Florida’s Constitution mandates that all property values must be assessed at market value as of January 1 each year. Market value is typically what a property would sell for in an open and competition market — what a property is worth to a willing buyer and willing seller. By Florida law, only sales transactions that occurred during the previous year can be used to establish values as of January 1 of the current year.

For 2013 values, that means we look at sales during 2012 to estimate values for the 2013 tax roll. For example, if you sold your residence in 2012 for $150,000, that selling price would be used together with other comparable sales in our analysis of the market.