.
The piece directly addresses the concern that tax relief would crowd out essential services. Bonfiglio calls that framing a false choice, pointing out that the amendment explicitly prioritizes remaining revenue for public safety, education and infrastructure, and that school taxes are untouched. He draws a parallel to 2008, when Florida voters approved a separate homestead exemption expansion and local governments adjusted without cutting core services.
This is an opinion column, not a news report, and Realtor.com News labels it as such. The arguments are Bonfiglio's and Florida Realtors' institutional position, not independently verified findings. What the piece does not address is the distributional question: the exemption's value scales with a home's assessed value, so higher-value properties capture more of the benefit in dollar terms, even if the percentage relief is similar. Nor does it quantify what local governments would need to offset through rate adjustments, service reductions or other revenue sources.
For investors and commercial property owners, the assessment growth cap is the more directly relevant provision. A 5% ceiling instead of 10% limits how fast taxable value can compound on income-producing assets, which matters for underwriting and hold-period projections. Whether that predictability is enough to move the needle on acquisition decisions depends on local market conditions and how aggressively individual jurisdictions have been pushing assessed values toward the cap.
The vote is November 3. If it passes, the first exemption increase would take effect in 2027, giving owners, lenders and local budget planners roughly a year to model the impact.
Source: https://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/amendment-3-florida-homestead-tax-exemption/