The assessed value of real estate in Indian River County increased by an impressive $2 billion in 2024, according to an estimate released this month by property appraiser Wesley Davis.
The new total on which property taxes will be levied next fall is $34.3 billion, up an astonishing $11 billion in the past three years, a 50-percent increase since Jan. 1, 2022.
The Town of Orchid led the way with a 10.5-percent increase in real estate value, the highest in the county. Indian River Shores, where property gained 8.9 percent in value, wasn’t far behind.
“We have had a great year,” said Rob Tench, general manager of Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club, which is nearly synonymous with the town, sharing the same population and real estate.
“There continues to be strong demand for Orchid as we continue to upgrade our amenities.”
The club is in the midst of a $20-million slate of improvements that so far has included a major golf course renovation, a new racquet and lawn game complex, and a $5-million reimagining of the dining area at the golf clubhouse.
The City of Vero Beach lagged the other island municipalities a little bit, with a 5.76-percent increase, but that was due in part to tornado devastation that reduced the value of damaged or destroyed property.
Davis, who adjusted assessments after the storm, said that without the storm damage, the increase in real estate values in the city would have been 6.5 percent.
Even with the whirlwinds, real estate in Vero Beach, on the island and mainland, gained an estimated $263 million in value.
The value of property taxed to fill the county’s general fund went up $2.2 billion, from $29.2 billion to $31.4 billion, a 7.6-percent increase that will produce an extra $7.5 million in revenue to fund county services if the tax rate stays the same.
Property taxed to support the Indian River County School District, which has the broadest tax base of any county municipality or agency, gained $1.75 billion in value, rising to $34.35 billion.
Impressive as those numbers are, the actual value of real estate in the county is much higher, in the neighborhood of $60 billion, though there is no official figure. That amounts to $350,000 in real estate for every resident in the county.
Much of the market value of county real estate is veiled in Davis’ June 1 estimate by homestead exemptions, the Save Our Homes limit on annual property tax increases, and other programs that protect property owners from rapid tax increases during real estate booms.
For example, Davis’ final numbers for 2023 show a certified taxable value of $29.2 billion for the county but note a much higher “market value” of $48.6 billion. With a 7.6-percent increase in general fund taxable value in 2024, market value can be pegged at $52 billion or more.
And even that number does not reflect the full value of county real estate.
The property appraisal process is necessarily backward looking and in a fast-rising market such as the county saw in 2022 and 2023, it is difficult to fully and fairly capture the increased value of properties that have not changed hands.
Even though the real estate market has since cooled and basically leveled off, with prices down a little bit here and up a little bit there, the assessed value of property continued to increase in 2024 for three main reasons – new construction, the resale of existing homes that reset their taxable value, and higher assessments on other property that gained value during the boom.
“There has been significant construction, including the two new apartment complexes on route 60 that came onto the tax roll to the tune of about $30 million,” Davis said, referring to The Griffon Vero Beach and Aspire.
Besides those projects, hundreds of new homes and a range of commercial projects were completed in time to be assessed in 2024, adding to the value of county real estate.
The sale of existing homes that lost their Save Our Homes exemption also swelled the numbers.
Someone who owned a primary residence in Orchid that gained $1 million in value during the pandemic real estate boom would still only pay taxes on the pre-gain amount, plus 3 percent a year – the maximum increase in assessed value allowed for a homestead property under Save Our Homes – as long as they stay in the home.
But if the home was sold in 2023, the true value of the property based on the sales price would be included in the current estimate of 2024 values, adding $1 million to the tax roll.
Homes that haven’t changed hands recently pushed assessed values higher, too. Nearly all houses and condos in the county gained substantial value during the boom, typically 50 percent or more, setting up a situation where that shielded value will be assessed incrementally, with a 3-percent increase each year until the gap is bridged, even if home prices are flat for a while.
In addition, Save Our Homes allows non-homestead property – which includes vacant land, rental homes, apartments, commercial property and some farmland – to be assessed up to 10 percent higher annually if warranted by increased value, further fueling the multibillion-dollar increase in assessed values seen in the current report.
The June 1 estimate reflects how much appraised values went up between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 1, 2025. It gives city, county and agency officials a starting point to create their own budgets and property tax rates, also called millage rates.
Davis and his team of 38 property appraisal professionals will come out with a follow-on estimate by July 1 to give governments and agencies a more certain gauge of how much property tax revenue they will have to work with in the coming year.
If property tax rates stay the same, all the governments and agencies will have more money than last year because of the increase in taxable value.
Davis’ July 1 estimate will be followed by two more reports that reflect refinements in the data and adjustments made in response to objections from property owners seeking lower assessments.
“We just finished the final, final report for the prior year a couple of weeks ago,” Davis told Vero Beach 32963. “Now groundhog day is starting over again!”
