Florida Amendment 3 Passed: What the Bigger Homestead Exemption Means for Orlando Buyers
A $150,000 exemption in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 — who gets it, when it lands on a bill, and the five-year rule that catches out-of-state buyers
Florida voters approved Amendment 3 on November 3, 2026 with about 62 percent of the vote. The homestead exemption rises to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, applying to all property tax levies except school district taxes, with inflation adjustments in later years. The annual assessment increase cap on non-homestead property, including second homes and rentals, drops from 10 percent to 5 percent. Owners who were permanent Florida residents as of December 31, 2026 qualify for the larger exemption; later arrivals start with the current exemption and reach the increased amount in their fifth year of homestead. The amendment takes effect January 1, 2027, so the first affected bills arrive in November 2027. Orange County estimates it will collect about $165 million less in 2027 and about $275 million less in 2028.
Amendment 3 passed on Tuesday with roughly 62% of the vote, clearing the 60% a constitutional amendment needs in Florida. If you are shopping for a home in Central Florida, this is the biggest change to the math on your tax line in nearly two decades — and the second-biggest story in it is who does not get the benefit right away.
Here is the plain version, with the parts that actually touch a closing statement. We will also say where the details are still unwritten, because they are, and anyone telling you exactly what your 2027 bill will be is guessing.
What Did Amendment 3 Actually Change?
It raised the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, up from the roughly $50,000 most homesteaded owners claim today, and it applies to every property tax levy except school district taxes. Both amounts are adjusted for inflation in the years after they take effect.
Three other pieces came along with it, per Orange County's own summary of the amendment:
- The annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property — second homes, rentals, commercial real estate, vacant land — drops from 10% to 5%. The Save Our Homes 3% cap on homesteaded property is unchanged.
- The default ceiling for city and county millage becomes the rolled-back rate. Going above it takes a two-thirds vote of the governing body, and going above 110% of it takes a unanimous vote.
- County and municipal property tax revenue is restricted to seven categories: public safety, education, infrastructure, natural resources, debt service, retirement obligations, and county or municipal operations.
Orange County also notes the amendment directs the Legislature to set a schedule for eliminating non-school homestead property taxes altogether. That is a direction, not a date. Treat it as a thing to watch, not a thing to budget around.
When Will You See It on a Tax Bill?
Not on the bill sitting on your counter right now. The amendment takes effect January 1, 2027, which makes the 2027 tax year the first one affected, and Florida bills property taxes in arrears — so the first bill with the bigger exemption on it goes out in November 2027. The November 2026 bill is unchanged.
That gap matters if you are closing in the next few months. Your lender will escrow based on current numbers, and the relief shows up a full year later. Don't let anyone quote you a 2027 payment as though the exemption already applies.
Why Your School Taxes Don't Change
School district levies are carved out of the increase. On an Orange County bill, the school portion is one of the largest single lines, so excluding it caps how much the exemption can save you. The existing first $25,000 of homestead exemption still applies to school taxes as it always has; the new $150,000 and $250,000 amounts do not.
What that means in practice: your savings depend entirely on the combined non-school millage at your address — county, city, fire, library, water management district. An address inside the City of Winter Garden carries a different stack than an unincorporated address in Horizon West a few miles south. Two homes at the same price can land in different places. Our four-counties comparison walks through why the jurisdiction line matters more than buyers expect.
The Five-Year Rule: Read This Before You Move Here
If you are relocating to Central Florida from out of state, you most likely do not get the $150,000 exemption in 2027. Orange County's summary states that new residents must live in Florida five years before qualifying for the expanded exemption. News coverage of the amendment describes it the same way: owners who were permanent Florida residents as of December 31, 2026 get the larger exemption, while those who establish residency later receive the current exemption first and become eligible for the increased amount in their fifth year of receiving a homestead exemption.
So the buyer flying in from Ohio in March 2027 and the neighbor who has owned since 2014 can file for homestead on identical houses and get very different bills. That is a real planning item for the out-of-state buyers we work with most, and it is the single most misunderstood piece of this amendment.
One thing it does not change: the filing mechanics. Homestead is still claimed with your county property appraiser, and the deadline is still March 1 for the year you are claiming. Existing homesteaded owners do not need to refile to get the larger amount. New owners still have to apply, same as always — and the exemption you qualify for is set by your situation, not by the size of the number in the headline. Our property tax and homestead guide covers the application itself.
What About Second Homes, Rentals and Investment Property?
No exemption increase — but the assessment cap tightens from 10% to 5% a year, which is a meaningful change in a market where assessed values have climbed hard. The cap limits how fast the assessed value can rise, not the size of the bill, so it slows the ratchet rather than cutting the tax.
For anyone weighing a short-term or long-term rental in Kissimmee or Celebration, this is a modest tailwind on the hold side, and nothing at all on the purchase side. Model the first-year bill at the non-homesteaded rate, because that is what you will pay.
What Local Governments Say It Costs Them
This is where the honest part of the conversation lives, because the money comes out of somewhere. Orange County estimates it will collect about $165 million less in 2027 and about $275 million less in 2028 — roughly $89 million and $157 million of that in countywide taxes, about $46 million and $72 million in fire tax, and about $30 million and $46 million in sheriff tax. The county says public safety currently accounts for about 51% of its property tax allocations and that no state replacement funding source has been identified.
Smaller cities published their own numbers before the vote. The City of Winter Garden projected about $5.2 million less in 2027 and about $8.5 million less in 2028, against FY2026 ad valorem revenue of $30.3 million — roughly 17% and 28%. In Ocoee, the commission spent 2026 reworking its fire assessment methodology and, in June, took up an assessment schedule of roughly $383.90 per dwelling unit for FY2027 and $571.57 for FY2028 to offset projected property tax losses of about $4.15 million and $8.5 million.
Read that last one twice if you are buying in Ocoee. A flat per-unit fire assessment is not a property tax, so the bigger homestead exemption does not reduce it, and it is the same dollar amount on a $350,000 house as on a $900,000 one. Several Central Florida cities are looking at the same lever. The exemption is real; so is the possibility that part of it comes back as a fee.
Does This Change What You Can Afford?
A little, in 2027, and more in 2028 — if you qualify. But the property tax line is not the line that has been moving fastest in a Central Florida payment, and three of the other items are untouched by Amendment 3:
- Insurance. Still the volatile one, still driven mostly by roof age and coverage — see our Florida homeowners insurance guide.
- HOA dues. Not a tax. Unchanged.
- CDD assessments. These are non-ad-valorem assessments that ride on the same tax bill in a lot of newer communities, and they are not reduced by a homestead exemption. A newer home with a CDD bond keeps that assessment in full — what CDD fees really cost breaks down the difference.
Which is the useful way to think about it: Amendment 3 shaves the ad valorem part of a payment that also contains insurance, HOA, and in many Orange County and Osceola County neighborhoods a CDD assessment. Run the whole stack on the actual address. Our honest cost of living in Orlando guide puts the rest of the budget around it.
So Should You Wait to Buy?
No — the benefit attaches to the property and the owner's homestead status, not to the closing date, so waiting until 2027 to buy does not get you a bigger exemption than buying in December and filing by March 1. Here is the balanced read.
The Upside
- A long-time Florida resident who already has homestead gets a materially larger exemption on non-school levies starting with the 2027 tax year, automatically, with no refiling.
- Both exemption amounts index to inflation afterward, so the benefit does not quietly erode the way the old $25,000 did for decades.
- The tighter 5% cap on non-homestead assessments slows the annual climb on second homes and rentals.
- The new millage rules make it harder for a city or county to simply raise the rate to make itself whole.
The Trade-Offs
- Out-of-state buyers who establish residency after December 31, 2026 start with the current exemption, not the headline one.
- School taxes, HOA dues and CDD assessments are all unaffected, which limits the real-dollar relief on a newer home.
- Local governments are already modeling fee increases — Ocoee's fire assessment is the clearest example in our area — and flat fees hit lower-priced homes hardest.
- Implementing legislation has not been written yet. The residency mechanics and the "schedule for elimination" language will be fought over in Tallahassee, and specifics can shift.
What the Neighbors Know
Everyone who has owned here through a reassessment knows the real lesson of this amendment, and it is not the number: your tax bill is an address-level question, not a statewide one. Two houses on the same street can sit in different fire districts, one inside city limits and one not, one with a CDD bond and one without.
So the move is the same as it always was, just with better news attached. Pull the actual bill on the actual property. Look at the non-school millage, look for a CDD line, note the roof age for the insurance quote, and ask when the current owner's homestead was established — because under the new rules that history matters in a way it never used to. Then decide. The exemption is a genuine win for Florida homeowners; it is not a reason to skip the homework.
For the official detail, read Orange County's Amendment 3 page and the City of Winter Garden's Amendment 3 impact page, and confirm your own exemption status and filing deadline directly with your county property appraiser before you rely on any estimate.
Trying to pencil out a 2027 payment on a specific house? Call/Text David Myers at 407.801.3286 and we will pull the actual tax bill, the CDD line if there is one, and the non-school millage for that address — then run the honest number. Or start with our community guides across Orange County and Osceola County.
