Florida’s Amendment 5, approved by voters in November 2024, ties the second-tier homestead exemption to inflation so it grows automatically each year. For the 2025 tax roll, the exemption rose from $25,000 to $25,722, and it will keep climbing whenever the Consumer Price Index rises.1Florida Department of Revenue. Constitutional Amendment 5 Annual Inflation Adjustment to Homestead Exemption Value If you already have a homestead exemption on your primary residence, the adjustment is automatic. No new paperwork, no application.
Which Part of Your Exemption Actually Changes
Florida’s homestead exemption comes in two layers, and Amendment 5 only touches one of them. The first $25,000 comes off the assessed value of your primary residence for all property taxes, including school district taxes. A second exemption of up to $25,000 applies to assessed value above $50,000, but it only reduces non-school taxes — the ones collected by your county, city, and special districts.2Florida Department of Revenue. Homestead Exemption Information
For a home assessed at $100,000 or more, that breaks down like this:
- The first $25,000 is exempt from all property taxes.
- The slice from $25,001 to $50,000 is fully taxable.
- The slice from $50,001 up to the second-tier ceiling is exempt from non-school taxes only. This is the portion Amendment 5 adjusts.
- Anything above the second-tier ceiling is fully taxable.
Before Amendment 5, that second-tier ceiling sat at $75,000 and stayed frozen year after year. With the 2025 adjustment, the ceiling moves to $75,722. It will keep moving with inflation from now on.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 196.031 – Exemption of Homesteads
How the Annual Adjustment Works
Each year, the Florida Department of Revenue increases the second-tier exemption by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from the preceding calendar year. The CPI-U rose 2.9% for calendar year 2024, which produced the $722 bump for the 2025 tax roll.4U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Price Index News Release – 2024 M12 Results
Two features are worth knowing. The adjustment only goes up. If the CPI-U falls in a given year, the exemption holds steady rather than shrinking. And the increases compound: next year’s adjustment applies to the already-adjusted amount, not the original $25,000 base. That’s the mechanic that turns small annual bumps into meaningful savings over a long stretch of homeownership.
How Much You’ll Actually Save
Year one is small. The $722 increase for 2025 only touches the non-school portion of your bill. At a combined county, city, and special district millage of roughly 15 mills, which is common in Florida, the additional relief works out to about $10 or $11 for the year.
The value shows up over time. Each year’s adjustment stacks on the last, so after five years of moderate inflation the exemption might sit $3,000 to $4,000 above the original base. Fifteen or twenty years in, the cumulative annual savings can reach several hundred dollars, depending on inflation and local millage. Long-term homeowners get the most out of it.
School district taxes, which are typically a significant share of a Florida property tax bill, don’t move at all. Amendment 5 doesn’t reach them.1Florida Department of Revenue. Constitutional Amendment 5 Annual Inflation Adjustment to Homestead Exemption Value
Do You Need to File Anything
If your homestead exemption is already in place, no. The Department of Revenue calculates the adjusted figure each year and provides it to county property appraisers, who apply it to every qualifying homestead. You don’t reapply, and you don’t contact anyone.5Alachua County Property Appraiser. Constitutional Amendment 5 Annual Inflation Adjustment to Homestead Exemption Value
If you recently bought your home and haven’t claimed the underlying homestead exemption yet, that’s the step to take. File the application with your county property appraiser by March 1 of the year you want it to take effect. A late application is possible but may require going before the Value Adjustment Board. Once the homestead is established, the inflation adjustment applies automatically each year going forward.
How This Fits with Save Our Homes
Save Our Homes is a separate protection, and Florida homeowners often confuse the two. Save Our Homes caps how fast your property’s assessed value can rise each year at the lesser of 3% or the annual CPI-U change.6The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 193.155 – Homestead Assessments It holds down the taxable base.
Amendment 5 works on the other side. It grows the amount subtracted from that base. The two use the same CPI-U index but for different purposes, and they stack: your assessed value rises slowly under Save Our Homes, and a slightly larger exemption comes off it each year under Amendment 5.
On portability, the Save Our Homes benefit transfers to a new Florida homestead within limits. The inflation-adjusted exemption doesn’t work as a portable benefit because it isn’t personal — the Department of Revenue sets the adjusted amount statewide, and every qualifying homestead receives it. Moving doesn’t cost you anything on the Amendment 5 side, as long as your new property qualifies for homestead treatment.
What Can Cost You the Benefit
The inflation adjustment only helps properties that qualify for the standard homestead exemption. Lose the underlying exemption, and Amendment 5 goes with it. A few common missteps end the exemption:
Renting the home. Under Florida law, renting all or substantially all of a homesteaded dwelling is treated as abandoning the homestead. You won’t lose it immediately if you rent after January 1 of a given year, but renting the property for more than 30 days per calendar year in two consecutive years forfeits the exemption.7Florida Senate. Florida Code 196.061 – Rental of Homestead to Constitute Abandonment Short-term rental listings can trip this wire without the owner realizing it.
Using part of the home for business can reduce the exemption proportionally. And transferring title to an LLC, even for liability reasons, will typically disqualify the property from homestead treatment entirely. Investment properties can sit in an LLC, but a primary residence generally needs to stay in your name or in a properly structured revocable trust to keep its homestead status.