Street Economics

North Miami Beach, Florida

HJR 1 Homestead-Exemption Tax-Base Exposure

Miami-Dade County . 2025 final assessment roll

Snapshot

The North Miami Beach read

North Miami Beach fits the Renter-Heavy archetype. A majority of the residential housing here is not owner-occupied: 55% or more of units are rentals or second homes, and most of that non-owner stock is held by Floridians, making this a local-ownership rental market rather than an absentee one. Owner-occupancy is a minority of the housing stock. At full $250,000 phase-in in 2028, HJR 1 exposure sits at 12.7%, with the 2027 step landing at 8.6%. Exposure runs lower than a homeowner town because the amendment only helps homestead owners and most units here are non-homestead; the insulation is real, but it reflects a community where most residents rent rather than own. Among ranked Florida cities, North Miami Beach ranks 322 of 404 by exposure, meaning it sits well toward the lower-exposure end of the statewide distribution.

Of 17,210 residential housing units, 38.1% are owner-occupied, 5.5% are owned by out-of-state owners, and 56.3% are non-homestead but Florida-owned. The out-of-state share is not elevated here; this is a Florida-owned local rental market, not an absentee-ownership story.

Land-use composition

Share of taxable value by category, North Miami Beach, 2025 roll:

Note on the industrial and institutional rows: out-of-state ownership of industrial value reaches 30.9% and institutional reaches 16.0%, both measured on a parcel basis within those categories. These are structural signals worth watching as the city thinks about who holds its non-residential base.

What the exposure band means

Band: Low exposure. The base is already substantially non-homestead. The amendment is a manageable headwind. Focus on protecting the diversified base that provides the insulation.

Looking ahead

Neither of the following changes the exposure figure above; both shape how North Miami Beach grows its base after the amendment takes effect.

First, beginning January 1, 2027, the annual assessment-increase cap on non-homestead property drops from 10% to 5%, covering commercial and industrial real property and small residential rentals of nine units or fewer. Because a capped property’s assessed value can rise only 5% per year, the main path to growing taxable value in these categories is transactions: a sale or change of control resets the property to market value. Transaction velocity matters more to non-homestead base growth than it did under the old 10% cap.

Second, new Florida residents who did not maintain a Florida permanent residence as of December 31, 2026 phase into the larger exemption over five years rather than receiving it all at once. This cannot be read from the assessment roll, so all exposure figures here assume full application of the exemption. Near-term exposure could run slightly lower than modeled in places with many recent arrivals still inside their five-year window.

Where the opportunity is

These recommendations are based solely on the tax roll’s land-use composition. They do not account for whether local land development regulations and zoning permit the use, whether there is local obstruction, or the political dynamics that usually decide what actually gets approved. This is a starting point for a conversation, not a development plan.

• Grow taxable commercial, light-industrial, and employment value so the base does not rest mainly on rental housing. Commercial already accounts for 15.2% of just value and industrial for 2.5%; both categories are the right direction, and directing new activity to existing corridors and the commercial core concentrates value where infrastructure already supports it. Commercial value is the second-largest share of the roll and the most direct lever for non-homestead base growth.
• Support deed-restricted and well-managed rental and missing-middle housing. Rental is non-homestead and already the dominant tenure in North Miami Beach, so adding well-managed rental stock adds taxable base without displacing residents. The 9.3% multifamily share shows a meaningful but not dominant rental-property base; there is room to deepen it.
• Where resident stability and ownership are goals, pair any owner-occupied housing push with anti-displacement measures. New owner-occupied homestead housing is the one category the amendment exempts, so treat it as a community-values decision, not a tax-base move.

Watch-out: renter-heavy with mostly Florida landlords is a local rental market, not absentee ownership. Do not describe it as outside-owned. A high rental share at modest values still usually signals an affordability and local-wealth issue, not a tax-base achievement, and that distinction matters for how the city frames its housing and economic development priorities.

Source and scope

All figures are computed from the Florida Department of Revenue 2025 final assessment roll, the most recent certified roll in the state’s possession. The roll is used as a structural proxy for tax-base composition, not as a dollar forecast for any specific budget year. HJR 1 / CS-HJR 1F is on the November 2026 ballot; the 2026 roll is the assessment roll in place when voters decide. If the amendment passes, the first roll affected is the 2027 roll at the $150,000 step, followed by the 2028 roll at full $250,000 phase-in. Ownership shares are measured on a residential-unit basis. The out-of-state figure is a mailing-address proxy: it undercounts true outside ownership (an out-of-state owner using an in-state LLC address counts as Florida) and does not prove where an owner actually lives. This read is a land-use-composition starting point, not a full fiscal, economic, or legal plan.

Place: North miami beach