Under a new plan to be unveiled during the June 12 session, Florida taxpayers will save $31.6 billion over the next 5 years.  This is the largest property tax cut in Florida history by far.  There are two parts to the tax relief, statutory and a constitutional amendment.

We have the details now.  First is a detailed letter from Ken Pruitt, President of the Senate and Marco Rubio, Speaker of the House of Representatives to the Florida Legislature.

Lee County looks to have a 7% statutory cut, while Collier County should receive a 9% cut, and Charlotte County will receive a 9.0% cut by statute.  See Goverment Tax Rollback Calculations.  The counties with the highest tax increases per capita over the last 5 years will be forced to cut the most.

We’ve even included the city government tax rollback calculations, and it’s no surprise that Naples and Cape Coral will be forced to cut taxes by 9%.  The cities with the highest per capita tax levies changes over the previous 5 years will be forced to cut the most.  Marco Island and Fort Myers will be forced to cut 7%, and Bonita Springs will be forced to cut 3%  Punta Gorda will face cuts of 5%.

A second part of the cut is that in addition to rolling back property taxes to 2006-2007 levels, special taxing districts and fiscally limited cities and counties will be required to make additional cuts of 3% .  And, there will be a cap on future property tax revenues based on the rate of personal income growth, and new construction to ensure that government cannot grow faster than personal income.

We’ve also included the Florida School Districts future rate cuts.  We’ve been told that even though schools will face a reduction in future property tax revenue, schools should not worry that their funding will be cut.  We presume that the State will fund any loss in tax revenues at the state level.  The plan specifically states that the state will hold schools harmless from these cuts.

Perhaps most importantly will be the $16 Billion tax relief protion of the package which will unlock the prison doors for many Florida homeowners who felt they could not afford to sell because their property taxes woul be too great once they replaced their home in Florida at the new rates not protected by Save our Homes.  “Save our Homes” is replaced with a new “Super Exemption”.  An estimated 73% of homesteaded properties will receive greater benefit under this new exemption.  The average savings of $1,300 in 2008-2009 will be an average 44% reduction.  The program works like this:

Level 1.  Homesteaded property will receive an exemption of 75% of the first $200,000 in value of a home, with a minimum exemption of $50,000 per homestead.

Level 2.  In addition to Level 1, homesteaded properties will obtain another 15% exemption for the next $300,000 in value.

For the minority of property owners who have greater benefits under the current “Save Our Homes” plan, the tax savings and assessment cap will be grandfathered in.

All other existing constitutional exemptions based on special circumstances, including those to disabled veterans, low income seniors, and agricultural lands will preserve their exemptions.

The Ellis Team at RE/MAX Reallty Group, SW Florida’s leading home sellers, announce today that their weekend open houses are now online.  The benefit is now consumers can find locations of our weekend open houses days before they hit the newspaper or radio show, and find out all pertinent details about the home and neighborhood online.

You can view photos, neighborhood demographics, school information, and much more on each of our open houses.  This week we’ve scheduled one open house in Cape Coral on Saturday.

Florida homeowners may be getting closer to receiving real property tax reform this year, as lawmakers have been steadily working on a deal to present during the June 12 special legislative session.  This would be welcome news to all Florida homeowners, and could help bring back the real estate market making affordability an option.

It would also open up many home sales by current Florida residents who feel trapped in their existing homes and financially unable to move because the simple move would tax them out of the opprotunity to improve their home needs.

The Fort Myers News Press is reporting Bonita Springs property values shot up nearly 13 percent.  New construction added almost $410 million of $1.2 Billion dollar increase to taxable property to the city.

The rumors have been swirling all week that First Home Builders was closing it’s doors.  While this may not be true, what apparently is in the works is for First Home Builders to sell off assets in SW Florida it no longer intends to use.

Parent company Hovanian Enterprises, Inc is losing money, and expects a negative cash flow of between $175-$225 Million dollars this year.

In related news, we hear KB Homes has pulled out of the Cape Coral Florida market and will focus on selling in other SW Florida real estate markets.

Cape Coral property values fell by almost $1 Billion dollars, and this includes new construction which added about $1.6 billion of taxable property to the city.  Otherwise values fell more than $1 Billion dollars.  Entire SW Florida real estate numbers will be released soon.

In addition to being able to search the entire MLS in SW Florida for properties, we’ve added detailed property displays on out Topagent.com website.

We think consumers will like this detailed feature as it shows all available photos on the properties in one easy format.  It may take a minute to load as it is a large file, and we think consumers will appreciate it.