Marty Kiar, our Property Appraiser, has advice for those newly purchasing a home.  When buying/acquiring real estate, DO NOT assume the property taxes will remain the same as the current owner’s taxes.  Under Florida law, a change in ownership requires the property to be reassessed at current full market value the year following the change of ownership OR if a Homestead Exemption is added/removed from the property.  This reassessment could result in higher property taxes for the new owner than what the seller was paying. Please use our Tax Estimator available online to approximate your new property taxes based on the reassessed value. 

If you are moving to a new home and have held a Homestead Exemption anywhere within Florida during the past three tax years, you may be eligible to transfer your Save Our Homes (SOH) benefit to your new home to help lower the property’s assessed value and subsequent taxes.  The Portability Estimator available online helps you approximate what your new property taxes will be using any portability you may be transferring from another property.  

To use our Tax Estimator and Portability Estimator, please visit web.bcpa.net and click on “Online Tools”.  

Homestead Exemption and Portability save eligible property owners thousands of dollars each year. For information on all tax-saving exemptions including Homestead Exemption and the Limited-Income Senior Exemption, please visit our website at web.bcpa.net and click on “Exemptions & Classifications”. Click here to read the full newsletter.

The absolute deadline to apply for any 2026 exemption is September 18, 2026.