Davie Florida Save Our Homes Cap: What Buyers and Sellers Need to Know

Almost every buyer I talk to in Davie makes the same mistake before we meet. They look at the seller’s current tax bill on the listing, pencil that number into their monthly budget, and assume that is what they will pay. Then the first tax bill arrives and it is thousands of dollars higher than they planned. That gap has a name. It is the Save Our Homes cap resetting, and it is one of the most misunderstood numbers in a Florida purchase.

Save Our Homes works in your favor for years once you own and homestead a property. It works against you for exactly one moment, the year you buy. Understanding both sides is what keeps a buyer from a budget surprise and what tells a long time seller how much value they have quietly built up. Here is how it actually works in Davie.

What the Save Our Homes cap is

Save Our Homes is an amendment to the Florida Constitution. It limits how much the assessed value of a homesteaded property can rise each year for property tax purposes. The increase is capped at 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. You can read the constitutional basis through The Florida Bar.

The key word is assessed. Your home has a market value, what it would sell for, and an assessed value, the number the county uses to calculate your tax. For a homesteaded owner, those two numbers drift apart over time. The market value climbs with the Davie market, but the assessed value is only allowed to creep up 3 percent a year. After ten or fifteen years of appreciation, the gap between the two can be enormous. That gap is your Save Our Homes benefit, and it is real money saved every single year.

The cap is administered by the Broward County Property Appraiser, who sets assessed values for every parcel in Davie and the rest of the county. The state framework sits with the Florida Department of Revenue, which publishes plain guidance for first time buyers on how assessment works.

Why a buyer’s first tax bill resets

Here is the part that catches buyers. A change of ownership removes the cap. When you buy a home in Davie, the property is reassessed at full just value, its market value, as of January 1 of the year after your purchase. The seller’s protected assessed value does not transfer to you. Your assessment effectively resets to what you paid.

Consider a homeowner who bought fifteen years ago. Her original assessed value was around $200,000. With the 3 percent cap, it had only crept to about $310,000, even though the home was now worth roughly $550,000 on the open market. When she sold, the county reassessed the property at $550,000 for the new owner. The annual tax bill jumped by more than $4,000 in a single year. The seller had done nothing wrong and neither had the buyer. The cap simply reset, as it always does on a sale.

This is why you can never use the seller’s tax bill to estimate your own. The right move is to take your purchase price and run it through the property appraiser’s tax estimator at bcpa.net, which calculates your likely bill on a reset assessment rather than the seller’s protected one. I walk every buyer through this number before they write an offer, because it belongs in the budget from day one. You can see how it fits with the rest of your costs on the Davie closing costs guide and the Davie cost of living breakdown.

What sellers have built up without realizing it

If you have owned and homesteaded a Davie home for many years, the same mechanic that surprises buyers has been working quietly in your favor. The wider the gap between your low assessed value and today’s market value, the larger your accrued Save Our Homes benefit. In Davie’s western acreage and equestrian corridor, where owners hold single family parcels for decades, that gap is often the largest part of the financial picture when they decide to move.

The fear I hear from long time owners is that selling means losing all of that protection. It does not have to. Florida lets you carry your benefit forward, which changes the math on moving up or downsizing within the state.

Portability: carrying your savings to your next home

Portability is the rule that lets a seller transfer accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new Florida homestead. You can move up to $500,000 of your built up benefit to your next home if you establish the new homestead within three tax years of giving up the old one. You file Form DR-501T together with your new homestead application. In Broward, both are filed with the property appraiser at bcpa.net, and the homestead deadline is March 1.

There is a 2026 ballot measure that could change the $500,000 limit, so the ceiling is worth confirming at the time you file. For now, portability is the tool that lets a Davie owner sell a long held home, buy the next one, and keep a meaningful share of the tax protection they spent years building. If you are weighing a move within Davie, the Davie real estate market page shows where prices sit today, which determines how much benefit is worth porting.

How the two sides fit together in a Davie deal

In a typical Davie move up, the same person is both the surprised buyer and the long protected seller. You sell a home where your assessed value sat far below market, and you buy a larger one where the assessment resets to your full purchase price. Portability is what bridges those two facts. Without it, you would pay tax on the new home’s market value with no credit for years of capped assessment. With it, you carry a chunk of that protection across.

The practical sequence is simple. Estimate the new home’s reset tax bill using the county estimator before you make an offer. Confirm how much benefit you can port from your current homestead. File the homestead and the DR-501T on the new property before the March 1 deadline. Get those three steps right and the tax side of the move becomes a known number instead of a surprise. You can see the full buyer process on my guide to buying a home in Davie.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Save Our Homes cap reset when I buy a home in Davie?

Yes. A change of ownership removes the previous owner’s cap. The property is reassessed at full market value as of January 1 of the year following your purchase, so your assessment is based on what you paid, not on the seller’s protected value.

Why is my property tax higher than what the seller was paying?

Because the seller likely held the home for years under the 3 percent Save Our Homes cap, which kept their assessed value well below market value. When the home sold, the cap reset to the current market value, which is usually your purchase price. First year bills are commonly 30 to 60 percent higher than the seller’s last bill.

How do I estimate my real Davie property tax before I buy?

Do not use the seller’s current bill. Take your expected purchase price and run it through the Broward County Property Appraiser tax estimator at bcpa.net. That calculates your bill on a reset assessment, which is what you will actually pay as the new owner.

Can I transfer my Save Our Homes savings to a new Davie home?

Yes, through portability. You can move up to $500,000 of accrued benefit to a new Florida homestead if you establish it within three tax years of leaving the old one. You file Form DR-501T with your homestead application at bcpa.net.

What is the deadline to file for homestead and portability in Broward?

March 1 of the tax year you are claiming. You file the homestead exemption and the portability transfer form together with the Broward County Property Appraiser. Missing the deadline means waiting another year for the protection to begin.

Talk to a Davie Real Estate Expert

The Save Our Homes cap rewards owners who plan and surprises those who do not. If you are buying in Davie, the reset belongs in your budget before you write an offer. If you are selling a home you have held for years, the benefit you carry forward can be worth more than you think. Schedule a free 15-minute strategy call and we will run your numbers, estimate the reset on the home you want, and map how much benefit you can port. Call Anthony Spitaleri at (954) 235-5783 or book your call at https://bit.ly/daviestrategycall.

Living in Davie Florida

Anthony Spitaleri, Broker Associate

Coldwell Banker, Weston office

2690 Weston Road, Suite 101, Weston, FL 33326

Phone: (954) 235-5783

Web: https://livingindavieflorida.com

About the author

Anthony Spitaleri is a Broker Associate with Coldwell Banker, one of the most established residential real estate brands, with more than 2,700 offices globally and a track record dating to 1906. A Davie native who returned home in 2025 after 13 years in Miami Beach, Anthony specializes in luxury homes and estates above $1 million, acreage and equestrian properties with no HOA, and relocation buyers moving to Davie from out of state. He created livingindavieflorida.com, the most comprehensive independent Davie real estate resource available, with in-depth coverage of Davie’s gated communities, acreage and equestrian properties, and luxury estates, plus original weekly market data, interactive tools, Town Council recaps, and a 24/7 AI concierge. Anthony has been licensed in real estate since 2013 (BK3281907), is a Certified Strategic Coach through Coaching Services International (CSI), an active member of the Davie Cooper City Chamber of Commerce, and a weekly volunteer at Bit by Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in Davie.