Homestead, Portability, and Florida's 2026 Residency Date | Port Realty Group

Should you establish Florida residency before December 31, 2026?

By Billy Joe Smiley | October 7, 2026

A good share of the people I sell to here start out as part-timers. They buy something on the water, they come down for a few weeks a year, and then somewhere around year three or four they start doing the math on staying. That conversation has always included property taxes. This year it includes a date.

I want to lay out how homestead and portability actually work, then explain the amendment that Florida voters will decide on November 3, 2026 and why its residency provisions have people paying attention to the calendar. I'm not telling anyone how to vote, and I'm not a CPA. I am telling you what the moving parts are, because if a full-time move here was already on your horizon, the timing question is worth putting in front of your accountant now.

What homestead does for you today

Homestead in Florida is two separate benefits that people tend to blend together.

The first is the exemption, which takes a slice of assessed value off the table. For the 2026 tax year that is up to $51,411 total: a $25,000 exemption that applies to all millages including school taxes, plus an additional exemption of $26,411 that applies to non-school millages only. That second piece is adjusted annually for inflation and certified by the Florida Department of Revenue.

The second, and over time the bigger one, is Save Our Homes. Once your homestead is in place, annual increases in your assessed value are capped at 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less. In a market that has appreciated the way this one has, that cap quietly becomes the most valuable thing you own that isn't the house.

Neither applies to a second home. A vacation property is non-homestead, gets no $25,000 exemption, and sits under a 10 percent annual assessment cap rather than 3 percent. I've broken that side down in detail in how property taxes work on a vacation home on the Forgotten Coast, and the gap between the two treatments is the whole reason this conversation exists.

One hard date to remember either way: the filing deadline for homestead is March 1 of the tax year. Miss it and you wait a year.

Portability, if you already own a Florida homestead

This one gets missed constantly, and it is real money.

If you already have a homesteaded property somewhere in Florida and you sell it to move to Port St. Joe, Cape San Blas, Mexico Beach, or St. George Island, the accumulated gap between your old home's market value and its capped assessed value can come with you. That is portability, and here is how it works.

• Up to $500,000 of accumulated Save Our Homes benefit can transfer.
• Florida to Florida only. You cannot bring a benefit across state lines.
• Three tax years. You must establish the new homestead within three tax years of the last year you had the old one.
• File Form DR-501T along with your new homestead application, both by March 1.
• Buying before selling is fine. You can purchase the new home first, as long as you establish homestead on it and file on time.
• Moving down in value transfers proportionally. If the new home's just value is lower than the old one's, you take a proportional share of the benefit rather than the full amount.

I have watched people sell a long-held homestead in another part of the state and leave a six-figure assessment benefit on the table because nobody told them the form existed. Ask your property appraiser's office about portability before you close, not after.

What Amendment 3 would change, and why the date matters

The Legislature passed a joint resolution in June 2026 putting a property tax amendment on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot, where it appears as Amendment 3. Constitutional amendments in Florida require approval by at least 60 percent of voters. If it passes, it takes effect January 1, 2027 and would first show up on the August 2027 TRIM notices and the tax bills delivered in November 2027.

Here is what it would do, as proposed.

That last row is the one driving the calendar conversation. Read against the current $51,411, the proposed exemption would shield roughly $98,589 more of assessed value from non-school taxes in 2027, and roughly $198,589 more in 2028. What that is worth in dollars depends entirely on the non-school millage rates where your home sits, so the honest answer to "how much would I save" is that you need your own parcel and your own millage to know. The Gulf County Property Appraiser's office is the right place for that.

Worth being precise on one point, because it is misread often. According to the property appraiser guidance published on the amendment, the trigger is establishing Florida residency by December 31, 2026, not owning a Florida home by then. Someone who becomes a permanent Florida resident this year and buys later would still be in the earlier group when they eventually apply for homestead. Implementing legislation would follow a passing vote, and some administrative details cannot be settled until it does.

If a move here was already on your list

I would not want anyone to reorganize their life around an amendment that has not passed. I would want someone who was already planning this move to know the date exists, because the difference between the two tiers is not small and the window is under three months from this writing.

A few practical notes if you are in that group.

• Residency is established by what you do, not by what you intend. Filing a Declaration of Domicile with the clerk of court, getting a Florida driver license, registering to vote here, and registering your vehicles are the usual steps. Your CPA and, if your situation is complicated, a Florida attorney should sign off on the sequence, especially if you are leaving a state that audits departing residents.
• Mind the closing timeline if a purchase is part of the plan. A financed purchase here generally runs 30 to 45 days from contract, and cash closings can be shorter. If buying is part of your move, count backward from the date you want to be settled. Financing a second home on the Forgotten Coast covers what that side looks like, including how the terms shift if the property will eventually become your primary residence.
• Do not forget March 1. Whatever happens in November, homestead has to be filed by March 1 of the year you claim it, and portability's DR-501T goes in with it.
• If you already own here as a second home, converting has a tax dimension beyond property taxes. Moving into a property you have owned as a vacation home changes your position on a future sale, and the rules around that are their own subject. I've covered the sale side in what you will owe in capital gains when you sell a Forgotten Coast vacation home.

This is one of those subjects where the general rule is easy and your specific situation is what actually matters. If you own here as a second home and you're weighing a full-time move, or you're buying in and trying to understand how the timing works, call or text me at (850) 340-1213. I'll walk you through what I'm seeing on the ground, put you in front of the right people at the property appraiser's office, and help you build a purchase timeline that fits whatever your accountant recommends. And if the answer is that you should wait, I'll say that too.

I'm a real estate broker, not a CPA, tax advisor, or attorney, and nothing here is tax or legal advice. Amendment 3 is a proposed constitutional amendment that has not been approved, requires at least 60 percent voter approval on November 3, 2026, and would require implementing legislation, so some administrative details cannot be known yet. Figures reflect published guidance as of October 2026. Confirm your own situation with the Gulf County Property Appraiser and your tax professional.