A practical plan to protect homeowners, preserve affordability, and keep local governments functioning

Florida is having the right conversation — but it’s drifting toward the wrong conclusion, with finger pointing and accusations, but it doesn’t need to be.

The issue with property taxes in Florida is not that they exist. The issue is that they became unmanageable, disconnected from household income, and punitive to long-term residents as an unintended consequence of rapidly rising property values.

And, rising home values do not automatically mean rising prosperity, but rising property taxes assume that they do.

In no other major asset class are people taxed every year on value they have not actually realized.
When the value of stocks rises, investors are not taxed until they sell.

Yet homeowners are effectively taxed annually on paper appreciation through rising assessments — even if their income has not changed and the value has never been converted into cash.

Now, this is a common practice across the country, but it has had unforeseen consequences.

That mismatch is what’s pressuring people out of homes, not because they made a bad decision, but because the rapid unexpected growth in population and property values.

The Core Problem: Tax Shock, Not Taxation

Florida homeowners are not protesting their responsibility to contribute to schools, police, fire, and infrastructure. (Though in anger and frustration they may be.)

They are reacting to tax shock ; the sudden, outsized increases driven by rapid appreciation that never shows up as cash in their bank account.

Your home value going up does not put food on the table.
But your tax bill going up takes money off the table.

That is the fairness problem we need to solve.

Why Eliminating Property Taxes Entirely Is Not a Practical Fix

Calls to eliminate property taxes entirely may sound appealing, but they ignore reality.

Property taxes are the backbone of local government funding. Eliminating them without a stable replacement doesn’t solve affordability — it creates chaos, followed by back-door taxation through fees, assessments, and regressive charges that hit working families even harder.

The goal should not be “zero taxes.”
The goal should be stable, predictable taxes that people can plan around.

A Better Approach: Property Tax Stabilization

Florida needs a system that protects people who already live here without breaking the local services everyone depends on.

That system has three parts.

Part 1: Stabilize Property Taxes for Long-Term, Owner-Occupied Homes

For Florida residents who owned their primary residence prior to a benchmark year (such as 2019), property taxes should be stabilized — not eliminated.

How this works:

  • Roll back the taxable assessed value to a benchmark year (2019 suggested)
  • Base future increases only by CPI (inflation), not by market revaluation
  • Apply this to owner-occupied homes

This approach recognizes a simple truth:
Paper appreciation should not be taxed like realized income.

Homeowners who stay in place should not be penalized simply because their ZIP code became popular.

Part 2: New Buyers Reset Normally — and Then Get Stability

This plan does not distort the market or give new buyers special treatment.

When a home is sold:

  • The taxable value resets to the purchase price (as it already does today)
  • That becomes the buyer’s baseline
  • From that point forward, increases are limited to CPI

In plain English:
New buyers buy at today’s prices and today’s taxes — but they are protected from future tax shock.

This preserves a level playing field at purchase while restoring long-term predictability.

(Homestead rules remain as they are)

Part 3: Keep Local Governments Whole — Without Windfall Budgeting

Stabilizing property taxes does not mean starving cities, counties, or school districts.

It means ending the practice of budgeting around housing bubbles.

A responsible stabilization plan includes:

  • State backfill for essential services, particularly education
  • Limited, transparent local revenue tools where needed
  • Spending growth discipline tied to inflation unless voters approve overrides

Local government should grow with the economy — not ride speculative housing cycles.

In addition, a modest participation mechanism at the time of sale — when appreciation is actually realized — allows counties and municipalities to share fairly in rising property values without taxing that value every year while it remains theoretical.
This mirrors how most long-term investments are treated and aligns taxation with real financial events rather than paper estimates.

A Real-World Example

Consider a homeowner whose property taxes were $3,000 in 2019.

Due to rapid appreciation, that same home now carries a $7,500 tax bill — even though the owner’s income hasn’t changed.

Under a stabilized system:

  • Their taxes might rise gradually to $3,600 or $4,000 over time
  • Not double or triple in a few years

That difference determines whether someone can age in place — or is forced to sell.

Multifamily Rental Housing: Be Precise, Not Simplistic

This is where the conversation often gets complicated.

In Florida, market-rate rents did not rise primarily because property taxes rose.
They rose because:

  • population surged,
  • supply lagged,
  • and demand overwhelmed the market during and after COVID.

Market-rate apartment rents are driven by what the market will bear — not by individual line items on an expense statement.

However, property taxes do matter enormously in one specific area:

Affordable and Regulated Rental Housing

For properties with rent caps or affordability commitments — such as:

  • Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Section 42) properties
  • Project-Based Section 8 housing
  • Workforce and elderly housing programs

Rising property taxes directly threaten affordability.

These operators cannot simply “raise rents to market.”
When taxes rise, maintenance, reserves, and long-term viability suffer.

That’s where targeted tax stabilization makes sense.

Policy principle:
If a rental property serves a public affordability purpose, tax stabilization should help preserve that mission.

Mechanism:

  • Roll back property taxes for qualifying affordable housing
  • Limit future increases to CPI
  • Require compliance, reporting, and clawbacks for violations

This is not a giveaway.
It’s asset preservation for housing that already serves the public good.

What About Small Investors and Single-Family Rentals?

This is a complex area.

Small landlords and single-family rental investors operate on thin margins and are already pricing under current conditions. Some relief may help tenants; some may simply stabilize ownership.

Rather than forcing an artificial solution, this issue should be addressed separately and carefully — not lumped into a blunt statewide rule.

Not every problem can be solved with one lever.

The Bottom Line

Florida does not need to eliminate property taxes.

Florida needs to stop taxing people out of homes they already own.

Stabilize property taxes.
End tax shock.
Protect homeowners and affordable housing.
Preserve local services.

That is the balanced, adult solution — and it’s long overdue.

Author Attribution
Clay Edmonds is the Corporate Educator and Senior Complete Mortgage Advisor at Complete Mortgage LLC in Hollywood, Florida and the chief content creator at MortgageSimplified.Net with the purpose of helping consumers and real estate professionals simplify mortgage financing to make better, more informed mortgage decisions.

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