Karen Azari wasted no time after Florida voters overwhelmingly approved the property-tax amendment last week. Azari, who owns a Miami granite countertop business, promptly put her longtime home in Bay Harbor Islands up for sale with Coldwell Banker.
She figures that the portability provision, which allows homeowners to transfer tax savings to another home when they move, will help her out.
How much the amendment will help jump-start the sluggish real-estate market overall is another question. Most analysts say it will boost sales only modestly in the short term.
The amendment enables owners of homesteaded property to carry up to $500,000 in tax benefits to a new home if they have sold one property after Jan. 1, 2007, and purchase another within two years.
Homeowners who downsize to less expensive properties can carry a proportionate amount of savings. If they had shielded 40 percent of the market value of the old home from the tax collector, they can shield 40 percent of the market value of the new one.
For Azari, the numbers add up.
''I didn't want to sell before, because no matter what I bought instead, the taxes would be too high,'' said Azari, who bought the three-bedroom, two-bath home in 1995 and is shielding about $640,000 from taxable value under the earlier Save Our Homes cap. That is 69 percent of the $927,000 market value that is excluded from taxes under the cap, which limits increases in tax assessments to a maximum of 3 percent a year, no matter how much home values may rise.
''Now I can take the tax savings with me, and it kind of keeps it level,'' Azari said. ``My taxes won't jump from $5,000 to $10,000.''
Local property appraisers offices have been beset with calls from bewildered homeowners since the amendment was approved Tuesday. But several inquiries from The Miami Herald suggest that some county workers are not well briefed on the new law and that property owners would do better to keep up with the news media and check the property appraisers' websites.
A political action committee known as Yes on 1 -- Save Our Homes Now spent more than $3.7 million to promote the adoption of Amendment 1. That included more than $1 million from the Florida Association of Realtors and numerous contributions from other real-estate-related firms that hope the measure will stimulate sales in Florida's worst real-estate market in decades.
FREEDOM TO MOVE
''There's not going to be a running of the bulls,'' said Richard Barkett, chief executive officer of the Realtors Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale. ``But now, people are not chained to their homes, and now they have the freedom to trade up or trade down and take their tax savings with them.
``I'm sure there is pent-up demand of people who have been waiting to see if this amendment would pass. We definitely anticipate it will help some sales.''
While the portability of tax savings will help many homeowners switch homes over time, experts agree, the near-term impact may be muted.
For one thing, the measure already faces a court challenge in Leon County on grounds that portability discriminates against newcomers and violates state and federal constitutional rights to equal protection and the right to move across state lines without facing economic harm.
That cloud hanging over the amendment may prompt some homeowners to hold off on selling a longtime homestead property and buying another place for fear that the measure will be invalidated.
But a bigger roadblock is that many potential buyers are waiting for signs of a market bottom. Nobody wants to buy a house when prices are on the way down.
''It certainly will have some effect,'' said Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, a real-estate brokerage firm in Coral Gables. ``But will it eat up all the excess inventory of homes on the market? No. We still have the market we're in. If someone wants to move, they still have to sell their home before they will buy another one.''
Indeed, Azari -- the eager seller in Bay Harbor Islands -- said that if her house sells, she'll scour the market until she finds a sure bargain, ``maybe a foreclosure.''
LITTLE FOR NEW BUYERS
Meanwhile, the measure does little for first-time buyers who don't have tax benefits to transfer to a new home. They still face the prospect of paying huge tax bills because newly purchased homes are assessed at full market value.
''First-time buyers didn't get anything,'' said Shuffield, who hopes that more tax reform is on the horizon. ``The governor has said he's working on it. He's not finished.''
Most real-estate agents agree that the tax cut is a good start -- but only that.
''This is just the first step,'' said Barkett, of the Realtors Association. ``More has to be done to get our economy going and to get property taxes in Florida back on an equal, stable level. We're looking for further relief from our Legislature and the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. We're optimistic some additional measure will be on the November ballot.''
The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, a blue-ribbon panel that is studying various options, can make recommendations to the Legislature or place proposals directly on the ballot for voter consideration.
While portability -- aimed at longtime property owners -- is the centerpiece, the amendment includes several other tax cuts:
• The homestead exemption will increase to $50,000 from $25,000, except for the school-tax portion of the bill. That is equivalent to about a $15,750 additional homestead exemption in Miami-Dade County and $16,000 in Broward County, or an average of $240 a year per home in tax savings statewide.
• For non-homesteaded residences and business properties, the amendment caps the annual increase in assessments at 10 percent. That would have helped snowbirds and others who are not eligible for homestead status back in the boom era when property values were bounding higher 25 percent or more a year. But the measure does little during the current sagging market.
A RENTAL ISSUE
The amendment ''helps some, but it's far from being the answer,'' said Martha Gomez, who owns several rental properties in Miami-Dade.
The $8,500 tax bill for one home on Southwest 63rd Place, which rents for $1,900 a month, ate up more than four months of income, she said. ``When you couple the taxes with the insurance and maintenance, we're losing money on these rentals.''
Under the amendment, businesses also received a new $25,000 exemption for tangible personal property, such as office furniture and equipment. That will save a few hundred dollars on average and the trouble of filing the paperwork.
For more information on available properties in and around Panama City, Panama City Beach, Destin Flordia, please see below.
www.panama-city-beach-florida-mls.com
www.panama-city-beach-florida-condominiums.com
www.panama-city-beach-florida-commercial-real-estate.com
www.RandBCoastalRealEstate.com
www.30a-florida-mls.com
www.destin-florida-mls.com
www.destin-florida-condominiums.info
www.destin-florida-commercial-real-estate.com
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