Florida Save Our Homes portability calculator
Moving between Florida homesteads? Save Our Homes portability (Fla. Stat. §193.155(8)) lets you carry up to $500,000 of your accumulated assessment savings to the new home — often the single biggest lever on a move-up buyer's future tax bill. This computes the transferable amount the way the statute does. Runs in your browser; nothing you enter is collected.
Transferable Save Our Homes benefit
| Prior assessment difference | |
|---|---|
| Move direction | |
| Amount you can port | |
| New home's starting assessed value |
How the statute computes it
- Upsizing — new just value at or above the prior's: the full assessment difference transfers, capped at $500,000. The rule: "the assessed value of the new homestead shall be the just value of the new homestead minus... the lesser of $500,000 or the difference between the just value and the assessed value of the... prior homestead."
- Downsizing — new just value below the prior's: a proportional share transfers — new assessed value equals the new just value divided by the prior just value, times the prior assessed value (§193.155(8)(b)) — with the ported benefit still capped so it never exceeds $500,000.
Worked upsize: a prior home at $500,000 just value and $200,000 assessed carries a $300,000.00 difference; moving up to $600,000, all $300,000.00 transfers, so the new home starts assessed at $300,000.00. Worked downsize: the same prior home moving down to $150,000 ports a proportional $90,000.00, starting the new home at $60,000.00.
The three-year window and how to claim it
You must establish the new homestead within three assessment years of abandoning the prior one — a 2020 constitutional amendment raised this from two years (effective January 1, 2021). File Form DR-501T together with your homestead application (Form DR-501) at the new county's Property Appraiser by March 1 of the year after you move; for a cross-county move the new appraiser coordinates the certified figure with the old county. Portability transfers the assessment difference only — you still apply for the homestead exemption itself fresh at the new address.
Important limits of this estimate
- Use the county Property Appraiser's certified January-1 just and assessed values for the prior home — not its sale price or a current estimate. Your prior TRIM notice or the tax lookup shows both.
- This models a single owner moving one homestead to one new homestead. Joint owners splitting up, divorcing spouses, or two prior homesteads combining follow separate statutory formulas with their own consent rules and an aggregate $500,000 cap — see your Property Appraiser.
- An estimate pending the Property Appraiser's certification, not a guaranteed figure; not legal or tax advice.