JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A fast-moving proposal backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to eliminate property taxes on owner-occupied homes is drawing mixed reactions from Floridians and fresh warnings from housing experts who say the plan could worsen the state’s affordability crisis.
A new analysis from Realtor.com estimates that wiping out property taxes for homesteaded properties could drive statewide home values up by 7% to 9%, a jump that would benefit current homeowners but make it even harder for first-time buyers to get into the market.
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DeSantis has framed the idea as a direct response to rising housing costs. During a press conference this week, he said local governments are collecting far more in property taxes than when he took office.
“In 2019, the first year I was governor, local governments in Florida brought in $32 billion in property tax revenue. Today, they’re bringing in $56 billion,” DeSantis said.
The governor argues that property taxes have climbed so sharply that even young families who can afford a home struggle to keep up with the annual bill.
“Property taxes have gone up, so even if they can afford their home, they’re paying way more taxes than the same home would have cost if they had purchased it 10 years earlier,” he said.
Mixed reaction from residents
At RiversEdge Park in Jacksonville, residents told News4JAX they were torn between the appeal of lower taxes and the uncertainty of what comes next.
“Everybody likes to have cuts in property taxes,” said a local teacher. “But when you need the money to pay for things like schools, the police, the fire, has he given us an alternative? Another way to raise money is what I’d like to know.”
Others supported the idea, saying homeowners shouldn’t pay property taxes for life. But even supporters wondered about potential trade-offs.
“Yeah, no one likes to pay taxes,” said one homeowner. “But what’s the catch?”
Experts warn of unintended consequences
Mortgage expert Andrew Cady, ranked in the top 1% of loan officers nationwide, said the plan raises major economic questions.
“There’s two sides of me at war with each other,” he said. “What homeowner doesn’t want to save five, six, seven hundred dollars a month? But we need to really examine the downstream causes of what the chain reaction is going to be from this. Because this isn’t just a simple thing of ‘let’s cut property taxes.’”
Property taxes pay for local services, including schools, public safety and infrastructure. Eliminating that revenue would force lawmakers to find alternative funding sources or make cuts.
Cady also warned that the proposal could drive home prices even higher, particularly in competitive markets like Jacksonville.
“A seller of a home in Mayport that no longer has property taxes, looks and says, ‘Well, hey, my home is worth $30,000 more than the guy in Kingsland, right across the border, because I don’t have property taxes anymore,’” Cady said. “We’re just going to see home values shoot up and ultimately stifle the first-time homebuyer once again.”
Realtor.com economists reached a similar conclusion, noting that eliminating recurring property taxes lowers long-term “user costs”, one of the factors buyers use when determining how much they can afford. That dynamic, analysts say, would push sale prices higher almost immediately.
Questions about long-term risk
Economists are also raising concerns about what happens during an economic downturn. If a recession causes real estate prices to fall, the state budget, newly dependent on property-driven revenue structures, could take a major hit.
Cady said the state should focus instead on solutions that directly improve affordability.
“Affordability is the worst we’ve ever seen. We have high interest rates, high home values, and record credit card debt,” he said. “We need actual help, not a band-aid that gets a lot of votes but causes problems down the road.”
He pointed to updating Florida’s long-standing homestead exemption, which has not changed since 2008 despite the state’s median home price more than doubling, as one possible alternative.
“The last time homestead exemption in the state of Florida was raised was in 2008. The median home price in the state of Florida was $187,000 at that time. Now it’s over $400,000 and the homestead exemption remains the same. So instead of maybe wiping out property taxes, why don’t we take the homestead exemption and create an annual increase for it, just how homes appreciate annually. If homes are appreciating 4% per year, why wouldn’t homestead exemption also increase 4% per year?" Cady said.
Who benefits from the proposal?
Under the governor’s plan, only owner-occupied homes would receive the tax break.
DeSantis says the state relies more heavily on revenue from non-homesteaded properties, including corporate-owned homes and investment properties, but eliminating taxes for primary residences would still strip billions from local budgets.
In 2025, state records indicate 47% of homes were owner-occupied.
The proposal now moves forward as lawmakers debate how to fill the funding gaps and whether the shift would help or hurt Floridians already struggling with soaring costs of living.