Property plunges level tax tiffs

Florida’s Save Our Homes tax enraged many homeowners when they realized neighbors who’d bought houses at a different time were paying different tax rates, but those savings have shrunk by more than 50 percent. Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits said this month at the Economic Forum of Palm Beach County that $14.6 billion in homesteaded property will be sheltered from taxes this year, down from $29 billion a year ago. The market value of Palm Beach County’s 627,000 residential and commercial properties fell 14.9 percent from January 1, 2008, to January 1 of this year.