The property value in central Florida is backed by billions of dollars of new construction this year, according to real estate evaluators in the area.
As local governments begin preparing budgets for the next fiscal year, the surge in value will help raise the tax roll.
“Interest rates are relatively high and home sales are certainly slower,” said David Johnson, a Seminole County property appraiser. “But what we haven’t seen is the decline in value, or the people are selling their homes.”
At this point, each year, real estate appraisers must provide “best estimates of taxable value” to local governments, school districts and other tax authorities.
A report released last week shows that all local governments in the region are seeing a jump in taxable value this year, with some cities seeing double-digit increases.
In Orange County, Windermere leads the list, bringing the tax value to a small increase of $1.2 billion in total. This is just over 19% compared to last year.
Last February, Windermere voters helped to drive its rise, agreeing to a special election to annex the Gate Chain Dulac community, which is adjacent to the town’s west side, adding hundreds of new assets.
Windermere’s rise is followed by Apopka, the county’s second largest city, with a jump of nearly 14% since last year estimated to be worth nearly $8.2 billion in 2025.
At the Seminole, Sanford is projected to have a taxable property value of approximately $6.7 billion this year, a jump of 10.85% from 2024. Sanford is the only seminole government in Orlando, the second-largest city of three central Florida counties, with double-digit percentages increasing.
The majority of that surge in Sanford was the result of recent construction of homes and apartments in the city, Johnson said.
“They built thousands of detached homes on Celoria Venue (near Orlando Sanford International Airport),” he said.
In Osceola County, St. Cloud is projected to increase taxable value nearly $6 billion in 2025, a whopping 15% since 2024, according to the county’s real estate appraiser’s office.
“There’s a lot of new construction,” Osceola property appraiser Katrina Scarborough said of St. Cloud. “And we’re one of the fastest growing counties in the country.”
Kissimmee’s tax value is expected to rise to $6.9 billion in 2025, an increase of 10.5% from last year.
The smallest city on the lake saw the largest increase in the county. This is mainly due to the explosion of new home construction. Mont Verde led the list with a 24.6% jump from 2024, earning a total taxable value of $212 million. The mascot has since continued closely, with a 21.8% increase from last year to nearly $602 million.
The region has seen its taxable value rise for several years in a row, which has increased billions of dollars in local government funding. For example, Orange County’s budget has increased by $1.7 billion over the past five years.
It has spurred Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans recently to push for cutting or completely eliminating property taxes. Desantis claims that Florida counties and cities are using the larger city with tax revenues as it expands, but property owners are paying for it. He advocated $1,000 property tax rebates to all Florida homeowners this December, followed by structural changes in the tax.
However, the Capitol and the Senate have not yet undergone property tax changes this year with Loggerheads over the budget needed to pass by June 30th.
The taxable value of a real estate is the amount used by local governments to calculate and set property tax rates. Market value, on the other hand, is the price at which real estate is likely to be sold in the current real estate market. Market value is influenced by the condition of the property, its location and surrounding area. Florida law limits the tax value of homeowners’ major residences and limits tax increases.
In Orange County, the estimated total market value for 2025 was $345.8 billion, an increase of 4.6% from 2024.
At the Seminoles, the market value in 2025 was just over $87 billion, an increase of about 4.2% since 2024. At Osceola, the market value is nearly $70 billion, a surge of around 4.3% since 2024, and the lake has a market value of $68.4 billion, a jump of 6.3% from the previous year.
In May there were more than 12,000 homes in the central Florida market, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. It takes an average of about 76 days to sit at the market before your home buys. As of Thursday, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was around 6.87% and 5.95% at 15-year fixed interest rate, according to Zillow.com.
