Amendment 3 florida results are in, and Florida homeowners just won the biggest property tax vote in a generation. Unofficial statewide returns on Tuesday night showed about 62 percent voting yes, clearing the 60 percent the amendment needed to enter the state constitution. That means the larger homestead exemption is coming, first in 2027 and then in full in 2028. If you own your Florida home and live in it as your permanent residence, this vote will lower the tax bill you have complained about for years. The counting is not certified yet, but the margin is far too large for the remaining ballots to change the outcome.
Amendment 3 Florida Results Clear the 60 Percent Bar
The Tallahassee Democrat, reporting the tally from the state elections site at 9:30 PM on Tuesday, put yes votes at 4,875,641 for 62.03 percent and no votes at 2,985,113 for 37.97 percent, with 96.61 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press tally at a similar point in the night showed the same picture, with about 97 percent of precincts reporting and yes ahead by roughly 1.89 million votes. Suncoast Searchlight reported the outcome plainly on Tuesday night under the headline that Amendment 3 passes, and the Palm Beach Post reported Decision Desk HQ also at 62 percent. Results stay unofficial until the state certifies them, and that honest note belongs in any report of this vote.
Only hours earlier the race sat close to the line, with early returns near 60 percent. Support then climbed as more counties reported, and it finished comfortably above the threshold. Our Election Day guide to the Amendment 3 vote laid out the stakes before polls closed, and tonight voters supplied the answer every October poll had left open.
What Passage Changes in 2027 and 2028
Here is the change in plain terms. Today a homesteaded home gets roughly 50000 dollars of assessed value exempted from county, city and special district taxes, the levies called non school taxes on your bill. Amendment 3 raises that exemption to 150000 dollars for the 2027 tax year and to 250000 dollars for the 2028 tax year, and from 2029 it rises with inflation. School taxes do not change, because the larger exemption never applied to school levies. The amendment also cuts the yearly cap on assessment increases for property that is not a homestead from 10 percent to 5 percent, which covers rentals, second homes and commercial property.
Put simple math on it. In 2027 the added exemption is about 100000 dollars of value. At a combined non school rate of 10 dollars per 1000 dollars of value, that is roughly 1000 dollars a year off a bill, before any local rate changes. In 2028 the added exemption grows to about 200000 dollars, and the same illustration gives roughly 2000 dollars a year. Your own number will vary with your local rates. Our Florida Amendment 3 calculator for homeowner savings walks through that math county by county.
I have called for abolishing property taxes since my November 25, 2023 Facebook thread, kept making that case through 2024, and reshared it on October 19, 2026. Property taxes are up 40 percent in five years while services remain the same, and I reject the claim that police and public services will not have money as a greedy politicians talking point. This amendment is not outright abolition, and I have never sold it as abolition. It is a major exemption increase, and for many working homeowners it is the first real relief after years of bills climbing on autopilot.
What It Does Not Change and What to Watch
Two honest limits belong in this report. First, your tax bill does not fall to zero. School taxes remain, any value above the exemption remains taxable, and fees that sit outside the property tax itself remain. Second, local governments will feel this in their budgets. Florida TaxWatch estimates the amendment will cut local property taxes by about 4.9 billion dollars in the first year and about 45.8 billion dollars over five years, and city and county leaders spent Tuesday night warning about hard choices ahead. Voters heard those warnings for months and voted yes anyway, which tells you how heavy this bill had become at the kitchen table.
What happens next locally matters almost as much as the vote itself. Local boards set their rates each summer, and a board can try to recover part of this relief by raising its rate on the value that remains taxable. Watch those budget hearings in 2027. Relief won at the ballot box should not quietly leak away in a rate vote almost nobody attends. Our Florida Homeownership Costs hub will keep tracking this result beside insurance, flood and association costs. If you are weighing a move inside Florida, a local broker who works these numbers daily can help you compare total carrying costs, and that is the daily work at Sunset Realty here in Broward.
What Florida Homeowners Should Do Now
Start with the one fact that decides whether you get any of this money. The savings belong to homesteaded owners, so confirm that your homestead exemption is active on your county property appraiser record this month. If you bought recently or moved within Florida, do not assume it followed you. You need to own the home and live in it as your permanent residence on January 1, 2027, and new applicants must file by March 1, 2027.
Second, remember the residency date written into this result. Anyone who is not a Florida resident on December 31, 2026 gets the current exemption first, and the increased exemption begins with their fifth year of homestead, as our full explanation of Amendment 3 for homeowners sets out in detail. If a move to Florida is already in your plans for this year, that date is now worth real money and it belongs on your calendar today, not in a spring conversation.
Third, set your expectations for timing. Nothing changes on the bill arriving this month. The first savings appear on the notice you receive in August 2027 and on the bill that follows in late 2027, and a mortgage payment that includes taxes in escrow will adjust only after your lender runs its next escrow review. Do not promise this money to another bill until you see your own notice with your own numbers on it. That is the usable takeaway from tonight: verify your homestead, mark the March filing date, and read your 2027 notice line by line when it lands.
Want a simple system for putting tax savings like this to work instead of watching them dissolve into daily spending? Download the free ebook Unlocking Financial Freedom and use its checklists to give every saved dollar a job before it arrives. Better decisions compound, and tonight Florida homeowners just earned the chance to make a few.
