Property taxes in Collier county (Homestead, Naples: for sale, real estate, 2013)

[cvap]

Is there a way to get a ballpark of what your tax bill will be before you buy a home Without asking the county appraiser? Maybe a rule of thumb calculation ?

[Marc Middleton]

Originally Posted by cvap

Is there a way to get a ballpark of what your tax bill will be before you buy a home Without asking the county appraiser? Maybe a rule of thumb calculation ?

Anything around 1.5% of the sales price annually for a homestead property is a good rule of thumb. Its a little less in Collier vs other counties like Lee, but just do that to estimate so that when it comes in lower, you're happy & surprised

[slapshot1959]

Originally Posted by Marc Middleton

Anything around 1.5% of the sales price annually for a homestead property is a good rule of thumb. Its a little less in Collier vs other counties like Lee, but just do that to estimate so that when it comes in lower, you're happy & surprised

After living in Illinois all my life, I'm not too familiar with how they appraise for taxes down here.
Since almost all of us have had significant appreciation in our homes, do we still get taxed at our original purchase price (@1.5%) or does it get "reappraised" every few years like Illinois does?

That would double our real estate taxes right now.

[cvap]

There are homes for sale that are paying say, $3400 for taxes in 2020, that are selling for 1.5m. That comes to $22500 for your first tax bill. Impossible! Naples will be able to gold plate the stop lights! It has to be more complicated than just 1.5% of the sales price in the calculation.

[JPrzybylski07]

Originally Posted by cvap

There are homes for sale that are paying say, $3400 for taxes in 2020, that are selling for 1.5m. That comes to $22500 for your first tax bill. Impossible! Naples will be able to gold plate the stop lights! It has to be more complicated than just 1.5% of the sales price in the calculation.

I gave a breakdown of taxes on an earlier Naples Forum Thread, so I copy and pasted here:

Previously from 12/09/21

The county will recalculate a property’s taxes when ownership changes hands. Depending on how long the sellers lived there prior the taxes could increase substantially.

With the “save our homes tax” deduction homestead property owner’s get to use here in Florida, it caps off how much property taxes can increase on a yearly basis. This is to prevent people, probably seniors especially who are on fixed incomes, from getting priced out of their forever homes in really hot prolonged markets like it has been 2013-present.

EXAMPLE: I have a friend who bought a Naples home in April of 2013. When the trim notice came out that following August his MARKET VALUE was 204k, ASSESSED VALUE WAS 198k. The 10% non homestead Reduction kicked in and saved him 6k on his assessed value that first tax year because in 2012 the market value on that property was only 180k. Since the MARKET VALUE went up more then 10% the overage of 6k wasn’t applied on his ASSESSED VALUE for 2013 AND wasn’t applied on his TAXABLE VALUE which gets multiplied by the mill rate of 11.6 (.0116).

$6,000 times 11.6 Mill (.0116) is almost $70 he saved that year wow I know right! (The 6k was really only reduced off the non school TAXABLE VALUES which gets multiplied by the mill rates. He actually only saved $40. $6,000 times TOTAL NON SCHOOL combined mill rates is 6.8 (6,000 x .0068 = $40).

Fast forward to 2021 and the MARKET VALUE is now 389k, up originally from the 198k, HOWEVER his ASSESSED VALUE in 2021 is only 265k. That’s a total of 124k in save our homes benefits that he’s accumulated. Thanks to the save our homes benefit his ASSESSED VALUE starting at 198k was only allowed to increase at 3% max which in 8 years has increased to the current value of 265k. If this wasn’t a homestead property his ASSESSED VALUE and TAXABLE VALUE would be more around roughly 350k.

Now because this is homestead once again he gets to deduct that famous 50k on all taxes EXCEPT school taxes. 265k ASSESSED VALUE MINUS 50k homestead equals 215k TAXABLE VALUE (11.6 TOTAL MILL minus 4.8 public school MILL equals 6.8 TOTAL NON SCHOOL tax mill rate.) 215k TAXABLE VALUE times 6.8 = $1,462.

Only 25k is allowed to be deducted from the ASSESSED VALUE for the public school mill rate of 4.8 so 265k ASSESSED VALUE minus the 25k homestead deduction equals 240k TAXABLE VALUE times 4.8 mill for Public Schools.
240k times 4.8 mill (.0048) equals $1,152.

$1,462 plus $1,152 equals total tax bill of $2,614

Now the new buyer comes in and this property will instantly loose the save our home benefits reduction that’s accumulated with the prior owner. So ASSESSED VALUE of the property will go up the 124k the following tax year. (Unless the new buyers are transferring their own accumulated Save Our Home Benefit reduction from another Florida property they just sold.) Now the 124k times the total property mill rate of 11.6 (.0116) equals $1,438 that’s instantly lost in property tax savings! If you bought this home let’s say in April it’s already too late to file for homestead for that tax year but early enough the county will probably reassess, so an additional 50k will be lost as well, 25k times public school mill rate of 4.8 (.0048) equals $120. The deduction of 50k toward all non school taxes at 6.8 mill (.0068) equals $340. $120 plus $340 equals $460 plus the save our home benefit of $1,438 is almost a $2,000 tax increase that a potential new owner can get blind sided by the next tax bill.

[cvap]

Thanks for the data. I understand the save our homes and homestead deductions however the new buyer starts from scratch with market and assessed values, and if the assessor merely uses a percentage of the sale price to come up with an assessed value, they either have to lower the percentage or the mill rate if the towns budget remains the same.

[JPrzybylski07]

Originally Posted by cvap

Thanks for the data. I understand the save our homes and homestead deductions however the new buyer starts from scratch with market and assessed values, and if the assessor merely uses a percentage of the sale price to come up with an assessed value, they either have to lower the percentage or the mill rate if the towns budget remains the same.

So in other words you’re wondering how the assessor comes up with the MARKET VALUE, which dictates ASSESSED VALUE AND TAXABLE VALUE, since the mill rates are pretty much fixated, although of course those slowly go up over time too.


If it’s a resale and you’re wondering about what your new MARKET VALUE will be once the property is reassessed, well good question.

If it is a resale you will automatically be protected from the non-homestead 10% cap on your ASSESSED VALUE NO MATTER how much MARKET VALUE goes up. So you can go on your subject property of interest and see the current trim notice and calculate taxes accordingly to your situation and timeline.

[cvap]

I was an assessor for a small town and the mill rate changed every year depending on what the selectors came up with for a budget and how much the State gave us towards the roads and gave towards the land they owned in town. We never took the sale price or even the condition of the house into consideration. Every 3 years we would appraise each property by making sure there were no unpermitted additions. In the appraisal year we also took guidance from the State on comps in the region. But keeping taxes low always depended on the budget. Families with kids was the biggest expense as well as always needing new equipment for the road crew. I can only imagine the expenses a town like Naples incurs every year and don't know what the States role in funding Towns is.

[cvap]

If it is a resale you will automatically be protected from the non-homestead 10% cap on your ASSESSED VALUE NO MATTER how much MARKET VALUE goes up. So you can go on your subject property of interest and see the current trim notice and calculate taxes accordingly to your situation and timeline


Does that mean that no matter what you pay for a property, the assessed value will not be more than 10% higher than the previous years assessment ? If that is true, that is a huge factor in my decision to pay up for a house in this crazy market.

[JPrzybylski07]

Originally Posted by cvap

If it is a resale you will automatically be protected from the non-homestead 10% cap on your ASSESSED VALUE NO MATTER how much MARKET VALUE goes up. So you can go on your subject property of interest and see the current trim notice and calculate taxes accordingly to your situation and timeline


Does that mean that no matter what you pay for a property, the assessed value will not be more than 10% higher than the previous years assessment ? If that is true, that is a huge factor in my decision to pay up for a house in this crazy market.

I’m going to triple check my work. I know it doesn’t apply to school board taxes, which I clearly stated that in my above real life example when I broke down the numbers. Instead of my friend saving $70 he really only saved $40 because the school board TAXABLE VALUES were not capped off. He closed on that home in April after homestead filing was allowed that taxable year but soon enough the county did reassess.

According to at least my friends property, YES the MARKET VALUE did increase over 10% when he received his first tax bill compared to the prior owner’s last tax bill of the same property, BUT his ASSESSED VALUE excluding school board taxes did get capped at the 10%. But I want to triple confirm because yea that is a huge factor.

His first tax bill the 10% cap automatically applied 6048 reduction on his non school board mill tax rates which equated to the $40 he saved.




UPDATE: Just called the property appraisers office. I just learned the old lesson again about the saying no two pieces of real estate are the same.

I mistakenly assumed the 10% non-homestead cap applies to ASSESSED VALUE, however it only APPLIES to MARKET VALUE. My friend’s example was misleading to myself because the prior owner didn’t have any SOH accumulated or HOMESTEAD exemption that were lost when my friend purchased the sale.

If you are a buyer and the sellers have HOMESTEAD exemption and SOH reductions accumulated your tax bill can easily go up over 10% the next tax bill REGARDLESS if MARKET VALUE does.

In my friend’s case because the MARKET VALUE went up over 10% the first year of ownership the overage was reduced off his ASSESSED VALUE, but both VALUES were the same starting Jan. 1st of that year. HAD THE MARKET VALUE THAT YEAR ONLY increased less then 10% then his first tax bill would have had MARKET VALUE AND ASSESSED VALUE the same exact number!

(They say the best way to learn something is to try and teach it). Phewww