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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Central Florida property values continue to skyrocket
Property values across Central Florida are soaring this year, fueled by billions of dollars of new construction, according to the region's property appraisers. The booming values will help boost tax rolls as local governments begin preparing budgets for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. And it may add fuel to a GOP-boosted argument that Florida homeowners are paying too much property tax. 'Interest rates are relatively high, and we've certainly seen a slow down in residential sales,' said David Johnson, Seminole County's property appraiser. 'But what we have not seen is a decline in the values, or what people are selling their houses for.' At this time every year, property appraisers are required to provide local governments, school districts and other taxing authorities with their 'Best Estimates of Taxable Values' reports. The reports released last week show that every local government in the region is seeing jumps in taxable values this year, with several cities looking at double digit increases. In Orange County, Windermere leads the list with taxable values rising to just over $1.2 billion in total. That's up slightly more than 19% compared to last year. Helping to fuel that rise, Windermere voters last February agreed in a special election to annex the gated Chaine du Lac community that abuts the town's western side, adding hundreds of new properties. Windermere's increase was followed by Apopka — the county's second-largest city — which is estimated to see a nearly 14% jump from last year to nearly $8.2 billion worth of total taxable value in 2025. In Seminole, Sanford is forecast to have nearly $6.7 billion in taxable property values this year, a 10.85% jump from 2024. Sanford — the second largest city in Central Florida's three-county region behind Orlando — is the only Seminole government to have a double-digit percentage increase. A large part of that surge in Sanford is the result of recent construction of homes and apartments within the city, Johnson said. 'They've built thousands of single-family homes by Celery Avenue [near the Orlando Sanford International Airport],' he said. In Osceola County, St. Cloud is forecast to see taxable values rise to nearly $6 billion in 2025, a whopping nearly 15% increase from 2024, according to that county's Property Appraiser's Office. 'There's a lot of new construction,' Osceola's Property Appraiser Katrina Scarborough said regarding St. Cloud. 'And we're one of the fastest growing counties in the country.' Kissimmee's taxable values are expected to rise to $6.9 billion in 2025, a 10.5% increase from last year. Lake's smallest cities saw the largest increases in the county, in large part because of an explosion of new home construction. Montverde led the list with a 24.6% jump from 2024 to a total estimated taxable value of nearly $212 million. That was closely followed by Mascotte, which is forecast to have a 21.8% increase from last year to nearly $602 million. Several straight years of rising taxable values across the region have pumped billions more dollars into the coffers of local governments. For example, Orange County's budget has grown by $1.7 billion in the last five years. That's spurred Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans to recently push for either cutting or completely eliminating property taxes. DeSantis claims that Florida counties and cities are taking advantage of that largesse in tax revenues by expanding, while struggling property owners pay for it. He is advocating a $1000 property tax rebate to every Florida homeowner this December, followed by structural changes to the tax later. But the state House and Senate, at loggerheads over the budget they need to pass by June 30, have yet to take up any property tax changes this year. The taxable value of a property is the amount used by local governments to calculate and set property tax rates. Market value, on the other hand, is the price a property would likely sell for in the current real estate market. Market value is influenced by the condition of the property, its location and surroundings. Florida law caps the taxable value of a homeowner's primary residence, limiting the rise in taxes. In Orange County, the estimated total market value for 2025 is $345.8 billion, an increase of 4.6% from 2024. In Seminole, the 2025 market value is just over $87 billion, which is a nearly 4.2% increase from 2024. In Osceola, the market value is nearly $70 billion, a surge of nearly 4.3% from 2024, while in Lake, the market value is $68.4 billion, a 6.3% jump from last year. According to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, there were more than 12,000 homes on the market across Central Florida in May. It takes on average about 76 days for a home to sit on the market before it is purchased. As of Thursday, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was about 6.87%, and 5.95% for a 15-year fixed rate, according to
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Central Florida property values continue to skyrocket
Property values across Central Florida are soaring this year, fueled by billions of dollars of new construction, according to the region's property appraisers. The booming values will help boost tax rolls as local governments begin preparing budgets for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. And it may add fuel to a GOP-boosted argument that Florida homeowners are paying too much property tax. 'Interest rates are relatively high, and we've certainly seen a slow down in residential sales,' said David Johnson, Seminole County's property appraiser. 'But what we have not seen is a decline in the values, or what people are selling their houses for.' At this time every year, property appraisers are required to provide local governments, school districts and other taxing authorities with their 'Best Estimates of Taxable Values' reports. The reports released last week show that every local government in the region is seeing jumps in taxable values this year, with several cities looking at double digit increases. In Orange County, Windermere leads the list with taxable values rising to just over $1.2 billion in total. That's up slightly more than 19% compared to last year. Helping to fuel that rise, Windermere voters last February agreed in a special election to annex the gated Chaine du Lac community that abuts the town's western side, adding hundreds of new properties. Windermere's increase was followed by Apopka — the county's second-largest city — which is estimated to see a nearly 14% jump from last year to nearly $8.2 billion worth of total taxable value in 2025. In Seminole, Sanford is forecast to have nearly $6.7 billion in taxable property values this year, a 10.85% jump from 2024. Sanford — the second largest city in Central Florida's three-county region behind Orlando — is the only Seminole government to have a double-digit percentage increase. A large part of that surge in Sanford is the result of recent construction of homes and apartments within the city, Johnson said. 'They've built thousands of single-family homes by Celery Avenue [near the Orlando Sanford International Airport],' he said. In Osceola County, St. Cloud is forecast to see taxable values rise to nearly $6 billion in 2025, a whopping nearly 15% increase from 2024, according to that county's Property Appraiser's Office. 'There's a lot of new construction,' Osceola's Property Appraiser Katrina Scarborough said regarding St. Cloud. 'And we're one of the fastest growing counties in the country.' Kissimmee's taxable values are expected to rise to $6.9 billion in 2025, a 10.5% increase from last year. Lake's smallest cities saw the largest increases in the county, in large part because of an explosion of new home construction. Montverde led the list with a 24.6% jump from 2024 to a total estimated taxable value of nearly $212 million. That was closely followed by Mascotte, which is forecast to have a 21.8% increase from last year to nearly $602 million. Several straight years of rising taxable values across the region have pumped billions more dollars into the coffers of local governments. For example, Orange County's budget has grown by $1.7 billion in the last five years. That's spurred Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans to recently push for either cutting or completely eliminating property taxes. DeSantis claims that Florida counties and cities are taking advantage of that largesse in tax revenues by expanding, while struggling property owners pay for it. He is advocating a $1000 property tax rebate to every Florida homeowner this December, followed by structural changes to the tax later. But the state House and Senate, at loggerheads over the budget they need to pass by June 30, have yet to take up any property tax changes this year. The taxable value of a property is the amount used by local governments to calculate and set property tax rates. Market value, on the other hand, is the price a property would likely sell for in the current real estate market. Market value is influenced by the condition of the property, its location and surroundings. Florida law caps the taxable value of a homeowner's primary residence, limiting the rise in taxes. In Orange County, the estimated total market value for 2025 is $345.8 billion, an increase of 4.6% from 2024. In Seminole, the 2025 market value is just over $87 billion, which is a nearly 4.2% increase from 2024. In Osceola, the market value is nearly $70 billion, a surge of nearly 4.3% from 2024, while in Lake, the market value is $68.4 billion, a 6.3% jump from last year. According to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, there were more than 12,000 homes on the market across Central Florida in May. It takes on average about 76 days for a home to sit on the market before it is purchased. As of Thursday, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was about 6.87%, and 5.95% for a 15-year fixed rate, according to
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$5 billion in new construction to be added to Palm Beach County tax rolls
Twenty-two new apartment complexes were added to the tax rolls last year in Palm Beach County, producing nearly 3,800 rental units. And 3,000 single-family homes were also built. That new construction accounts for nearly $5 billion in new taxable value. Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks disclosed the information during a recent county commission meeting as she briefed commissioners on what property values look like for 2024. More: Palm Beach County's record market value: More than a half-trillion dollars More: Property values across Palm Beach County increase nearly 14%, raising concerns tax bills will follow She told commissioners that one of the biggest takeaways is the strength of the residential market. In addition to the new apartment complexes that have come onto the tax roll, more than 2,700 single-family homes were added to the tax rolls with some of them selling for more than $1 million. "The residential housing market continues to be quite strong," she said. State law requires county appraisers to estimate the values of properties each year as of Jan. 1. So, Jacks' appraisers are reviewing sales data for 2024 and will estimate values as of Jan. 1, 2025. New construction routinely hits the tax roll once a certificate of occupancy is issued or if the appraiser finds that the building is substantially complete. Overall assessment figures will be provided to county budget officials in June to help set the tax rate for the county. More: Palm Beach County's record market value: More than a half-trillion dollars The early data shows that while the number of residential sales in 2024 declined by 3% from 2023, the median (or midpoint) sales price was up 5%. As for the first quarter of 2025, she said sales have again slowed and sale prices have declined by 4%. "We will await to see what the rest of 2025 brings," she said. More: County property values skyrocketed in 2023 - what drove it and what it means for your taxes Rent Café called Palm Beach County one of the country's top 10 most in-demand small-rental markets. In 2024, an average of 13 prospective renters vied for every vacant unit. With a vacancy rate of just 5%, apartment developers are looking to meet the demand for new rental units. Those market-rent units are expected to be difficult for many workers to afford. Of the 3,800 rental units that were built in 2024 in Palm Beach County, about 25% of them were set aside for workforce or affordable housing, according to the Housing Leadership Council, which calls the lack of affordable and workforce housing "a crisis" that is making it increasingly difficult for businesses to attract and retain employees. "Housing prices and rental rates continue to rise at a pace that far exceeds workforce income growth," the Council concluded in a recent report. Jack Weir, the chairman of the Housing Coalition, said the addition of 3,800 market rental units will help to at least stabilize rent increases. He attributed the relatively high number to "a burst of production" that took place in late 2021 and 2022 when interest rates were as low as 3%. "That is a high-water mark that I don't think we will see for a while now," Weir said. "It also took a lot longer to complete projects with supply-chain issues and labor shortages." As for those new apartment complexes that were built in 2024, they included: 350 S. Australian Avenue in West palm Beach. It features a 22-story tower with 457 apartments on 1.4 acres. It has 7,000 square feet of commercial space, 628 parking spots and more than 35,000 square feet of amenities, including a swimming pool and an amenity deck. The preliminary assessment is $114 million, or $250,000 a unit. 575 Rosemary Apartments, built on the site of a former Macy's department store in the CityPlace complex downtown. The 361unit, 495,000-square-foot, 21-story mixed-use tower is expected to be assessed at $100 million, or $277,000 a unit. 2085 S. Congress Ave. in Palm Springs. The project, near the old YMCA site, includes 11, three-story buildings with 264 apartments, ranging from one to three bedrooms. The complex is expected to be assessed at $56 million, or $212,000 per unit. In Boynton Beach, Wells Landing, a 24-apartment project, was assessed at $5 million, or $208,000 per unit. The rent that some of these new apartment complexes are expected to charge will make it difficult for workers to afford. According to the 2024 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,226 per month. To afford this without financial strain, a tenant would need to earn nearly $90,000 a year, far exceeding the county's average annual wage of $70,979. As a result, 55% of renters in Palm Beach County are considered cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. As for new single-family homes, GL Homes again led the county with nearly 500 new high-end homes built in 2024 at its Lotus and Valencia Grand developments. The homebuilder is currently building its 12th Valencia, Valencia Del Mar, a complex of 481 single-family homes off Lyons Road west of Boynton Beach. While assessment figures were unavailable for the single-family developments, homes in the GL developments sell for more than $1 million. Nearly 600 homes were sold in Westlake, 320 in Avenir, 129 in Cresswind and 109 at Delray Trails. Those sales alone account for more than $1 billion in newly assessed value. "New construction is something that can change drastically from year to year, and warrants watching carefully so as not to necessarily rely on it," Jacks said at the commission meeting. Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and issues concerning HOAs. You can reach him at mdiamond@ Help support local journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County tax rolls get $5 billion boost from new construction
