🏠 Pasco County, Florida — Homesteaded If you homestead a home here with an assessed value of $420,000, Florida’s 2026 property-tax amendment could save you about $9,849 over 5 years (2027–2031) — as a Florida resident, or if you become one by December 31, 2026. That’s roughly $1,094 in year one, then about $2,189 every year after — money that stays in your pocket instead of going to the tax bill. Your county, your home value, and your savings will be different. Run your own numbers with the free calculator (all 67 Florida counties are built in), and get the full picture — Florida Property Taxes, Homestead, and the 2026 Ballot Amendment, explained in plain English: 👉 https://floridahomesquad.lpthomesearch.com/faq?utm_source=shared-link Thinking about relocating, buying, or selling in Florida? Let’s talk. Tim Oyler, Realtor | Paramount Home Group | LPT Realty 📞 Text or call 813-590-6295

If you own a home near Wesley Chapel, a national builder just told you what your corner of Pasco County is worth. PulteGroup finalized 136 acres off Kenton Road, south of Elam, and is putting 299 homes there: The Enclave at King Lake. 192 townhomes, 107 single-family. Ground breaks this year, homes go for sale next. Builders do not spend that kind of money on a hunch. They buy where the demand is already lined up. And less than a mile away, Johns Hopkins All Children's is building a new campus expected to bring more than 300 jobs. Homes and hospitals landing on the same road is not a coincidence. It is a pattern, and this part of Pasco County has been running it for a decade. Here is what that means for you. If you already own here, new construction resets the comps on your street. Buyers touring a brand-new townhome down the road are pricing your resale against it, which can cut both ways depending on how your home shows. If you are thinking about buying, the new community will not deliver until late 2027. The homes on the market right now, in the same neighborhoods, next to the same hospital and the same schools, are the ones you can actually walk into this year. Growth like this rarely announces itself twice. When a builder and a hospital pick the same square mile, the question is not whether the area moves. It is whether you want to move with it or watch it happen. Tim Oyler, Realtor | Paramount Home Group | LPT Realty 📞 Text or call 813-590-6295 #WesleyChapel #FloridaHomeSquad #TimOyler

You do not have to buy a Florida home by December 31, 2026. That deadline means something different, and most people have it backwards. Florida votes on a property tax amendment in November 2026. If it passes, the homestead exemption climbs to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 for non-school property taxes. The fine print: anyone who becomes a Florida permanent resident after December 31, 2026 waits five years for the bigger exemption. Notice what that says. Resident, not homeowner. The test is making Florida your permanent home: driver license, voter registration, declaration of domicile. Your closing date is not the trigger. You could rent in Tampa this fall, establish residency before the line, and buy your home in 2027 without losing a thing. And moving early pays off either way. Once you claim homestead, today's exemption of up to $50,000 kicks in and the Save Our Homes cap starts building, whether the amendment passes or not. Planning a Florida move? Text or call me and I will walk you through the timing. Tim Oyler, Realtor | Paramount Home Group | LPT Realty 📞 Text or call 813-590-6295

Florida Hometown Heroes Program (2026) — who, when, how Who it's for: Full-time Florida workers in eligible fields — health care workers, teachers/school staff, first responders, public safety & court employees, child care workers — plus active military, Coast Guard, Florida National Guard, and veterans. Must be a first-time homebuyer (veterans exempt) buying a primary residence in Florida. When it starts: The 2026 round runs now — Florida Housing's official 2026 program documents are dated July 13, 2026. Funding is limited and goes first-come, first-served. How to apply: You don't apply to the state directly — you apply through a participating lender. Use Florida Housing's official Lender & Real Estate Agent Locator to connect with an approved loan officer, who runs your eligibility and reserves the funds. (Note: there's no fee to apply — anyone charging an upfront fee is a scam.) Tim Oyler, Realtor | Paramount Home Group | LPT Realty 📞 Text or call 813-590-6295

Florida Property Taxes, Homestead, and the 2026 Ballot Amendment Most people never get a straight answer about Florida property taxes. The rules are spread across state statutes, the Florida Department of Revenue, 67 separate county Property Appraisers, and, this year, a proposed constitutional amendment still working its way to the ballot. The information is public, but it is scattered, written for lawyers, and easy to get wrong. I spent months pulling it into one place. Every question on this page was researched, written in plain English, and checked line by line against a primary source: the Florida Statutes, the Florida Department of Revenue, the county Property Appraisers, or the enrolled bill text itself. The source links sit right under each answer so you never have to take my word for it. You can click through and confirm it yourself. I built this to inform the people who need it most: buyers, relocators, homeowners, and sellers. To make this information practical and easy to use, I built a free calculator covering all 67 Florida counties. You can select your county and calculate your potential property tax savings yourself, with the results presented in a clear, easy-to-read format. I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback. Sharing and commenting are absolutely welcome, if you know someone who could benefit from this information, please pass it along. 👇 Here is the link: https://floridahomesquad.lpthomesearch.com/faq?utm_source=shared-link Tim Oyler, Realtor | Paramount Home Group | LPT Realty 📞 Text or call 813-590-6295

If you own near downtown St. Pete, your commute to Tampa is about to get a water route. St. Pete's City Council just approved a temporary dock on Bayshore Drive, across from Straub Park, for the returning Tampa Bay Ferry. Two boats, the Bay Breeze and the Clipper, will run daily between downtown St. Pete and the Tampa Convention Center, with a target launch this fall. Tickets are expected to start around $10 one way, run by Hubbard's Marina. Connectivity is one of the quiet things that shapes where people want to live. A daily boat between the two downtowns means reaching a Tampa job, a game, or dinner without sitting in bridge traffic on I-275. Access like that tends to show up later in how a neighborhood holds its value. And this isn't a one-season pop-up. The Bayshore dock is temporary while the city builds a permanent one off the St. Pete Pier, expected to take two to three years. It's the start of a standing link between the two cities. If you're already downtown, or thinking about buying there, this is the kind of shift worth watching early. Would a daily ferry to Tampa change how you'd think about living in St. Pete? #StPeteFerry #FloridaHomeSquad #TimOyler Tim Oyler Florida Home Squad Realtor LPT Realty Lic# SL 3656828

Your Florida property tax bill is not based on what your home is worth. It is based on a smaller number. Here is how it works. 1. Just Value: what the county Property Appraiser estimates your home would sell for, set each January 1. 2. Assessed Value: Just Value after the Save Our Homes cap. On a homestead, it can rise at most 3% a year, or the inflation rate if that is lower. It can never be higher than Just Value. 3. Taxable Value: Assessed Value minus your exemptions, like the homestead exemption of at least $50,000. Your millage rate applies only to this number. Example: a longtime homeowner's house is worth $400,000. Years under the cap hold the Assessed Value at $300,000. Subtract the $50,000 homestead exemption, and the tax is calculated on $250,000. Not $400,000. That gap is why two similar homes on the same street can pay very different tax bills. Own a Florida home? All three numbers are on your county Property Appraiser's website. Worth a few minutes to check. Tim Oyler, Realtor | Paramount Home Group | LPT Realty 📞 Text or call 813-590-6295

Something big is coming to Pasco, and it will move the market here. A new community called Verona just broke ground west of I-75 along State Road 52, near San Antonio. The plan is 2,500 homes at buildout, spread across about 1,500 acres, with another 2,000 acres kept as open space and farmland under a county covenant. Five builders already bought in for the first phase: Homes by WestBay, David Weekley, Mattamy, Pulte, and Highland. Del Webb is planning 850-plus homes on top of that, with a resort pool, clubhouse, fitness center, pickleball, and trails. Here is what that means if you own a home in east Pasco. New construction on this scale pulls buyer attention and sets a fresh price bar. When 2,500 brand-new homes come online near you over the next few years, resale sellers compete with model homes, builder incentives, and rate buydowns. That is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to know where your home sits before the supply lands. If you are buying, the trade-off is real. New build gives you warranties and choices. A resale nearby often gives you a bigger lot, mature trees, and a price that reflects a real negotiation, not a builder's rate sheet. Home sales at Verona start in late 2027, so you have runway either way. The people who do well in a growth market are the ones who understand it early. Own near this corridor and wondering what it does to your value? Send me a message and I will walk you through it. Faster response call or text: #PascoGrowth #FloridaHomeSquad #TimOyler Tim Oyler Paramount Home Group Realtor LPT Realty Lic# SL 3656828