Homestead, Florida

HJR 1 Homestead-Exemption Tax-Base Exposure

Miami-Dade County . 2025 final assessment roll

Snapshot

HJR 1 exposure at full $250,000 phase-in (2028)	26.5%
Exposure at the $150,000 step (2027)	16.0%
Exposure band	Moderate exposure
Total parcels	24,216
Total residential housing units	26,291
Owner-occupied (homestead) units	42.9%
Out-of-state owned units	9.1%
Florida-owned non-homestead units	48.0%
Archetype	Bedroom Residential Monoculture

The Homestead read

Homestead, Florida carries 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 the full $250,000 phase-in in 2028, the city’s exposure sits at 26.5%, with a 16.0% hit at the 2027 step. The driver is straightforward: a high homestead share combined with a low commercial share means the exemption lands on nearly the whole base at once.

Of 26,291 residential housing units, 42.9% are owner-occupied, 9.1% are owned by out-of-state owners, and 48.0% are non-homestead but Florida-owned. That 48.0% Florida-owned non-homestead share is the dominant rental story here — this is a local-ownership rental market, not an absentee-ownership market. Among ranked Florida cities, Homestead ranks 147 of 404 by exposure.

Land-use composition

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

Land-use category	Share of value	% of parcels out-of-state	% of value out-of-state
Residential	64.4%	3.5%	3.4%
Commercial	9.7%	9.4%	27.8%
Govt/Public	8.2%	1.6%	0.6%
Multifamily	6.9%	4.8%	20.2%
Other/Vacant	4.3%	7.4%	16.1%
Agricultural	1.4%	4.8%	14.3%
Institutional	1.7%	3.7%	9.4%
Industrial	3.2%	5.8%	15.1%

Residential dominates at 64.4% of just value, with commercial at 9.7% and multifamily at 6.9% as the next meaningful contributors. Industrial at 3.2% and agricultural at 1.4% round out the non-homestead base. The commercial category, while modest in parcel count at 458, carries a notably elevated out-of-state value share at 27.8%, meaning more than a quarter of commercial value is held by owners with non-Florida mailing addresses.

What the exposure band means

Moderate exposure. A meaningful but absorbable hit. The place has some non-homestead base to lean on. Mitigation is about steering future growth, not emergency response.

Looking ahead

Neither of the following changes the exposure figure above; both shape how Homestead 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 rise only 5% per year, the main engine of base growth in these categories becomes transactions: a sale or change of control resets a property to market value, 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 any of these uses, whether there is local obstruction, or the political dynamics that typically decide what actually gets approved. This is a starting point for a conversation, not a development plan.

Commercial at 9.7% of value is thin but not absent, and it is the single highest-leverage target. The most impactful move Homestead can make is converting a share of future growth from rooftops to taxable commercial square footage that carries no homestead exemption. A neighborhood-serving retail node, a small office or medical-office cluster, or a light-flex business park on an arterial would each add non-homestead value the amendment does not touch. Concentrating that growth along an existing arterial or corridor rather than scattering it is the difference between building a real non-homestead spine and keeping commercial value permanently thin.
Multifamily rental at 6.9% of value is a second lever worth pulling. Apartments pay full freight under the amendment. Allowing well-sited rental near jobs and transit adds non-homestead value and workforce housing at the same time, and given that 48.0% of residential units are already Florida-owned non-homestead, the market has demonstrated it can absorb rental product. Directing new rental to the same corridor targeted for commercial growth compounds the effect.
Industrial at 3.2% is modest but present. Protecting and intensifying any existing employment anchor — a distribution facility, a light-manufacturing cluster, a government office complex — preserves the non-homestead taxpayers already in place. Prioritizing commercial and industrial parcels for any future expansion of the city’s footprint deepens the non-homestead base instead of extending the monoculture.

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, and more rooftops will not exit it.

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 the full $250,000 phase-in. 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. The out-of-state figure reflects units whose owner’s mailing-address state in the assessment roll is a non-Florida state or country; blank owner-state is treated as unknown, not out-of-state. This measure undercounts true outside ownership because an out-of-state owner using an in-state mailing address counts as Florida-owned, and it does not prove where any owner actually lives. This read is a land-use-composition starting point, not a full fiscal, economic, or legal plan.