Property Taxes in West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce (FL)
- 1. How Florida property tax actually works
- 2. The Save Our Homes cap and portability
- 3. The recapture rule — what resets when a home sells
- 4. The homestead exemption, and the amendment on this November's ballot
- 5. Non-homestead property: investment, rental, and second homes
- 6. Representative millage figures by city
- 7. Condo and co-op reserves: Florida's SB 4-D and your budget
- 8. Appealing your assessment
- 9. How we keep this page current
1. How Florida property tax actually works
The Palm Beach 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. 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. Palm Beach County's combined 2025–26 millage runs about 18.72 mills (roughly 1.87% of taxable value), of which roughly 6.50 mills fund the School District of Palm Beach County — the rest covers county government, a city or municipality if the property sits inside one, and any special taxing district, so a single "the rate is 18.72" figure always understates what a specific incorporated address actually owes once its municipal rate is added. See our zoning & governance guide for how much of the county sits inside one of its 39 incorporated municipalities versus unincorporated county land.
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.
Sources: Momentum, Palm Beach County Property Tax Rate & Calculator (movewithmomentum.com/florida-property-tax/palm-beach); Palm Beach County Property Appraiser (pbcpao.gov).
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 county where coastal and waterfront values (the Town of Palm Beach, Boca Raton's Intracoastal frontage, Singer Island) 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 from anywhere else in the state into Palm Beach County, since portability works statewide. Confirm the current portability cap and the exact math for a specific move with the Palm Beach County 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. 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 the Town of Palm Beach, downtown West Palm Beach, or Boca Raton 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.
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 (a figure the Florida Department of Revenue adjusts for inflation annually, not a fixed 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.
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: Florida Department of Revenue, 2025 Additional Homestead Exemption CPI Adjustment (floridarevenue.com); Ballotpedia, Florida Amendment 5 (2024) and the 2026 homestead-exemption ballot amendment (ballotpedia.org); Fla. Stat. §193.155.
5. Non-homestead property: investment, rental, and second homes
A meaningful share of Palm Beach County's housing stock — especially in the Town of Palm Beach, Wellington during equestrian season, and coastal condo towers — is owned as a rental, a seasonal second 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. Third, non-homestead property never accrues a Save Our Homes benefit, so the recapture rule in Section 3 simply doesn't apply to it. 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 millage figures by city
Palm Beach County has 39 incorporated municipalities (see our zoning & HOAs guide), and each sets its own municipal millage on top of the countywide 18.72-mill baseline from Section 1. Published, city-sourced municipal millage isn't reproduced here for all 39 — the figures below come directly from each city's or the county's own published tax-roll records, covering four of the twelve places this site currently guides.
| City | City millage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jupiter | 2.3894 mills | 2025 rate — the lowest municipal rate of the four confirmed here |
| Boca Raton | 3.66 mills | FY2026 proposed rate, down one cent from FY2025's 3.67 — described locally as a negligible reduction against a rising overall budget |
| Palm Beach Gardens | 5.0537 mills | FY2026 rate, unchanged from the prior year |
| North Palm Beach | 7.4000 mills | 2025 rate — notably higher than the three cities above, consistent with a small, fully built-out village funding services from a smaller commercial tax base |
| West Palm Beach | — | A published example puts a $300,000 homesteaded property's total combined bill (county + school + city + special districts) at roughly 21.20 mills equivalent — higher than the 18.72-mill countywide baseline, but the city's own standalone municipal component isn't separately published in current public budget materials |
Current municipal-only millage for the Town of Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Wellington, Riviera Beach, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and Belle Glade isn't reproduced above — confirm a specific city's rate with that city's finance department or the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser before budgeting from it.
Sources: Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, TRIM hearings and tax-roll records (pbcpao.gov/trim/hearings.htm); City of Palm Beach Gardens FY2026 budget materials (stories.opengov.com/pbgfl); The Coastal Star, "Boca Raton: City poised to shave a penny off property tax rate" (thecoastalstar.com); PropertyExemption.com, West Palm Beach Property Tax Guide 2026 (propertyexemption.com).
7. Condo and co-op reserves: Florida's SB 4-D and your budget
Following the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside (Miami-Dade County), Florida enacted SB 4-D (2022), most recently amended by HB 913 (2025). It matters directly here: Palm Beach County has a large stock of aging mid- and high-rise coastal condo and co-op buildings, from downtown West Palm Beach's Intracoastal towers to the Town of Palm Beach's south-end co-ops, Singer Island's beachfront in Riviera Beach, and the older condo corridors of Lake Worth Beach, Boca Raton, and Delray Beach.
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. In plain terms: expect higher, mandatory reserve assessments going forward on older coastal condo buildings across the county — a real, ongoing budgeting fact to weigh in a purchase decision, not a reason to avoid coastal condos outright. 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 or a real estate attorney.
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
The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser mails 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 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 varies. Confirm the specific deadline printed on your own TRIM notice, or directly with the 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 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.