If your Manatee County tax notice shows a number nowhere near what your home would actually sell for, you're not misreading it — two different numbers are doing two different jobs. Market value is what your home would likely sell for today. Assessed value is what the county actually taxes you on. For homesteaded properties, Florida's Save Our Homes cap limits how much that assessed value can climb each year — capped at whichever is smaller, 3% or the prior year's inflation rate. It only runs one direction, though: assessed value can never legally be higher than market value. And here's what catches people off guard — that gap resets when a home changes hands, since the new owner's assessed value gets adjusted up to match current market value the following year. Have you ever compared your assessed value to what your home would actually sell for and been surprised by the gap?

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