BY Amber Gerard Tampa

PUBLISHED - Mar. 03, 2025

TAMPA, Fla. — The deadline for Pinellas County homeowners to apply for the Homestead Exemption is Monday at 11:59 p.m.

The exemption offers a $50,000 reduction in the assessed value of your home.

The assessed value of a home is determined by local governments for tax purposes.  

What You Need To Know

• The deadline for Pinellas County homeowners to apply for the homestead exemption is Monday at 11:59 p.m.
• The exemption offers a $50,000 reduction in the assessed value of your home for tax purposes
• The main benefit, according to Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty, comes in the Save Our Homes Cap

If the market value of your home (the price a property would sell for) is $500,000, the assessed value would be $450,000. But the main benefit, according to Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty, comes in the Save Our Homes Cap.

“If you’re approved for 2025 for homestead exemption then when you move to 2026, your assessed value cannot rise more than the consumer price index or 3% — whichever is less. Market values rise at a faster rate typically than your assessed value, so you’re being protected by what can turn into hundreds of thousands of dollars of assessed value savings,” Twitty says.

That means while the market value of your home can increase, the assessed value of your home can only go up by 3%.

“Then what happens over time is you build up that differential between your assessed value and the market value, and that becomes the protection from your Save Our Home Cap,” he explains.

To qualify for the homestead exemption, you must be a resident of Florida, have a legal right to the property and the home must be your primary residence as of Jan. 1.

https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2025/03/03/pinellas-county-homestead-exemption-deadline-arrives-