How do I estimate property taxes on a home I'm buying in South Florida?

Why is the seller's current bill misleading?

A seller who has owned the home for years may have a homestead exemption and a Save Our Homes cap that hold the assessed value well below market value. Those benefits do not transfer to you. The Broward County Property Appraiser explains that after a purchase the home is reassessed the next year based on the purchase price and comparable sales, and the seller's exemptions expire at the end of the year of sale.

Closing statements usually prorate the current year's taxes using last year's bill, which the Broward office notes is not particularly accurate because values and rates change. As the buyer, you pay the entire current-year bill when it arrives in November.[2]

What is the basic formula?

The Florida Department of Revenue's formula is taxable value ÷ 1,000 × millage rate = tax owed, added up across every taxing authority that levies on the property. Step by step:

• Estimate the just (market) value the property appraiser is likely to assign after your purchase.
• If the home will be your homestead, subtract $25,000 for school taxes and up to $51,411 for other taxes (2026 amounts); a second home or rental gets neither.
• Multiply the school taxable value by the school millage and the other taxable value by all remaining millage.
• Add non-ad valorem assessments; Broward's property appraiser suggests adding roughly $100 to $350 for a typical house.
• Hypothetical illustration: $500,000 of taxable value at a combined 20 mills is about $10,000 a year before those assessments.[1][2][6]

Why does the exact address (city vs. unincorporated) matter?

Most homes are taxed by several authorities, and city taxes depend on whether the home is inside a city or in an unincorporated area. Florida law lets counties create municipal service taxing units for services such as fire protection in unincorporated areas, and a city can consent to be included.

Proposed 2026 rates published by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser show the spread: Boca Raton 3.6476 mills, Delray Beach 6.4371 and West Palm Beach 8.1308, alongside Palm Beach County's 4.5000 and school board rates of 3.0390 (state) and 3.2480 (local). The county Fire/Rescue levy is 3.4581 and the Library levy is 0.5491. Final rates are adopted at September hearings.

In Broward, the property appraiser's New Homebuyer's Tax Estimator uses an average of 19.8394 mills (about 1.98%) across municipalities and leaves out non-ad valorem fees, so treat it as a rough figure. If you are bringing Save Our Homes savings from a prior Florida homestead, use the property appraiser's portability calculator instead.[1][2][3][4][5]