What moves with you
The portable amount is the difference between the just value (market value) and the assessed value of your old homestead on January 1 of the year you gave it up. If you owned it with someone else, you take your share. The amount can never be more than $500,000.
Buying up or buying down
- Same or higher value. The full difference is subtracted from the new home's just value. Old home $600,000 just and $380,000 assessed gives $220,000. A $650,000 new home is assessed at $430,000.
- Lower value. The benefit is scaled down. The new assessed value equals the new just value divided by the old just value, times the old assessed value. Selling that same home and buying at $400,000 gives an assessed value of about $253,000, so the benefit is about $147,000.
After the first year, the new home's assessed value grows under the normal Save Our Homes cap of 3% or inflation, whichever is lower.
Deadlines
You must establish the new homestead within three years of January 1 of the year you abandoned the old one. If you moved out in 2026, you need the new homestead in place by January 1, 2029. File Form DR-501T with your homestead application (DR-501) by March 1 of the year you want it to apply.
Things that trip people up
- Portability only works from one Florida homestead to another Florida homestead. Value from another state does not transfer.
- Renting out the old home after moving counts as abandoning it.
- Married couples who split up and buy separately divide the benefit between them.
Questions
Where do I find my just and assessed values?
On the TRIM notice mailed each August or on the county property appraiser's website. Use the values for January 1 of the year you left the old home.
Do I lose portability if I rent for a while first?
No, as long as the new homestead is established within the three-year window counted from January 1 of the year you gave up the old one.
