ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Homeowners across the country are finding out that, despite an ongoing pandemic that forced shutdowns and businesses to close permanently, property tax bills are surging.

 In 2011, Imad Chams became a first-time homebuyer. His very first property tax bill caught him a bit off guard.

“Was higher than I wanted to see," Chams says. "It was a lot higher, than before we got the homestead exemption.”

Currently, Chams is looking for a new home after selling his Winter Garden home and admits a property-tax bill is still a concern but isn’t one of his top considerations when checking boxes for what he wants in a new home.

“I wouldn’t say top three, I would say it is more in the top five," Chams says.

While shopping for that home, though, what he spends ultimately will dictate how big a bill he will see later.

“We have a 9% increase from last year in sale price," Orange County Property Appraiser Amy Mercado reports. "Our sales volume is down by 6%.”

In 2019, the median home in Orange County sold for $329,589. In 2020, the home price rose to $360,325.

Homes now are selling in record time and at higher than the appraised value, according to Ron Ziolkowski, the top-selling REMAX realtor in Florida for three consecutive years.

“It’s (property tax) going to go up,” Ziolkowski says excitedly. “When you have the spike in property value that we have seen, it is unprecedented. We have not seen a spike like this in 20 years, even during the quote unquote ‘boom,’ we didn’t see demand like this.”

A homestead exemption will help curtail that increase for most homeowners, who may see only a 3% cap on the assessed value of their home. By contrast, someone who is moving to Florida and does not have any exemptions could see as much as a 10% increase.

Ziolkowski also shares this information with his clients:

“Whatever the property tax bill is on the property currently will not be the same property tax on January 1," Ziolkowski explains. "It always resets to the new assessed value.”

The tax bill also can differ widely between next-door neighbors for a variety of reasons.

“Time of purchase, how long they have been there, if they have portability," Mercado explains. "So we have a state law that says you can port your savings of your taxable value, assessed value, into your new property.”

Chams, who is now shopping for a new home, knows exactly what he can expect in the mail later.

“It is definitely concerning," Chams says slowly. "Just because we know that Orlando is now a hot market so the property tax is only going up.”​

Homeowners who want to see what they could expect to pay in property taxes later this year can visit the Orange County Property Appraiser’s website, which has a tax calculator that can be used to help estimate what that tax will be by entering a home’s information.