Street Economics

Greenacres, Florida

HJR 1 Homestead-Exemption Tax-Base Exposure

Palm Beach County . 2025 final assessment roll

Snapshot

The Greenacres read

Greenacres fits the Bedroom Residential Monoculture archetype: the base is owner-occupied single-family housing at moderate value with thin commercial, industrial, or rental property. This is the maximum-exposure profile — almost every dollar of value is the exact kind of property the amendment exempts. Strip the homesteads and little taxable base remains. At full phase-in in 2028, 30.3% of Greenacres’ non-school taxable base is exposed to the new $250,000 homestead exemption; the 2027 step lands at 20.1%. High homestead share plus low commercial share means the exemption lands on nearly the whole base at once.

Of 16,129 residential housing units, 53.5% are owner-occupied, 15.1% are owned by out-of-state owners, and 31.5% are non-homestead but Florida-owned. The Florida-owned non-homestead share — at 31.5% — is notably larger than the out-of-state share, which means the rental market here is predominantly a local, Florida-owned one rather than an absentee-ownership story. Among Florida cities, Greenacres ranks 108 of 404 cities by exposure.

Land-use composition

Share of taxable value by category, Greenacres, 2025 roll:

Two figures in this table stand out. Nearly half of multifamily value (46.2%) and more than half of industrial value (55.5%) are held by out-of-state owners, even though those categories represent a small share of the overall base. Commercial value shows a similar pattern: 30.8% of its value is out-of-state owned despite only 16.8% of its parcels being out-of-state owned, suggesting larger-value commercial properties are disproportionately held outside Florida.

What the exposure band means

Band: High exposure. A large share of the base shifts. Diversification is the multi-year strategy; near-term, expect pressure to raise millage to hold services flat.

Looking ahead

Neither of the following changes the exposure figures above; both shape how Greenacres 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, industrial, and small residential rentals of nine units or fewer. Because capped values can only rise 5% per year, meaningful base growth in these categories comes mainly from transactions — a sale or change of control resets assessed value to market — so transaction velocity matters more to non-homestead base growth than it did under the old 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 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.

• Commercial is 10.0% of Greenacres’ taxable value — just above the threshold where it becomes the single highest-leverage move, but still thin relative to the residential monoculture that dominates the roll. The single most impactful step is recruiting and zoning for a commercial and employment spine. Converting a share of future growth from rooftops to taxable commercial square footage carries no homestead exemption and directly offsets the exposure the amendment creates. A neighborhood-serving retail node, a small office or medical-office cluster, or a light-flex business park on an existing arterial are the right targets. Because the 30.3% exposure figure means millage pressure is likely while diversification plays out over years, the urgency of this move is real and near-term.
• Multifamily rental is 6.7% of taxable value — below the threshold where it dominates the strategy, but still a meaningful lever. Apartments pay full freight under the amendment. Allowing well-sited rental near jobs and transit adds non-homestead value and workforce housing simultaneously, and given that 31.5% of residential units are already Florida-owned non-homestead, the local rental market has an established base to build on.
• Concentrate any commercial and rental growth along an existing arterial or corridor rather than scattering it across the city. A real non-homestead spine in one place is far more durable than thin commercial presence spread everywhere. Direct new commercial square footage and well-sited rental to that corridor so the city’s non-homestead base deepens rather than stays diluted.
• Prioritize commercial and industrial parcels for any future municipal growth rather than more subdivisions. Industrial is only 0.6% of taxable value today — a thin slice — but it is the category where out-of-state ownership of value is highest (55.5%), suggesting market interest exists. Any expansion of the city’s footprint should deepen the non-homestead base, not extend the monoculture.
• Protect and intensify any existing employment anchor — hospital, college, distribution center, government office. These are the non-homestead taxpayers already in place and the hardest to replace if lost.

Watch-out: do not solve a revenue hole by approving more single-family subdivisions. Each one adds homestead value the amendment will exempt while adding service demand the millage must cover. That is the structural trap that created the exposure in the first place.

Source and scope

All figures are drawn 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 (the $150,000 step), with full $250,000 phase-in on the 2028 roll. When the 2026 and later rolls are certified, the analysis re-runs on the new data.

Ownership shares are measured on a residential-unit basis. “Out-of-state ownership” is a mailing-address proxy: it identifies units whose owner’s mailing-address state in the roll is a non-Florida state or country. 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 is a land-use-composition starting point, not a full fiscal, economic, or legal plan.

Place: Greenacres, Florida