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Fort Lauderdale area Broward County
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Old 02-14-2018, 07:43 AM
 
44 posts, read 38,098 times
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Morning everyone,
I am new here so I apologize if this has been answered before. I did a brief search and nothing came up.
I am looking to buy a house in Davie or Cooper City area. My budget is 1.0 to 1.2 mill. As I am moving from another country I find that the house taxes are ridiculously high and random. some houses I am looking at have yearly taxes of 12k to 15K while other same size house in the same city (Davie) can go from 20k to 25K. Can anyone tell me why and can point out if there is any sweet spot in these two cities where I can buy my home but don't have to pay so much tax. Also if any neighborhood if anyone can recommend with the good gated community and good amenities.
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Old 02-14-2018, 09:41 AM
 
Location: Gainesville, FL; formerly Weston, FL
3,141 posts, read 3,091,057 times
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The taxes aren’t random; in Florida, we have a law called Save Our Homes which limits the annual increase on property taxes for existing homeowners who use their home as a primary residence. Increases are generally capped at 3% a year. The law allows a re-set to the current tax rate when the home is sold to someone from out of state, or out of the country.

For example, we bought our home in 1996 in Weston for about $200k. Our taxes were about $5k a year. We sold it to a family moving from out of state for a bit more than $500k 3 years ago. Taxes would now be assessed the following year based on that sale price (less any homestead exemptions). That family is paying double what we were paying, due to the SOH cap and selling price.

For Florida residents it’s a great law—SOH is portable and when we bought in Gainesville our tax base in SFLA was used to reduce our taxes up here. We are paying less in property taxes, on a larger home, than our neighbors who moved in a year before us from out-of-state. Again, great law for long-time Florida homeowners like us, terrible law for your situation.

As for gated communities with nice amenities in both cities, I would look at Embassy Lakes in Cooper City and Hawks Landing in Davie. I prefer Embassy Lakes, even though it’s older due to location—I would be concerned with major freeway noise at Hawks Landing.

Hope this helps. Love Canada as half my family are Canadian.
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Old 02-14-2018, 10:36 AM
 
44 posts, read 38,098 times
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How long do I have to be a resident of Florida before I can qualify for SOH... do you have to be American Citizen
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Old 02-14-2018, 11:46 AM
 
Location: Gainesville, FL; formerly Weston, FL
3,141 posts, read 3,091,057 times
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That’s not how it works. I have lived in this state for decades. If I rented all this time and just now bought a home I would be in the same situation as you—having to pay the higher property taxes.

We all have to start somewhere with home ownership—residency alone doesn’t cut it.
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Old 02-15-2018, 09:07 AM
 
16,979 posts, read 21,613,699 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CANADAN View Post
How long do I have to be a resident of Florida before I can qualify for SOH... do you have to be American Citizen
Yes I believe you have to be a citizen to qualify for homestead exemption.

Another consideration: If you buy a newly built home, the first year you are only charged the lot value for taxes (so a 1mm house could have a 2-4K tax bill) then it will settle in at about 2% of value so 1mm is usually assessed at 85% of market so 2% of 850K will give you a tax bill of about $17,000.
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Old 02-15-2018, 01:26 PM
 
92 posts, read 109,796 times
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https://www.wikihow.com/Apply-for-a-...ion-in-Florida
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Old 02-15-2018, 03:09 PM
 
44 posts, read 38,098 times
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I have one more question. How is the Florida market right now? Is it the good time to buy or would it be better to wait?
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Old 02-16-2018, 08:18 AM
 
44 posts, read 38,098 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by obuma View Post
That was an excellent read..Thank you
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Old 02-27-2018, 02:41 PM
 
44 posts, read 38,098 times
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Bump
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Old 02-27-2018, 04:06 PM
 
Location: Florida & Cebu, Philippines
2,805 posts, read 3,234,233 times
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All legal Florida residents are eligible for a Homestead Exemption on their homes, condominiums, co-op apartments, and certain mobile home lots if they qualify.
You can read the rules at the link below, basically everyone who is legally in the U.S. can get homestead as long as the home is where they live full time.
Quote:
Marty Kiar - Broward County Property Appraiser
FOR NON-US CITIZENS, you MUST have the items listed above AND proof of permanent residency, asylum/parolee status (or other "PRUCOL" status); OR proof you are the parent of a US-born (US Citizen) minor child who resides with you.
Also basically property taxes are set at around 2.2% of the assessed value minus exemptions no matter where you live in Broward county. So do not be fooled by what a current homeowner is paying, what you will pay will be basically based on what you pay for the home unless you already had another home to port tax savings over from.
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