Do I Need to Be a Florida Resident by December 31, 2026?
If Amendment 3 passes in November, that date splits everybody into two groups.
Be a permanent Florida resident on or before December 31, 2026, and your homestead exemption against non-school property taxes would rise to $150,000 on January 1, 2027 and $250,000 on January 1, 2028. Establish residency on or after January 1, 2027, and you'd start at $50,000 and wouldn't reach the larger number until the fifth year of your homestead.
That would be a four-year gap in your tax bill, decided by which side of one December date you land on.
Nothing has passed yet, and that part matters
This is a proposed constitutional amendment, not law. It goes to voters on the November ballot and needs 60% to pass. If it fails, none of it happens and the current $50,000 stays.
I'm not going to tell you how to vote on it. What I can tell you is that the deadline is real if it passes, it's under four months out, and almost nobody planning a move here next spring knows it's sitting there.
What Amendment 3 would actually do
Four pieces, straight from the resolution — and every one of them conditional on the vote:
The homestead exemption on non-school taxes would go to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, adjusted for inflation after that.
School taxes wouldn't be touched. A $25,000 exemption would still apply there, same as now. So this is not a property tax bill going to zero. School millage is the biggest line on most bills around here and it doesn't move.
New residents would start at $50,000 and would step up to the full amount beginning with their fifth year of homestead.
The assessment cap on non-homestead property — second homes, rentals, commercial — would drop from 10% a year to 5%, starting January 1, 2027.
That last one is quiet but it's the one Perdido Key and Navarre Beach owners should read twice.
The local read
Santa Rosa County is already writing next year's budget around this.
The county's proposed FY2027 budget is $256.4 million, down nearly $9 million from this year, and the county says the reduction reflects the anticipated impact of Amendment 3 along with the half-cent sales tax expiring at the end of December. The final budget and millage hearing is Tuesday, September 22 at 5:30 p.m. at the Administrative Complex on Caroline Street in Milton, and it's open to the public.
A county cutting nine million dollars out of next year over a tax change that hasn't passed yet tells you how seriously the people who do this for a living are taking it.
One thing worth saying plainly, because a generic Florida explainer won't: this is Florida only. If it passes, Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa are in. Baldwin County is Alabama and gets none of it. If you're cross-shopping Pensacola against Fairhope or Gulf Shores, that's a new variable on one side of the state line and not the other.
What I'd go check
Two things, and neither one is me.
Your county property appraiser. Escambia and Santa Rosa both have offices that will tell you exactly what establishing permanent residency requires and when the homestead application window opens. There's also a wrinkle worth asking about directly: the resolution's test is whether you maintained a permanent residence in Florida by the end of 2026, which is not the same question as whether you owned a house here. If you're renting while you look, ask what that does to your standing.
A CPA. This is tax, and I'm a REALTOR®, not a tax adviser. Anybody who tells you what your bill will be without seeing your situation is guessing.
If you were already planning to be here in the first half of 2027, the December date is worth an hour of somebody's time before you decide when to move.
Sources: Florida Legislature, enrolled CS/HJR 1F (2026F), amending Article VII and Article XII of the Florida Constitution. Santa Rosa County FY2027 proposed budget, September 2026. Verified September 9, 2026.
Tyler Darden — REALTOR®, Military Relocation Professional · Real Broker, LLC · Licensed in Florida (SL3662859) and Alabama (146317)
