Save Our Homes Portability and the Payment on Your Next Home
Program and regulatory figures verified September 19, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
This is a property tax rule, so why is a lender writing about it? Because the assessed value it produces sits inside the payment we underwrite, and on a long-held Florida home the difference is not a rounding error.
What actually moves
Not your tax bill and not your exemption. What moves is your accumulated assessment difference, the gap between what the county says your house is worth at just value and the lower figure it actually assesses. Save Our Homes creates that gap by capping the annual assessment increase on an established homestead at 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is less. Hold a Florida homestead through a decade of rising values and the gap gets large.
Portability lets you carry the lesser of $500,000 or that gap to your next Florida homestead. The authority is Article VII, Section 4(d) of the Florida Constitution, implemented at Section 193.155(8) of the Florida Statutes.
The window, stated precisely
The statute says you must have received a homestead exemption as of January 1 of any of the 3 immediately preceding years. The Department of Revenue's brochure translates that into the sentence that matters for anyone buying before selling: establish the new homestead within three years of January 1 of the year you abandoned the old homestead, and the DOR adds the words "not three years after the sale."
That distinction is the whole reason this page exists. Two owners can close on the same day, on identical houses, and land in different tax years depending on when their old homestead lapsed. One carries the benefit forward. The other does not.
We are not your tax adviser and we do not file the claim. What we can do, before you commit to a structure, is make sure nobody in the transaction is quietly assuming the clock runs from closing.
Upsizing and downsizing work differently
Most Florida coverage explains the upsizing case and stops. If your new homestead's just value is at or above the old one's, the new assessed value is the new just value minus the transferred difference. Straightforward.
Downsizing is where the arithmetic surprises people, and downsizing is exactly what a large share of Florida move-up and move-down buyers are doing. The statute prorates it: new assessed value equals the new just value divided by the old just value, multiplied by the old assessed value. You keep the same ratio of benefit rather than the same dollar amount. Buy a smaller house and you carry a smaller benefit, by design.
For a lender that is not trivia. It changes the tax line in the payment, which changes the debt ratio, which sometimes changes the approval.
Filing, and the date that ends the conversation
Portability is not automatic. You file Form DR-501T, the Transfer of Homestead Assessment Difference, together with Form DR-501, the homestead exemption application, with your county property appraiser. The deadline is March 1. If the property appraiser denies the application you may petition the county's value adjustment board.
Why we model this rather than estimate it
Property taxes sit inside the housing payment that underwriting measures, and therefore inside your debt ratio. Two Florida buyers purchasing the same house at the same price can carry very different payments depending on whether an assessment difference transferred. One qualifies comfortably. The other is short, and never finds out why.
The common shortcut, estimating property tax as a flat percentage of purchase price, produces a number that is wrong in both directions in Florida. It overstates the payment for someone porting a large benefit and understates it for someone who is not porting at all.
Run the timing on the portability window calculator, then see what happens while you own both houses.
Homestead eligibility, portability claims and landlord notice requirements are legal and tax questions. Your CPA, a Florida attorney, and your county property appraiser own those answers. We flag them because they change the numbers we underwrite.
Frequently asked questions
How much Save Our Homes benefit can I transfer in Florida?
The lesser of $500,000 or the difference between your prior homestead's just value and its assessed value, under Fla. Stat. Sec. 193.155(8). The $500,000 is a ceiling on the transfer, not an amount everyone receives. What you actually carry is your own accumulated assessment difference.
When does the Florida portability clock actually start?
From abandonment of the old homestead, not from its sale. The statute requires that you received a homestead exemption as of January 1 of any of the 3 immediately preceding years, and the Florida Department of Revenue states it as establishing the new homestead within three years of January 1 of the year you abandoned the old homestead, specifying that this is not three years after the sale. The tax year your old homestead lapsed is what controls.
What happens to portability if I buy a less expensive home?
The transfer becomes proportional rather than dollar for dollar. Under Sec. 193.155(8), when the new homestead's just value is below the old one's, the new assessed value equals the new just value divided by the old just value, multiplied by the old assessed value. You keep the same ratio of benefit, which on a smaller house means a smaller dollar benefit.
Do I have to apply for portability or is it automatic?
You have to apply. File Form DR-501T, the Transfer of Homestead Assessment Difference, with Form DR-501, the homestead exemption application, at your county property appraiser's office by March 1. If the application is denied you may petition the county's value adjustment board.
What happens to the Save Our Homes cap when the house is sold?
It ends. Under Sec. 193.155(3) a change of ownership causes the property to lose the Save Our Homes benefit, and it is assessed at just value the following January 1. That reset is why the benefit is worth moving rather than leaving behind.
Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax, or real estate advice. Homestead eligibility, portability, and landlord-tenant rules change and depend on your facts; your county property appraiser, your CPA or a Florida attorney, and your real estate agent each handle their own part. Loans are subject to borrower and property qualification.