Miami-Dade Portability: How Much Tax Savings Transfers?

Can you transfer your property tax savings when you move within Miami-Dade?

Yes. Florida's portability rule lets you move your Save Our Homes assessment difference — the gap between your home's market value and its capped assessed value — from your old homestead to your new one, up to a maximum of $500,000. You have to establish the new homestead within three assessment years of giving up the old one, and you have to file for it: portability is never automatic. If your new home costs more than your old one, the full differential transfers. If it costs less, you keep a proportional share, not the whole thing.

By Pedro Casanova | August 28, 2026

Here's the conversation I have with almost every Miami-Dade homeowner who's lived in the same house for a decade or more.

They've watched their neighbor's place sell for $700,000. They know their own home is worth something similar. And they're paying property taxes on an assessed value closer to $370,000, because Save Our Homes has capped their annual assessment increases at 3% — or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower — every year since they filed for homestead.

Then they start looking at a bigger house in Pinecrest, or a smaller one in Cutler Bay, and the question hits them: if I sell this house, do I lose all of that?

You don't. But how much you keep depends on three things most people get wrong.

What actually transfers — and what doesn't

The thing that moves with you is not your tax bill and it's not your exemption. It's your assessment difference — the dollar gap between what the Property Appraiser says your home is worth on the open market and the lower number it actually taxes you on.

Say you bought in Kendall years ago. Today the Property Appraiser has your market value at $650,000 and your assessed value at $370,000. Your assessment difference is $280,000. That's the asset. That's what portability moves.

What happens next depends on whether you're trading up or trading down.

If you're upsizing, meaning your new home's market value is equal to or greater than your old one's, the entire differential comes with you — capped at $500,000.

Take that same Kendall owner and move them into a $950,000 home in Pinecrest:

• New market value: $950,000
  
  
• Assessment difference ported: $280,000
  
  
• New assessed value: $670,000
  
  

Without portability, that home starts life on the tax roll at its full $950,000. With it, the taxable value drops by $280,000 before the homestead exemption is even applied. In most Miami-Dade jurisdictions that's a swing of several thousand dollars a year, every year, compounding as the cap holds the assessment down going forward.

If you're downsizing, the math changes, and this is where people get surprised. You don't carry the full dollar amount. You carry the same percentage of savings you had before.

The Property Appraiser calculates it by taking the ratio of your old assessed value to your old market value and applying it to the new home's market value. Same Kendall owner, this time buying a $450,000 townhouse in Cutler Bay:

• Old ratio: $370,000 ÷ $650,000 = 56.9%
  
  
• New assessed value: 56.9% × $450,000 = $256,154
  
  
• Differential actually transferred: about $193,846
  
  

They started with $280,000 of protection and kept roughly $194,000 of it. Nothing went wrong — that's just how the formula works. But if you budgeted your retirement move assuming the full $280,000 would follow you, you're now planning around a tax bill that's off by a couple thousand dollars a year.

This is the single most common miss I see, and it's the reason I run these numbers with clients before they decide which direction they're moving in. The savings you keep can genuinely change which house makes sense.

One more piece: portability moves your assessment difference, and separately you re-apply for the homestead exemption itself on the new property. For 2026 that exemption is worth up to $51,411 — $25,000 that applies to all levies, plus an additional $26,411 against non-school levies that's indexed to inflation. Those are two different filings doing two different jobs.

The deadline that costs people the most money

Portability has a clock on it, and the clock does not start when you close. It starts on January 1 of the last year you held the exemption.

The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's own example makes it concrete: if you abandoned your homestead exemption in March 2024, you must establish the new homestead by January 1, 2027.

Run that forward. If you sell your Miami-Dade home at any point during 2026 — January or December, it doesn't matter — your last qualified homestead date is January 1, 2026, and you have until January 1, 2029 to establish a new Florida homestead and claim the transfer.

Notice what that means for a late-year closing. Sell on December 20th and you haven't bought yourself three full years. You've bought yourself just over two. Sellers who close in the fourth quarter and then rent for a while "to see how the market shakes out" are quietly burning through the window.

Then there's the second deadline, the one that trips up people who did everything else right: the application is due March 1. You file two forms with the Property Appraiser — the homestead application (DR-501) and the transfer application (DR-501T). You can do both online through the Property Appraiser's exemption portal, by appointment, or in person at the Stephen P. Clark Center downtown or the South Dade Government Center in Cutler Bay.

Miss March 1 and you don't necessarily lose the benefit forever — if you're granted homestead but don't apply for portability within three consecutive years, you can still apply at a later date, and the assessment difference from your abandonment year gets applied in the year the portability is finally approved. But here's the part that stings: there are no refunds for the years in between. You simply pay the higher bill for those years and never get that money back.

Nobody from the county calls to remind you. The transfer does not happen because you mentioned it at closing. It happens because you filed.

Special situations that change the math

A few scenarios come up often enough in Miami-Dade that they're worth knowing before you list.

You own the home with someone else. Every person who received the homestead exemption on the old property has to abandon it before the assessment limitation can be ported, and the benefit gets distributed according to each person's ownership share of the prior property. Two owners, two shares.

You're divorcing. Spouses giving up a jointly titled homestead can designate how the assessment difference splits between them by filing a Designation of Ownership Shares of Abandoned Homestead — form DR-501TS. The catch is timing: you have to be married on the date the jointly owned property is abandoned. Sort this out during the settlement, not after.

Two of you each own a homesteaded home and you're combining households. You don't have to guess which one to keep. When two people who previously owned separate homesteads establish a new homestead together, the higher of the two assessment limitations is the one eligible to transfer. Pull both Property Appraiser records and compare before you decide which house to sell.

You're moving to Miami-Dade from another Florida county. Portability has worked statewide since 2008, so a differential built up in Broward or Monroe transfers here the same way. What doesn't transfer is a tax benefit from another state — if you're relocating from New York or Illinois, you're starting from zero on a Miami-Dade home reassessed at full market value. That reassessment is a real part of the affordability squeeze that's been pushing South Florida buyers toward harder trade-offs, and it's a big reason carrying costs here catch newcomers off guard.

What about Amendment 3 on the November ballot? Florida voters decide on November 3, 2026 whether to add a much larger homestead exemption against non-school levies — $150,000 starting in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, indexed to inflation from 2029, with eligibility tied to being a permanent Florida resident as of December 31, 2026. It needs 60% to pass. For your purposes, the important detail is that it does not change the portability rules. The proposed exemption would sit on top of your ported assessment difference rather than replace it. Your differential still transfers, still caps at $500,000, and still gets filed on the same DR-501T. So there's no reason to delay a move you'd otherwise make — and given how much of the affordability conversation in this county now runs through carrying costs rather than purchase price, as it does with the workforce housing efforts taking shape across South Florida, the differential you've built is worth protecting either way.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much Save Our Homes benefit can I transfer in Florida?

Up to $500,000 of your assessment difference. If your accumulated differential exceeds that — which happens with long-held, high-value Miami-Dade properties — the amount above $500,000 does not transfer and is lost when you move.

Do I lose portability if I rent for a year between homes?

Not automatically. You have three assessment years from January 1 of your last homestead year to establish a new Florida homestead. Renting for twelve months is usually fine; renting for three years generally is not. Because the clock starts on January 1 rather than your closing date, a late-in-the-year sale gives you meaningfully less runway than a January sale.

Is portability automatic when I buy my next Florida home?

No. You have to apply. File the homestead application (DR-501) and the transfer application (DR-501T) with the Property Appraiser in the county where the new home is located, by March 1. Closing on the house does not trigger the transfer, and no one files it on your behalf.

Why did my property taxes jump after I bought, even though the prior owner's bill was low?

Because the seller's Save Our Homes cap was protecting them, not the property. When a home sells, the assessed value resets to full market value for the new owner. A long-time owner paying on a $370,000 assessment can hand you a $650,000 reassessment — which is exactly why buyers should never use the current tax bill to estimate their future one.

Can I port my Save Our Homes benefit from another state?

No. Portability applies only between Florida homesteads. If you're relocating to Miami-Dade from out of state, your new home is assessed at full market value and you start building your own Save Our Homes cap from your first homestead year forward.

Your assessment difference is probably one of the largest untracked assets you own, and unlike your equity, it's easy to accidentally leave behind — by moving in the wrong direction, by waiting too long, or by simply not filing a form. Whether you should trade up, trade down, or stay put often comes down to a number most homeowners have never actually calculated.

If you want to see what your own differential is worth and how much of it would survive the move, I'm happy to run it with you. I offer a free buying or selling strategy session — no pressure, just a straight look at your Property Appraiser numbers and what they mean for your next move. You can grab a time here.

About Pedro Casanova

Pedro Casanova is a real estate broker that leads The KREN Group real estate team serving the Southeast Florida area. They specialize in helping people build wealth through real estate by helping buyers and sellers maximize their opportunity in every transaction. Connect with the team at www.thekrengroup.com.

The KREN Group | Keller Williams Premier Properties

This article is general information about Florida property tax administration, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your own figures with the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser or a qualified tax professional before making a decision.