Start with the 2026 homestead exemption and Save Our Homes figures, then review the new legal provisions connected to homestead eligibility, residential tenancies, fair housing, and land use. This guide covers selected updates for Sales Associate students (FREC Course I).
Sources checked: November 4, 2026. Dates below distinguish a new law's effective date from an annual tax-year adjustment or a later implementation date. This is a focused study update, not a complete list of Florida legislation.
Browse legal updates: All effective years · 2027 upcoming · 2025 · 2024 · 2023.
What to study first
- Study first — core workbook topics: homestead exemptions, taxable-value calculations, and the Save Our Homes assessment limit.
- Next — additions connected to syllabus topics: the long-term leasehold clarification, fraudulent entry through rental applications, and affordable-housing discrimination provisions.
- Related context: Live Local development procedures. Understand their purpose after the core rules.
These are TSRE study priorities based on the workbook and syllabus. They do not identify particular state-exam questions. A subject may be expressly covered by the syllabus while a later legal change is not separately named in it.
Jump to: Homestead amounts · Assessment cap · Long-term leases · Rental fraud · Fair housing and land use.
Study first: core workbook topics
2026 homestead exemption: separate school and non-school taxes
Applies January 1, 2026, for the 2026 tax year. The inflation-adjusted additional homestead exemption is up to $26,411. It applies to assessed value above $50,000 and excludes school-district levies. The first exemption remains up to $25,000 and applies to school and non-school ad valorem taxes.
For a qualifying property with enough assessed value, the combined exemption is therefore up to $51,411 for non-school taxes, compared with up to $25,000 for school taxes. The full additional exemption requires at least $76,411 of assessed value. Other eligibility rules and exemptions still apply.
Example: with $100,000 assessed value and only these homestead exemptions, the 2026 taxable value is $48,589 for non-school levies and $75,000 for school levies. Apply each levy to its own taxable value. Follow the year and assumptions supplied in a practice problem.
This is the 2026 annual adjustment under an existing inflation-indexing law; indexing began with the 2025 tax year.
Sources: Florida Department of Revenue annual exemption amounts · §196.031, homestead exemptions and annual January 1 adjustment.
2026 Save Our Homes assessment limit: 2.7%
Applies to the January 1, 2026 assessment. The 2026 Save Our Homes cap is 2.7%. Learn the underlying rule: the annual increase in an eligible homestead's assessed value is limited to the lower of 3% or the applicable CPI change, subject to the statute's exceptions.
This limits assessed-value growth; it does not cap the property's market value or guarantee that the total tax bill rises by no more than 2.7%. A change of ownership, new construction, or another statutory exception may affect the assessment.
Source: Department of Revenue Save Our Homes table and rule.
Why TSRE emphasizes these two updates: both are core workbook subjects. Direct syllabus connection: Course I Section 18, I.C.3 and I.D–E covers homestead exemptions, the assessment limitation, taxable value, and property-tax calculations.
Next: additions connected to syllabus topics
Certain long-term leases can qualify despite a death-termination clause
Effective June 25, 2026. SB 110 clarifies that a qualifying bona fide residential or condominium lease with an original term of 98 years or more may establish the title interest needed for homestead tax exemption even if the lease ends upon the lessee's death. The act describes the change as remedial and clarifying.
The 98-year threshold already existed; the new clarification addresses the death-termination clause. This does not give ordinary short-term tenants a homestead exemption or remove the other eligibility requirements.
Syllabus connection: homestead tax eligibility in Section 18 and leasehold interests in Section 8. The particular 2026 clarification is an addition to those lessons.
Sources: Chapter 2026-162, including the effective date · §196.041, qualifying title interests.
Fraudulent entry through a rental application
Effective October 1, 2026. HB 1293 creates a third-degree felony for knowingly and willfully entering into and taking possession of a residential dwelling through specified identity misrepresentations, forged or counterfeit documents, or impersonation in the rental process. It also adds fraudulent entry to the noncompliance grounds for termination without an opportunity to cure under §83.56(2)(a).
The termination provision requires written notice and gives the tenant 7 days to vacate. An allegation does not authorize a landlord to skip the legal possession process or simply lock out an occupant.
Direct syllabus topic: Section 7, II.H–I covers landlord termination and eviction procedure. This particular offense and added termination ground are a later syllabus-related addition.
Source: Chapter 2026-143, HB 1293 and its October 1 effective date · §83.67, prohibited landlord practices.
Affordable housing: discrimination and land-use decisions
Effective July 1, 2026. HB 1389 expands §760.26's land-use and development-permitting protections to address discrimination based on a proposed development for housing that meets the statutory definition of affordable housing. The act also expressly includes governmental entities within the relevant definition of a person and addresses relief against them.
Syllabus connection: fair housing in Section 7 and planning and zoning in Section 19. This Florida land-use provision is a syllabus-related addition; it does not add an eighth category to the federal Fair Housing Act's seven protected categories.
Related context — Live Local: the same law expands eligible sites and limits certain local restrictions for qualifying affordable multifamily and mixed-use developments. Detailed development qualifications are a lower priority in this student guide than the core fair-housing and zoning concepts.
Sources: Chapter 2026-179, HB 1389 and its July 1 effective date · §760.26, prohibited discrimination in land-use decisions.
Keep enactment and implementation dates separate
A law passed in 2026 may contain a later start date. For example, the residential listing-platform tax-estimate requirement in HB 7031-E begins February 1, 2027. Do not describe that requirement as already operating in 2026. See Chapter 2026-239, section 39. The 2027 student update guide explains this requirement and Amendment 3’s scheduled homestead changes, with the election status and effective dates clearly identified.
Continue your review
Use these updates alongside the FREC Course I syllabus study guide and the 2025 law updates. Earlier changes, including condominium resale cancellation periods and flood disclosures, remain relevant even though their effective year is 2025.
If you need help locating the current course materials, submit a support request.