Despite Amendment 1, Floridians are still trapped in their homes

The centerpiece of the amendment was portability, the ability for homeowners to transfer from one home to another up to $500,000 in property tax benefits accrued from the Save Our Homes Act. Save Our Homes caps the increase in a home's assessed value at 3 percent a year, regardless of the increase in market value, substantially lowering tax bills. As home values soared, homeowners were afraid to move and lose the tax break. Expecting Amendment 1 to release homeowners from that fear and trigger sales of long-held homes, revenue estimators predicted that in the first year, homeowners would transfer $112 billion in tax savings from one home to another. But the converging forces of the worldwide credit crunch, the explosion of home foreclosures and the resulting surplus of homes had a chilling effect. By the end of 2008, 39,000 homeowners transferred only $3.1 billion worth of tax savings to new homes, according to revenue department reports.

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