Assessed Value

Assessed value on properties with homestead exemption is the base year market value, adjusted for annual percentage factor (3% or Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is less), plus new construction.

• Assessed value cannot exceed market value.
• On properties that do not have homestead exemption, assessed value and market value are synonymous.
• The Property Appraiser determines the assessed value of all property in the county as of January each year.

How the Assessed Value is Determined

Florida law requires that the Property Appraiser assess all property at market value as of January 1st, of every year. To accomplish this task, sales from the prior years are used in valuing properties. For example, January 1, 2009 property assessments are based on sales activity from 2008.

The three approaches to value: 

1. Comparable Sales (Market) Approach 
One way to assess the property's value is to find properties like yours - located in your vicinity - which have been sold recently. Their selling prices, however, must be analyzed very carefully to get at the true picture. One property may have sold for more than it was worth because the buyer was in a hurry to occupy the property and paid a premium to move in. Another may have sold for less than it was worth because the owner needed cash right away and was willing to sell to the first buyer who made him an offer.

Using this approach - comparing the selling price of properties similar to yours and adjusting for differences between the properties - the Property Appraiser must always consider such over or under pricing to arrive at a fair evaluation of your property's value. 

The Property Appraiser uses the adjusted-square-feet of a building to determine the value of your property.

2. Cost Approach 
A second way the Property Appraiser can go about this is based on how much money it would take, at current material and labor costs, to replace your property with one just like it. If your property is not new, the appraiser must also determine how much it has depreciated. 

3. Income Approach 
A third way is used in addition to the other two if you happen to own property that provides you with a rental income, like an apartment house, a store, or a warehouse. Here the Property Appraiser must consider such dollar facts as your operating expenses, taxes, insurance, maintenance costs, the degree of financial risk you take in earning income from your property, and finally, the return most people would expect to get on this kind of property.

Market Value

• Market value and just value are interchangeable terms.
• Market value is determined by analyzing the sales of similar properties, the cost to reproduce your property and the ability of your property to earn income. 

Although this analysis seems complicated, generally we believe the best evidence of your market value is the sale, before January 1, of several properties similar to your property.