The question I get most from people leaving Florida is not about the house. It is about the tax break they have been sitting on for fifteen years, and whether walking away from it is the expensive part of the move.
The answer depends almost entirely on one thing: whether you are moving somewhere else in Florida, or leaving the state.
What Homestead Actually Does for You
Two separate benefits, and people blur them together.
The exemption takes $25,000 off your assessed value for all levies, plus an additional inflation adjusted exemption on value above $50,000 for everything except school taxes. That is the part you see as a line on the tax bill.
The cap is the bigger one, and it is quieter. Save Our Homes limits how much your assessed value can rise each year to 3% or CPI, whichever is lower, for as long as you own and homestead the property. Over fifteen or twenty years that gap compounds into something substantial. It is why a long time owner can pay dramatically less than the person who bought a nearly identical house next door last year.
That accumulated difference between your market value and your capped assessed value is the thing you are really asking about.
If You Are Moving Within Florida, You Can Take It With You
This is called portability, and it is the single most useful thing in this article.
When you sell a homesteaded Florida property and buy another one in Florida, you may be able to carry your accumulated Save Our Homes savings to the new home. You do not start over at market value. Years of built up benefit move with you.
It is not automatic. You have to file for it, and there are timing rules about how quickly you establish the new homestead relative to giving up the old one. If you are moving from Naples to Sarasota, or Naples to Jacksonville, or even across Collier County, this is a conversation to have with the property appraiser before you close, not after.
If You Are Leaving Florida, You Lose It
I would rather say this plainly than let anyone find out later. Homestead requires the property to be your permanent residence. Leave the state and establish residency elsewhere, and the exemption and the cap both go away. There is no version where you keep it on a house you no longer live in.
What is more, once the homestead comes off, the assessed value resets toward market value. If you keep the Naples house as a rental or a second home instead of selling it, expect the tax bill to look very different than it did when you lived there. Non homestead property carries a different, higher cap.
People are often surprised by how much that changes the math on keeping the house. It is worth running before you decide to hold it.
The January 1 Rule Decides Your Whole Year
Florida homestead hinges on a single date. You must own the home and occupy it as your permanent residence on January 1, and you file by March 1.
That cuts both directions when you are leaving. If you move out in February, you generally keep the benefit for that tax year because you met the January 1 test. If you were already gone on January 1, you did not.
It also matters for whoever buys your house. The exemption does not transfer to them, and their assessed value resets. That is not your problem exactly, but it is worth understanding, because it affects what their carrying cost looks like and occasionally it comes up in negotiation.
There Is a Ballot Measure Attached to This
On the November 3, 2026 ballot, Amendment 3 needs sixty percent to pass. It would raise the homestead exemption for non school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, indexed to inflation after that. The school tax exemption stays at $25,000, and the cap on non homestead property would drop from ten percent to five percent. A judge ordered the ballot summary rewritten in August. The amendment stays on the ballot.
If you are leaving, the piece that matters to you is the non homestead cap dropping from ten to five percent, which would affect you if you keep the Naples property as a rental or second home. If the amendment fails, current law stands.
What I Would Do in Your Order of Operations
- Decide first whether you are staying in Florida or leaving it. Everything else follows from that.
- If you are staying in Florida, ask the property appraiser about portability and the timing rules before you list.
- If you are leaving, get a realistic tax projection on the Naples house as a non homestead property before you decide whether to sell it or keep it.
- Confirm the January 1 and March 1 dates against your actual move timeline.
- Talk to your CPA. This is a summary of how the rules work, not advice about your situation.
The Part That Makes This Easier
I have helped families move into Naples and I have helped families leave it. Both are fine by me. What I care about is that you leave for a reason that still holds up in year three, and that you do not discover a tax consequence in April that you could have planned for in October.
If you are thinking about a move out of the area and you want to know what the house is worth and what the tax picture looks like on the way out, reach out. Even if you are a year or two from doing anything. Most of the people I work with started that way.
This is a general summary of Florida homestead rules as they stand in 2026 and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Exemption amounts, portability rules and deadlines change, and Amendment 3 has not been decided. Confirm your own situation with the Collier County Property Appraiser and your CPA. Philly Rodriguez, Sales Associate, The Philly Rodriguez Group at Real Broker, LLC.
