Decades of Ownership Build a Large Differential
The Save Our Homes cap limits how fast assessed value can rise on a homestead. Over twenty or thirty years in a metro where market values moved substantially, the gap between assessed value and just value becomes very large, and that gap is what keeps the tax bill low.
College Park has more of those long-held homesteads than most of Orlando, which means more owners here have a substantial differential at stake when they decide what to do after a fire. The full position is on our page covering homestead, rebuild limits and portability.
Why Does Long Ownership Change the Decision After a Fire?
Which Argues Against Building Bigger
Most of the housing here dates from the 1920s through the 1950s. Under F.S. Section 193.155(4) a calamity rebuild is assessed using the value as of the January 1 before the damage where the square footage stays within the threshold, and work must be commenced within 3 years after the following January 1. The long-standing figures were 110 percent or 1,500 square feet, raised to 130 percent or 2,000 square feet for homestead property from the 2026 tax roll.
The obvious temptation after a fire in an older neighbourhood is to replace a modest house with something larger. The tax provision cuts directly against that.
Where the rebuild stays within the applicable square footage threshold, the assessment is calculated using the value as of the January 1 before the damage. Above that threshold, the excess is added at just value. So the extra space costs both what it costs to build and a permanent increase in the assessed value it carries.
Is It Ever Worth Exceeding the Threshold?
We publish no assessed values or differentials for College Park properties. Those are parcel-specific and depend entirely on when the property was bought and what has happened to values since. The property appraiser's record shows both figures for your address.
Older Framing, Slab Question Unchanged
The housing here is older than much of the metro, which means dimensional framing that can sometimes be repaired in sections rather than replaced whole. That helps a restoration case, and restoring is what protects the cap.
What does not change is the slab. Almost all of this stock is slab-on-grade and heat damage to a slab is invisible, so an engineer's assessment remains the highest-return spend on any file where the fire went beyond smoke.
College Park in Context
The other city-permitted area with older stock, where lot value more often leads the calculation, is covered on our page about a central district of older mixed stock. Where the housing is newer and engineered framing changes the structural answer, see our page for an eastern belt of newer subdivisions.
College Park Questions
I Have Owned the House Since the 1990s.
Then your differential is probably substantial and worth establishing before you weigh any offer. The property appraiser will tell you the figure free of charge.
I Want to Rebuild Bigger Than What Burned.
That is allowed, and the space above the threshold arrives on the roll at just value. Worth pricing the tax consequence alongside the construction cost rather than deciding on the construction alone.
Will You Buy an Older House Here?
Yes, and we will tell you plainly if rebuilding within the threshold would leave you better off. On long-held property here it frequently would.