Danielle Kelley

Amendment 1 - How it Works

 You can also got to the site below for additional info on Amendment 1

On January 29th, Florida voters passed a constitutional  amendment 1 that altered Florida's property tax structure in four very different ways. Each proposed change in Amendment 1 provides property tax relief to different groups of taxpayers.  

Increase the Homestead Exemption from 25k to 50k 

The amendment 1 increased the current homestead exemption amount of 25k to 50k, but the additional 25k homestead exemtion will not be exempt from taxes for schools says Amedment 1. The additional exemptions applied to a Pinellas County property owner's assessed value between $50,001 and $75,000.   This means a Pinelllas County homeowner who lives in homes that have a Save Our Homes capped value of $50,000 or less will not receive the additional benefit. This measure will save the typical homestead property owner about $300 a year.

Amendment 1, will it do anything for me? Contact me if you need futher assistance. 

Save Our Home Portability 

prior to Amendment 1, when a Pinellas County homeowner left his or her homestead exemtion property and established a new homestead, the assessed or capped value of the new home was its market value or just value. If Pinellas County homeowners benefitted from the save our homes cap for many years on his former home, the tax bill on the new homestead exemption was often much higher than the Pinellas County home owner's former tax bill because the new bill was based on the full value, rather than the capped value.  

With Amendment 1, Pinellas County homeowners of homestead property who currently benefit from the Save Our Homes cap will be able to transfer their existing benefit (up to $500,000) to another residence within 2 years of giving up their previous homestead. They must apply for the homestead exemption and portability on their new homestead. The benefit is available to those who had a homestead as of January 1, 2007 and who moved from that home to a different home and applied for the homestead exemption for 2008. The legislator developed rules to determine how the cap will be moved to a new homestead when the owners of the former homestead divorce, marry, or establish separate residences.  Pinellas County Homeowners will apply for the portability benefit when they apply for their new homestead exemption. 

The method used to compute the capped value of the new homestead property in Pinellas County depends on whether the new residence is more or less valuable than the former homestead. The homeowner and the Property Appraiser's staff, in the Pinellas County or where the new homestead is located, will need several pieces of information to calculate the Save-Our -Homes capped (assessed) value, the new residence's  just (market) value and the number of owners who owned the former homesteaded property. The homeowner is only required to provide the location of the former home and information on the number of owner of that property. Value information will be completed by the tax Appraiser and exchanged by Appraisers from different counties. 

If the just value of the new homestead in Pinellas County is more than the previous home's just value, the tax appraiser will deduct the dollar value kept off the assessed value of the former homestead from the just or market value of the new homestead property.  

If the new property owner of Pinellas County has a lower just market value than the former homestead property, the percentage of just market value kept off the roll due to the Save-Our-Homes cap on the former homestead, will be applied to the new properties homestead's  just value to establish its Save-Our-homes capped or assessed value.  

10 Percent cap on Assessed Value Increases for Non-homestead property in Pinellas County. 

The Save-Our-Homes value cap applies only to properties used as a primary residence by Pinellas County residence as well as all Florida Residents. The ten percent cap will limit future increases in value for non-homestead property such as rental residential, apartments, retail, office, hotel, motel, industrial, warehouses and other property not protected by the Save-Our-Homes cap. While this cp does not provide as much protection as the three percent limit on homestead property, it will help prevent dramatic increases in commercial and rental property values in the future if the real estate market experiences double digit inflation in consecutive years, as occurred from 2001 through 2005. This cap will not apply to the taxes for schools and may be reduced to a  five percent cap by constitutional amendment to be considered by the voters in November 2008. 

Twenty-five Thousand Dollar Tangible Property Exemption 

Most people are familiar with the fact the owners of Pinelles County Real Estate  land and buildings pay property taxes to Pinellas County. What many people do not realize, is that Pinellas County business owners also pay property taxes on the value of their personal property - things like office furniture, computers, copy machines, and manufacturing equipment, display cases and cash registers. Pinellas County mobile or manufactured home owners who rent their lots from landlords also pay property taxes on their carports, storage sheds, utility rooms and other attachments. Amendment 1 created an exemption for the first $25k in value for each tangible personal property who files a property tax return, and exempts them from having to file a return in the future unless they purchase additional property that increases their total property value to more than 25k. This provision will eliminate over 50,000 of the 66,000 personal property accounts in Pinellas County if every property owner files the required tangible personal property return. It will also end the practice of requiring thousands of small businesses and manufactured home owners to file an annual tangible personal property return with the property appraiser's office. 

If you have questions about these property tax reforms, please contact your Pinellas County Property Appraiser at 727 464-3207 or go to pcpao.org

For Pinellas County Real Estate Maybe the Worst is Over

 Absorption rates are slowly climbing, inventory is dropping, and sales have shown a slow but steady increase for the single family home market in Pinellas County Homes.  

In Pinellas County we are now seeing that bargain hunters are out in force, some of them long-term investors and some who are buying their own home – all Pinellas County Homeowners who will contribute to a stabilized market. While the single-family median price for May came in at $175,000, the story is a little different in the various size categories:  

In Pinellas County Real Estate we are still facing a myriad of problems and pain ahead including the availability of loans, foreclosures, potential short sales, and mortgage fraud. The steady stream of bad news in these areas adds up to continuing low consumer confidence. Amid the challenges, however, we can see a bright light.  In Pinellas County there is an increase in affordability, and it is important for members to communicate that fact to consumers. We are now seeing the affordability index at or over 100 at the various levels of down payment. (The higher the affordability index number goes, the better. One hundred means the family with a median income can afford a median price home at a given interest rate.)  

It is my goal to find the facts of Pinellas County Real Estate and communicate what can be done rather than joining the sob sisters. That’s the way to insure that the worst really is over and that we are on the way up. Except for the 05-06 frenzy, buyers have always been able to find good prices in Pinellas County Homes and now those good prices appear to be back in a higher degree than we’ve seen in a while.