Street Economics

Longwood, Florida

HJR 1 Homestead-Exemption Tax-Base Exposure

Seminole County . 2025 final assessment roll

Snapshot

The Longwood read

Longwood is a Residential Commuter city: residential-dominant like a classic bedroom community, but with a larger renter or out-of-state share and a lower homestead rate than a pure owner-occupied suburb, leaving somewhat less of the base tied to owner-occupied primary residence. At full $250,000 phase-in in 2028, 24.4% of Longwood’s non-school taxable base is exposed to the HJR 1 homestead exemption expansion, with a 16.3% hit at the 2027 $150,000 step. Exposure is meaningful but buffered: the non-homestead residential share — renters and second homes — continues paying in full, which is what keeps this city from landing in a higher band. Among Florida’s 404 ranked cities, Longwood ranks 178 by exposure, placing it in the middle of the state distribution.

Of 8,138 residential housing units, 52.5% are owner-occupied, 15.9% are owned by out-of-state owners, and 31.4% are non-homestead but Florida-owned. That 31.4% Florida-owned non-homestead share is a meaningful structural buffer: these are local landlords and in-state second-home owners whose properties are not touched by the homestead exemption expansion. The out-of-state ownership figure at 15.9% is below the threshold that triggers a high-ownership flag, and the larger non-homestead story here is a Florida-owned local rental market, not absentee outside ownership.

Land-use composition

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

Two figures in this table deserve attention. Multifamily parcels show 54.3% of their value owned by out-of-state owners, meaning more than half of Longwood’s apartment value is held by owners whose mailing address is outside Florida. Industrial value tells a similar story at 40.5% out-of-state by value. These are parcel-based figures for each category and are not directly comparable to the unit-based ownership shares in the snapshot above; they are presented here to show where outside capital is concentrated within the roll.

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 figures above; both shape how Longwood 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 engine of base growth in these categories shifts to transactions: a sale or change of control resets the 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 immediately. This residency ramp cannot be read from the assessment roll, so all exposure figures here assume full application of the exemption to every homestead. 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 uses described, 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.

• Lean into the renter share. Multifamily accounts for 10.2% of taxable value across 234 parcels, and the Florida-owned non-homestead residential share is 31.4% of housing units. Zoning for more multifamily and missing-middle rental on appropriate sites deepens a category the amendment does not touch and one that is already part of Longwood’s existing base. Rental property pays in full regardless of the exemption expansion.
• Build a commercial and services base. Commercial sits at 11.5% of taxable value and industrial at 13.8%, together representing a meaningful but still thin daytime economy relative to the residential mass. Adding commercial uses along existing corridors and arterial frontage converts some of the bedroom function into taxable commercial value and gives residents a place to spend and work locally rather than exporting that activity to neighboring jurisdictions.
• Concentrate investment on one corridor or node. Rather than scattering commercial and rental growth across the city, focusing it where infrastructure and demand already exist allows non-homestead value to compound in a defined area. Longwood already houses commuters; a concentrated mixed-use node captures more of the economic activity those residents generate.
• Court employers who want a workforce-adjacent location. Longwood’s commuter profile means it already has the labor base that employers in the region need. Attracting employers to locate here — particularly in industrial and commercial uses — adds non-homestead taxable value in categories the amendment does not affect and reduces the city’s dependence on residential property tax as the primary base.

Watch-out: resist the instinct to chase only owner-occupied move-up housing for its image. That category is the most exposed under HJR 1. Mixed-tenure growth — rental, commercial, and industrial alongside owner-occupied residential — is structurally more resilient.

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 here as a structural proxy for Longwood’s tax-base composition, not as a dollar forecast for any specific budget year. HJR 1 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 exemption step, followed by the 2028 roll at full $250,000 phase-in. When the 2026 and later rolls are certified, this analysis re-runs on the new data.

Ownership shares — homestead, out-of-state, and Florida non-homestead — are measured on a residential housing-unit basis. The out-of-state figure is a mailing-address proxy: it identifies owners whose 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 mailing address counts as Florida) and does not prove where any owner actually lives. It is the cleanest available stand-in for second-home and outside-investor ownership of housing, not a definitive residency determination.

This read is a land-use-composition starting point. It is not a comprehensive fiscal, economic, or legal analysis, and it is not a substitute for a full planning or budget review.

Place: Longwood, FL