Property Taxes in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale Metro (FL)

1. How Florida property tax actually works

Every Florida county property appraiser sets each property's just value (roughly, market value) as of January 1 each year. For a homesteaded property, a separate, capped assessed value is then calculated from that just value (see Section 2) -- the two numbers can diverge substantially the longer an owner stays put, especially in a fast-appreciating market like Miami-Dade or Broward. Exemptions, chiefly the homestead exemption covered in Section 4, are subtracted from assessed value to reach taxable value, and it's taxable value that local millage (one mill = $1 of tax per $1,000 of taxable value) actually applies to. Millage itself is set annually by several overlapping taxing authorities layered onto one bill -- the county, the local school district, a city or municipality if the property sits inside one, and any special taxing district -- so a single "the property tax rate is X" figure for a whole county always understates what a specific address actually owes. See our zoning & governance guide for how much of Miami-Dade and Broward sits inside a separate city government versus unincorporated county.

Florida has no state income tax (see our relocating guide), which is part of why property tax and sales tax carry relatively more weight in the state's overall tax structure than in states that also tax income.

2. The Save Our Homes cap and portability

Once a property carries a homestead exemption, Florida's Save Our Homes (SOH) provision caps how much its assessed value can rise each year to the lesser of 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index -- 2.9% for the 2025 tax year -- regardless of how much the property's actual just value climbs. In a metro where waterfront and urban-core values have risen quickly, that gap between just value and the much lower taxable assessed value can grow especially wide for a long-tenured owner; it's generally called the "SOH benefit." Portability lets a homeowner carry some or all of an accumulated SOH benefit, up to a statutory cap of $500,000, to a new Florida homestead when they move -- including a move between Miami-Dade and Broward, since portability works statewide rather than only within one county. Confirm the current portability cap and the exact math for a specific move with the receiving county's property appraiser.

3. The recapture rule -- what resets when a home sells

This is the single most consequential, least-advertised mechanic in Florida property tax for a buyer, and it matters as much in Miami-Dade and Broward as anywhere in the state. Under Florida Statute 193.155, when a homesteaded property changes ownership -- most sales included -- the county property appraiser reassesses it at full just value as of January 1 of the following year, wiping out the seller's accumulated Save Our Homes benefit entirely. The new owner's own SOH cap then starts accruing fresh from that reset, higher base, not from wherever the seller's assessed value happened to sit. In plain terms: a seller's low property tax bill does not transfer to a buyer. A buyer evaluating a listing in Brickell, Coral Gables, or along Fort Lauderdale's Las Olas corridor should budget from the property's just value and current millage, not the tax bill shown on the listing -- the gap between the two can be substantial on a long-held property in either county.

4. The homestead exemption, and the amendment on this November's ballot

Under current law, a permanent Florida resident who owns and occupies a property as their primary home can claim a homestead exemption that removes the first $25,000 of assessed value from taxation entirely, including school-district taxes. A second exemption, applying to assessed value between $50,000 and $75,000, removes up to another $25,722 for the 2025 tax year?Since a 2024 constitutional amendment (Amendment 5), this second exemption's dollar cap is adjusted for inflation every year instead of staying fixed at $25,000 -- the Florida Department of Revenue publishes the adjusted figure annually, and $25,722 is specifically the 2025 tax-year number, not a permanent amount. -- but this second exemption does not apply to school taxes, only to the non-school portion of the bill. Combined, the two come to roughly $50,722 of exempted assessed value for a qualifying 2025 homestead, though the school-tax carve-out means the real dollar savings depends on a property's specific millage mix.

Pending, not current law: a constitutional amendment is on Florida's November 3, 2026 statewide ballot that would raise the non-school homestead exemption from $25,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 (indexed to inflation afterward), with a five-year phase-in for new Florida residents who move in after December 31, 2026, and would also cut the annual assessment cap on non-homestead property (see Section 5) from 10% to 5%. It needs 60% voter approval to take effect. This has not happened yet -- treat every dollar figure in this paragraph as proposed, not in effect, until and unless voters approve it this November.

Sources: Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, Second Homestead Exemption (miamidadepa.gov/pa/exemption/homestead-second.page); Florida Department of Revenue, 2025 Additional Homestead Exemption CPI Adjustment (floridarevenue.com/property/Documents/2025_cpi_homestead_exemption.pdf); Ballotpedia, Florida Amendment 5 (2024) and the 2026 homestead-exemption ballot amendment (ballotpedia.org; news.ballotpedia.org/2026/06/03/florida-voters-to-decide-expanded-homestead-tax-exemption-amendment-in-november); Fla. Stat. §193.155 (flsenate.gov/laws/statutes/2022/193.155).

5. Non-homestead property: investment, rental, and second homes

A large share of Miami-Dade and Broward's housing stock -- condos especially -- is owned as a rental, a vacation home, or a straightforward investment rather than a primary residence, and Florida taxes that property differently in three specific ways. First, non-homestead property gets no homestead exemption, so its full assessed value (short of any other narrow exemption) is taxable. Second, its annual assessed-value increase is capped at 10% per year rather than the homesteaded 3%/CPI cap from Section 2 -- a real ceiling, but a much looser one, so a fast-appreciating investment property's taxable value can climb noticeably faster than a comparable homesteaded property next door. Third, non-homestead property never accrues a Save Our Homes benefit in the first place, so the recapture rule in Section 3 simply doesn't apply to it -- there's nothing being reset at sale that wasn't already resetting every year. As noted in Section 4, the pending November 2026 ballot amendment would cut that 10% non-homestead cap to 5% starting in 2027 if voters approve it; until then, 10% is the operative figure.

6. Representative figures by county?These are county-only, FY2024-25 figures -- a real address's full bill also includes its school district, any city, and any special taxing district, so it always runs higher than the county number alone.

The figures below are each county's countywide operating millage and an average effective property tax rate (tax paid as a share of home value) for FY2024-25 -- county-only numbers, not a full bill. A specific address's actual total millage also includes its school district, any city or municipality, and any special taxing district, so the full effective rate for a given property runs higher than the county figure alone -- one third-party analysis of Miami-Dade's own combined city-plus-county-plus-school rates found totals ranging from roughly 16.9 mills in unincorporated areas to nearly 20 mills in the City of Miami, on top of the identical county/school/regional layers every Miami-Dade property owner pays.

Florida's statewide average effective property tax rate is roughly 0.75%. Broward's effective rate runs above both Miami-Dade's and the statewide figure; Miami-Dade's sits close to the statewide number. Neither figure substitutes for an actual TRIM notice or tax bill on a specific address.

Sources: Florida Association of Counties, "Florida County Property Tax Report -- All Counties," FY2024-25 (fl-counties.com); SmartAsset Florida Property Tax Calculator (smartasset.com/taxes/florida-property-tax-calculator); Jorge Guanche, "Miami-Dade Property Tax Rates by Neighborhood," for the combined city-rate range cited above (jorgeguanche.com). We did not independently re-verify every municipality's current-year city and school-district millage in this pass -- confirm a specific address's total combined millage with the relevant county property appraiser.

7. Condo and co-op reserves: Florida's SB 4-D and your budget?This is the detailed version of SB 4-D that every neighborhood guide across this metro links back to, rather than repeating the full mechanics on each page. Confirm a specific building's exact age, story count, and current inspection/reserve status directly with its association -- we did not verify those per-building facts.

Following the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside -- itself a Miami-Dade municipality -- Florida enacted SB 4-D (2022), most recently amended by HB 913 (2025). This is the section of Florida real estate law that has changed the most since 2021, and it matters more directly here than almost anywhere else in the state: Miami-Dade and Broward together hold one of the largest concentrations of aging mid- and high-rise coastal condo buildings in Florida, much of it built between the 1960s and 1990s along Biscayne Bay, the barrier islands, and Broward's Intracoastal Waterway corridor.

Condo and co-op buildings three stories or taller now require a Milestone inspection: buildings within three miles of the coastline at 30 years old and every 10 years after, buildings farther inland at 40 years old and every 10 years after, with associations required to complete their first inspection by December 31, 2026. Buildings with three or more habitable stories also require a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS), updated at least every 10 years, with existing associations required to have completed one by December 31, 2025 under HB 913's extended deadline.

The practical consequence for buyers and current owners alike: associations can no longer fully waive reserve funding for the SIRS-mandated components (roof, load-bearing structure, fireproofing, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, exterior paint, windows and doors, and any component with more than $25,000 in deferred replacement cost). Full funding at the level the SIRS recommends is required starting January 1, 2026, with only a limited allowance to pause contributions for up to two consecutive budget years if the association is actively funding milestone-inspection repairs, through December 31, 2028. In plain terms: expect higher, mandatory reserve assessments going forward on older coastal condo buildings across both counties -- a real, ongoing budgeting fact to weigh in a purchase decision, not a reason to avoid coastal condos outright. This is a genuinely fast-moving area of Florida law; confirm a specific building's current inspection and reserve status with its association and, for general current guidance, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation's condominium FAQ (condos.myfloridalicense.com/faqs/) or a real estate attorney before relying on the dates above.

See our zoning & HOAs guide for how SB 4-D fits into Chapter 718's broader condo-governance framework.

Sources: Thornton Tomasetti, "Florida SB 4-D Building Safety Law" (thorntontomasetti.com/florida-sb4d-building-safety-law); Florida DBPR condominium FAQ (condos.myfloridalicense.com/faqs/); Fla. Stat. §553.899.

8. Appealing your assessment

Florida property appraisers mail a TRIM notice ("Notice of Proposed Property Taxes") each August, showing the coming year's proposed just value, assessed value, and taxes. An owner who disagrees can generally request an informal review directly with the county property appraiser's office first, and separately has the right to file a formal petition with the county's Value Adjustment Board (VAB) -- commonly reported as due within about 25 days of the TRIM notice being mailed, though the exact current-year deadline for Miami-Dade and Broward varies by county. Confirm the specific deadline printed on your own TRIM notice, or directly with your county's property appraiser or VAB clerk, before relying on any date here.

9. How we keep this page current

The structural mechanics in Sections 1 through 3 and 5 (the just-value/assessed-value/taxable-value chain, the Save Our Homes cap, the recapture rule, and the non-homestead assessment cap) are settled state law and don't change often. The current-year exemption figures in Section 4, the county millage figures in Section 6, and the appeal deadline in Section 8 are exactly the kind of numbers that shift year to year -- we've flagged what wasn't independently re-verified in this pass rather than guess, and the November 2026 ballot measure in Section 4 in particular should be rechecked after Election Day for its actual outcome. SB 4-D in Section 7 is a genuinely fast-moving area of law that has already been amended once since 2022; recheck current deadlines before relying on this page for a specific building. If you spot something on this page that's changed, or notice a broken link, we'd like to know -- see our contact information.