Brevard County Market Watch 6

Some Brevard County Residents Got a Shock

Proposed property tax bills were recently mailed. Many property owners thought that with the passing of Amendment 1 in January 2008 that their tax bills would decrease.  That may have been the case for some owners, but not all.

Amendment 1 was designed to curtail the high increase in property taxes.  It was to provide owner occupants an additional $25,000 in homestead exemption, providing a total of $50,000 per home.  The savings was estimated at an additional savings of $240 per home, per year. 

Amendment 1 was also designed to allow an owner that was moving to bring their tax base with them, from one property to another.

With Florida Save Our Homes your homesteaded property tax bill can only increase by up to 3% a year. So, if you’ve owned your home for, say, 5 years that could amount to a total of a 15% increase.  Property values went up by over 180% in Brevard from 2000 to 2005.  Even with today’s declining property values, your tax bill may not have increased enough for it to catch up to the previous market increase in values.  So, with the passing of Amendment 1 your tax bill may have increased this year and may next year also, to catch up to the previous increase in values. It remains to be seen. Some owners are finding this to be the case.

Some owners of non homesteaded properties were really upset.  Amendment 1 places a 10% cap per year, on assessed value increases on non owner occupied property, beginning in 2009.  Previously, there were no caps on how high property taxes could climb on a non owner occupied property or on land. The cap does not include school taxes. However, many that voted for the amendment thought the cap would not go into effect this year.  But it won’t until the November 2009 tax bills.

Be aware, the Brevard County tax assessor’s office reassesses properties in January.  But, tax bills are mailed in November, and taxes are paid in arrears in November. Proposed estimates are sent out in September.  In November when the bill is due, an owner may be looking at an over inflated bill based on a January assessed value, in a declining market.  This is especially a problem in our Brevard County Florida real estate market since it has been on the decline for the past couple of years.