Save Our Homes Portability Amendment
 

In recent years, the south Florida real estate market has gone through the
roof. Many homes doubled, tripled, or even quadrapled their value. Property
tax jumps to a huge amount as soon as a home is sold. There is some movement
to allow the SOH cap to be transferred to a new home. I found this on
http://www.bcpa.net/index.cfm?page=newsletter

The "Save Our Homes" (SOH) Amendment in Florida's Constitution was intended
to prevent homeowners from being taxed out of their homes due to rapidly
rising real estate values. It met that goal, but caused many other problems
along the way. The Good News: The SOH cap limits increases in the assessed
value of a homesteaded property to no more than 3% per year -- regardless of
how much more the property increases in market value. Because of this,
Florida law favors owners who stay in their homesteaded property for many
years. The longer you stay and the more your property rises in market value,
the more you save. The Bad News: If you sell your home at current market
values and buy a new home, today's higher property values will likely cause
your annual property tax bill to double, triple or quadruple even if you buy
a comparable (or, possibly, even smaller or older) residence nearby. That
fact alone causes many of us to stay put -- financially "locked" in our
homes -- because we cannot afford the high property taxes if we move.

Property Appraiser Lori Parrish supports adopting a new constitutional
amendment allowing homesteaded owners to move their sheltered SOH value from
one primary residence to the next one in the same county under a
governmental "local option." This concept is named PORTABILITY. Here is how
it could work: Your current home has a market value of $300,000 and a SOH
assessed value of $175,000 -- meaning the difference ($125,000) is the
amount sheltered by SOH. If you sell that house and buy a new one for
$325,000 (and qualify for homestead), your initial assessment for property
taxes would be just $200,000 (the math: $325,000 Market Value minus the
$125,000 portable SOH differential). It wouldn't be retroactive, but -- if
Florida's voters approve the amendment -- portability could provide freedom
and tax relief for many families.

If you support this idea, please contact your State Senator and State
Representative to urge them to approve legislation placing this proposed
Save Our Homes Portability Amendment on the November 2006 statewide ballot.

Now the question is, if I want to purchase a home tomorrow, this won't help
me. But, is there something I can do to plan for this? Can I for example
have my wife's name on this new house, meanwhile, if this admendment passes,
I sell my current home, and have my wife sell the new home back to both of
us, and by doing so, take advantage of this if and when it happens?

Thanks in advance,

MC