My Single Mom Life

With the prices of Tampa real estate, and basically all real estate, in Florida going up, the save our homes exemption is trying to help people not pay an exorbitant amount of property taxes.
What it is designed to do, is to not raise the property taxes more than 3% of the assessed value or the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index, after the first year the homes value is assessed on the property which receives the exemption.
This may all sound extremely confusing, but it's a really good thing.
It keeps property taxes low for homeowners who get the homestead exemption, no matter how high the value of the home goes.
If the owner sells their home within the first year after being assessed, the new home owners would have to apply for the exemption in order for amendment 10 (save our homes) to be applicable to them.

This has been in the news quite a bit over the last few days, with Governor Crist having trouble drumming up voter support of the new amendment which would give home owners the one-time option of giving up the save our homes exemption in favor of a homestead exemption of up to $195,000 for a home valued at $500,000. The existing homestead exemption is just $25,000.

If you're a home owner in Florida, you need to be paying attention to the current legislation which according to one judge who said the measure was "misleading and inaccurate" and struck it from the statewide ballot.

If a homeowner chooses the new "super" homestead exemption, they would forever lose the Save our Homes cap.
Many people who stay in their homes more than four years would save more with Save Our Homes limiting future tax bills.*