Save Our Homes
Portability
Florida

What Is Save Our Homes Portability?

Save Our Homes Portability is a Florida constitutional provision that allows homeowners to transfer their accumulated property tax savings from one Florida home to another when they move. If you have owned your Florida home for several years, your assessed value is likely far below current market value because of the Save Our Homes 3% annual assessment cap. When you sell and buy a new home, you can bring those years of accumulated tax savings with you — reducing the assessed value of your new home from day one.

Up to $500,000 of your Save Our Homes benefit can be transferred. For long-term South Florida homeowners in a rising market, this can represent $3,000–$10,000+ per year in property tax savings on the new home that would otherwise be lost completely.

Understanding the Save Our Homes Differential

When you have a Homestead Exemption on your Florida home, the Save Our Homes (SOH) cap limits how much your assessed value can increase each year — the lower of 3% or the CPI. Over time, in a rising market, your assessed value falls progressively further below market value. The gap between your market value and assessed value is your SOH differential — and this is what you can transfer to a new home.

How to File for Portability — Step by Step

1. Confirm you have SOH savings on your current home. Check your current TRIM notice — it shows both market value and assessed value. If they differ, you have an SOH differential.
2. Sell (or rent) your old home and establish residency in your new home. You must occupy the new home as your primary residence by January 1 of the year you want portability to apply.
3. File Form DR-501 (Homestead Exemption Application) for your new home with the new county's property appraiser by March 1.
4. File Form DR-501T (Portability Application) simultaneously. This is the portability form — it is separate from the homestead application and must be filed at the same time or shortly after. Both forms are free.
5. Provide documentation. Evidence of ownership and sale of old property (deed, closing statement), your new property deed, Florida ID showing new address.
6. Your TRIM notice in August will confirm the portability benefit. If you disagree with the calculated amount, you can appeal to the Value Adjustment Board.

Critical Rules and Timing

• 3-year window: You must establish the new homestead within 3 assessment years of abandoning the old homestead. If you rented for more than 3 years between homes, the portability benefit is forfeited
• Proportional transfer on downsizing: If your new home is worth less than your old home, you transfer a proportional benefit, not the full differential. If your new home is 80% of the value of your old home, you transfer 80% of your SOH benefit
• $500,000 maximum: The maximum transferable benefit is $500,000. Homeowners in the most expensive South Florida neighborhoods with very large differentials may be capped at this amount
• Only one homestead at a time: You must abandon the homestead on your old property before portability on the new property takes effect. If another owner remains in the old property with homestead, the full benefit may not transfer
• Applies anywhere in Florida: You can move from Miami-Dade to any of Florida's 67 counties and still transfer your portability benefit. Moving out of state forfeits it entirely

Who Benefits Most From Portability

The longer you have owned your Florida home in a rising market, the larger your potential portability benefit. The profiles most impacted:

• Long-term South Florida homeowners: Anyone who bought before 2015 has likely accumulated significant SOH savings as South Florida values have risen sharply
• Empty nesters downsizing: Moving from a larger family home to a smaller property. Portability ensures you don't lose accumulated tax savings when you rightsize
• Upsizers moving to a better home: The SOH benefit transfers proportionally to your new home's value — giving you a meaningful tax advantage from day one
• Sellers who have been putting off a move: Many South Florida homeowners have stayed in homes they would prefer to sell specifically because of fear of losing their property tax savings. Portability removes that barrier