Homestead exemption in Miami-Dade: how to file, what to bring, and the two dates that matter

Last reviewed: November 7, 2026. Sources for this page are listed in its fact sheet.

Short answer first. Two dates run this whole page. January 1 is the day you have to own the home and live in it as your permanent residence. March 1 is the deadline to file form DR-501 with the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser for that tax year. Miss the first date and you wait a year. Miss the second and you're into the late filing safety valve described below, which exists but isn't a plan. The exemption itself is worth real money: under the 2026 structure it takes $25,000 off the assessed value for all taxes including school taxes, plus a second exemption on value above $50,000 that computes to $26,411 for 2026, a combined $51,411 off the non-school math in the standard example. From 2027, Amendment 3 rewrites the second part, and this page separates the old structure from the new one so you file with the right year in mind.

Handing over the keys at closing. Stock photo. Photo: Mikhail Nilov, Pexels.

Step one: check you qualify before you gather paper

The test is ownership plus permanent residence on January 1. You have to own the home, and it has to be the place you actually live, not a second home, not a rental, not a house you closed on in February and plan to reach in spring. The Property Appraiser's own wording is that the benefit is for homeowners who permanently reside in the property as their primary residence. If you moved in during December 2026, you qualify for the 2027 filing season. If you arrive in January 2027, your first filing year is 2028, and the Amendment 3 timing page explains what that delay costs: see Amendment 3 and your move date before you set a closing date.

Step two: assemble the document set

The core set, from the state application pattern: a Florida driver license or state ID showing the home's address, the Social Security numbers of the applicants, and proof of ownership such as the recorded deed or a tax bill. One point trips up newcomers, so it gets its own line: a Florida vehicle registration is one accepted proof of residence among several, in the same family as a voter registration or a Declaration of Domicile. It isn't a separate mandatory item if you have another accepted proof. What you can't do is file with an out of state license and a promise to swap it later. The license clock and the homestead clock run together for new residents, which is why our license and plates sequence puts the license swap in the first 30 days, well ahead of March 1.

Step three: file DR-501, online first

The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser takes the homestead application online through its site, miamidadepa.gov, and the online application also handles portability, the transfer described below. File there, keep the confirmation, and calendar the two dates at the top of this page for next year even though renewal is automatic, for the reason in the next section. If your case has a wrinkle, a trust, a life estate, a partial ownership split, take the paperwork to the Property Appraiser's office and file in person. Edge cases are where online forms go quiet, and a counter conversation costs an afternoon while a wrong filing costs a tax year.

What you get in 2026, and what changes in 2027 and 2028

For 2026, the structure is two layers. Layer one: $25,000 off assessed value against every tax, school taxes included. Layer two: a further exemption on the slice of assessed value above $50,000, school taxes excluded, which the state's revenue analysts compute at $26,411 for 2026, with the second layer's ceiling at an assessed value of $76,411. Combined, the standard 2026 example is $51,411 of assessed value out of the non-school calculation.

Amendment 3, passed on November 3, 2026, changes layer two from January 1, 2027. The non-school exemption rises to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with inflation adjustments after that, and the first $25,000 then applies to the school side of the bill in the new structure. The timing rule is the sharp edge: people who were Florida permanent residents by December 31, 2026 get the increased amounts on that schedule. Later arrivals start on the existing style exemption, $50,000 on the second layer in 2027 per the state analysts, and reach the increased amount in the fifth year of their exemption. The Amendment 3 page holds the worked move date examples for what the timing is worth.

Renewal is automatic, until it isn't

Once the exemption is granted, it renews on its own each year while the home stays your permanent residence. There's no annual re-filing. What you do have to do is report changes: if you move out, rent the home, or stop living there as your primary residence, the exemption no longer fits and keeping it creates a back tax problem with penalties attached. The same duty runs the other way. If the Appraiser's renewal notice shows a change you didn't make, answer it. Silence reads as agreement.

Save Our Homes: the cap that starts the year after

Homestead brings a second benefit that ends up worth more than the exemption for long holders: the Save Our Homes cap. Once a home is homesteaded, its assessed value can't rise by more than the lower of 3 percent or the change in the consumer price index each year. For 2026 that cap is 2.7 percent, because inflation ran under 3 percent. The cap starts the year after your first homestead year, and the gap between market value and capped assessed value is your savings bank. It also explains the reset shock buyers meet in our rent or buy math: when a homesteaded home sells, the cap comes off and the next owner's bill is figured on the reset value.

Portability: take your savings with you, within three years

If you had a homestead anywhere in Florida and move to a new Florida homestead, you can transfer up to $500,000 of that Save Our Homes gap to the new home. The form is DR-501T, filed with the new county's Property Appraiser by March 1, and the window is three years: you need to have held the old homestead on January 1 of one of the three years before the new homestead year. Older guides still say two years. That rule changed, and the three year version is the current statute. Don't let an old blog post talk you out of a transfer you're still inside the window to claim.

Late filing: a safety valve, not a strategy

If March 1 passes, Florida law still lets the Appraiser consider a late application with documented extenuating circumstances, up to a deadline set at 25 days after the Appraiser mails the TRIM notices. TRIM mails in August, so the late date floats from year to year instead of sitting on a fixed September day. Treat it as the emergency exit it is. The ordinary path, own and live there on January 1, file DR-501 by March 1, is the whole game.

Frequently asked questions

Can I file before I move in?
No. The January 1 test is residence on that date, not a contract, not a closing scheduled for January. File in the first season after you're actually living there on a January 1.

We own jointly. Do we both file?
The application covers the owners who live there, and Social Security numbers are part of the set for applicants and a spouse. Bring both sets of documents and let the Appraiser's checklist settle your case.

What if I had a homestead in Orlando before this move?
That's portability. File DR-501T with Miami-Dade by March 1 alongside the new homestead application, inside the three year window.

Keep planning

Next steps: Amendment 3 and your move date, the moving to Miami hub, the address flood zone check, and the condo document check if you're buying into a building.