Save Our Homes portability: taking your tax savings to a new Florida home
Zacharia Frey PLLC. Updated November 2026.
If you had a Florida homestead exemption in any of the 3 years before you establish a new Florida homestead, you can carry your Save Our Homes benefit, the gap between market value and assessed value, to the new home, up to $500,000. It works only from one Florida homestead to another; a benefit cannot come with you from another state.
How the transfer works
Your benefit is the old home's market (just) value minus its assessed value as of January 1 of the year you gave it up. If the new home is worth the same or more, the full benefit, up to $500,000, comes off the new home's market value. If the new home is worth less, you take a proportional share.
A married couple who both lived in the prior homestead are each treated as having had the exemption, even if only one of them applied.
The timing
The new homestead must be established while you are still within 3 years of having received the exemption on the old one. Apply for portability with the homestead application on the new home, by March 1.
Why it matters to people who just moved here
Portability does not cross state lines, so a new resident starts building the Save Our Homes benefit from the first year of homestead. That is one more reason to claim the exemption the first January 1 you qualify.
Common questions
- How long do I have to use portability?
- You must establish the new homestead while you have received the homestead exemption on the old one as of January 1 of any of the 3 preceding years.
- Can I bring my property tax savings from another state?
- No. Portability moves a Save Our Homes benefit from one Florida homestead to another Florida homestead only.
Law cited on this page
- § 193.155, Fla. Stat. (Florida Statutes)
- § 196.011, Fla. Stat. (Florida Statutes)
Other sources
General information about Florida law, not legal advice for your situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.