Charlie Bress wrote:

"miamicuse" wrote in message
...

I have a home with I bought in 1996 and it's currently assessed at about
250K but the market value should be around 400K. Florida has this SOH
(Save
Our Home) rule that prohibits a home from raising more than 3% a year in
assessed value. Earlier this year I bought another home at 450K so I know
next year it will be taxed at 450K. Both homes are in south Florida one
in
Broward County and one in Miami-Dade.

I am remodeling the new home now and it will be another six months before
it
will be ready to move in. Then I will plan to sell the current home but
with the current market trend it may be hard to sell.

My question is should I keep the current home for homestead exemption now
even though the new home will be taxed at it's full sale price because if
I
apply for Homestead for the new home, the existing home tax will suddenly
jump to 400K? So it is better to not change my current exemption until I
sold the current home? Do I have my logic right?

Thanks,

MC


Of course there is the legal requirement that the house must be your
residence on Jan 1 of the year.
Where are you registered to vote? Where is your mail delivered? What is the
address on your driver's license and auto registration? The state doesn't
care about he financial ramifications.

Charlie


Florida doesn't enforce legal residency much, but a change in voter
registration (at least where I lived) will kick out the disagreeing
homestead exemption quickly. Also, if the home has another owner who
doesn't qualify (like a parent or child out of state), the residing
owner only gets their own portion of the homestead ex.