Tallahassee, Florida

HJR 1 Homestead-Exemption Tax-Base Exposure

Leon County . 2025 final assessment roll

Snapshot

HJR 1 exposure at full $250,000 phase-in (2028)	22.7%
Exposure at the $150,000 step (2027)	14.5%
Exposure band	Moderate exposure
Total parcels	62,547
Total residential housing units	89,386
Owner-occupied (homestead) units	33.5%
Out-of-state owned units	25.5%
Florida-owned non-homestead units	41.0%
Archetype	Renter-Heavy

The Tallahassee read

Tallahassee fits the Renter-Heavy archetype. A majority of the residential housing here is not owner-occupied: owner-occupied units account for only 33.5% of the city’s 89,386 residential housing units, meaning rentals and second homes are the dominant tenure. Most of that non-owner stock is held by Florida-based owners, making this a local-ownership rental market rather than an absentee one. The 41.0% Florida-owned non-homestead share is the largest single ownership slice, and it is the structural reason exposure runs lower than it would in a homeowner-dominated city.

HJR 1 exposure at the full $250,000 phase-in in 2028 is 22.7%, with a 14.5% step at the $150,000 threshold in 2027. Exposure runs lower than a homeowner town because the amendment only helps homestead owners, and most units here are non-homestead. That insulation is real, but it reflects a community where most residents rent rather than own, not a community that has built a diversified commercial and industrial base. Of the city’s 89,386 residential housing units, 33.5% are owner-occupied, 25.5% are owned by out-of-state owners, and 41.0% are non-homestead but Florida-owned.

Among ranked Florida cities, Tallahassee ranks 203 of 404 by HJR 1 exposure at full phase-in.

Land-use composition

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

Land-use category	Share of value	% of parcels out-of-state	% of value out-of-state
Govt/Public	21.9%	0.1%	0.1%
Multifamily	16.1%	17.5%	61.9%
Commercial	12.7%	14.3%	32.1%
Residential	43.2%	5.1%	3.8%
Institutional	2.9%	7.6%	31.6%
Industrial	1.8%	13.2%	38.7%
Other/Vacant	1.1%	11.3%	23.3%
Agricultural	0.3%	1.5%	0.0%

A few patterns stand out. Multifamily is the starkest: while 17.5% of multifamily parcels are out-of-state owned, those parcels account for 61.9% of the category’s total value, meaning out-of-state owners hold a disproportionately large share of the city’s apartment value even though they are a minority of multifamily parcel holders. Commercial and industrial show a similar pattern at smaller scale. Residential parcels, by contrast, are overwhelmingly Florida-owned by value, consistent with the local-ownership character of the single-family stock.

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 Tallahassee 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 small residential rentals of nine units or fewer and all commercial and industrial real property. 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 value to market. Transaction velocity in the commercial, industrial, and rental segments will matter more to Tallahassee’s non-homestead base 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 cannot be read from the assessment roll, so the 22.7% and 14.5% figures above assume full application of the exemption to every qualifying homestead. Near-term exposure could run slightly lower than modeled in places with a meaningful share of 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.

The first signal the roll sends is that low exposure here is a housing-and-ownership condition, not a fiscal achievement. Most Tallahassee residents rent rather than own, and the city’s tax-base resilience under HJR 1 flows directly from that fact. Treating the 22.7% exposure figure as a clean bill of health misreads what the numbers say about who builds wealth in this city.
Multifamily rental is already the dominant non-homestead residential category at 16.1% of total value, and it is the right category to deepen. Supporting well-managed rental and missing-middle housing on existing corridors and infill sites adds taxable non-homestead base without displacing residents. Rental is already the dominant tenure, so additional rental supply reinforces the base rather than competing with it.
Commercial value at 12.7% of the roll is a meaningful lever but not the dominant one here. Growing commercial and employment-generating uses along existing arterial corridors and in the commercial core adds non-homestead taxable value in a category the amendment does not touch. The 5% non-homestead cap that takes effect in 2027 means long-held commercial properties will drift further below market value over time; new development and transactions on underutilized commercial land are the primary way to close that gap.
Industrial at 1.8% of value is a thin slice. Light industrial and employment uses on vacant or converting land at the edges of existing employment corridors represent a category where even modest additions move the needle given the low current base.
Where resident stability and ownership are community goals, any push toward owner-occupied housing should be understood as a community-values decision, not a tax-base move. New owner-occupied homestead housing is the one category the amendment exempts, so it does not strengthen the non-homestead base. Anti-displacement measures belong alongside any ownership initiative.

Watch-out: Tallahassee’s renter-heavy profile with mostly Florida landlords is a local rental market, not an absentee-ownership story. Do not describe the city’s non-homestead base as outside-owned. High rental share at modest values still usually signals an affordability and local-wealth issue, not a tax-base achievement, and the policy conversation should reflect that honestly.

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 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 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, this analysis re-runs on the new data.

Ownership shares are measured on a residential-unit basis: each homestead-eligible parcel counts as one unit and each multifamily parcel counts by its number of apartment units. The out-of-state ownership figure is a mailing-address proxy; it undercounts true outside ownership because an out-of-state owner using an in-state LLC 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, legal, or planning analysis.