Gov. Ron DeSantis’ advocacy for eliminating property taxes on Florida homeowners would wreak havoc on the state’s housing market, according to a data analysis by Realtor.com.
DeSantis has repeatedly urged the state legislature to end property taxes, arguing they were onerous to homeowners and encouraged irresponsible spending by local governments.
“Property taxes effectively require homeowners to pay rent to the government,” said DeSantis, who also declared, “Truly owning private property should not mean perpetually paying rent to the government. I’m committed to reducing—and ultimately eliminating—property taxes for homeowners in Florida.”
But if DeSantis got his way and property taxes on owner-occupied homes disappeared, Realtor.com warned Florida’s residential property values would immediately spike by about 7% to 9%, raising the aggregate value of the state’s owner-occupied housing stock by about $200 billion to $250 billion.
“It would be a boon to existing property owners,” observed Joel Berner, Realtor.com senior economist. “But this measure would disproportionately benefit wealthy Floridians at the expense of those who don’t own homes and would make it even harder to break into homeownership because of the increased prices.”
As of October, Florida home values were down about 3% from the same month in 2022, according to a Realtor.com data analysis of listing prices per square foot. However, those values are up by 42% from pre-pandemic October 2019.
DeSantis insisted revenue generated by property taxes could be replaced with taxes on retail sales and corporate income. The governor’s call for ending property taxes does not include second homes, rentals, and commercial properties. But opponents to the DeSantis plan argued it would harshly impact Florida’s schools, local infrastructure, and emergency services, while Realtor.com’s Berner highlighted the potential of a new cost burden on rental housing tenants.
“This would be a highly regressive tax, placing more of the state’s tax burden on renters, whose units are still being taxed, and those taxes are passed along to tenants,” he said.
Florida legislators have ignored DeSantis’ call to abolish property taxes. To date, there are seven proposed constitutional amendments on varying levels of property tax relief in the Florida state legislature that could appear on the 2026 ballot.
It would help the elderly, but maybe Florida already has property tax relief for them (I’m not sure). Renters would benefit from a government relief program if one were designed. Maybe after the sales tax kicked in there could be property tax relief for landlords and commercial use properties. First time home buyers have all kinds of assistance options already available. A statewide sales tax makes the most sense because people who have money to spend would be paying the taxes. People who cannot afford to spend would be spared taxation. It just makes sense. The potential problems could all be resolved with due diligence.
People who have discretionary money to spend are more likely to save & invest than lower income people who live check to check forced to spend every penny to survive. Thus, the lower one’s income the higher % of their income is spent on taxes. Sales tax is a regressive tax that hurts the poor while rewarding the wealthy. Also it encourages those with discretionary income to save/invest it rather than spend depressing the local economy.