Three parties set three different numbers. Buyers set market value, which is the price a home actually closes at after full market exposure. Your county property appraiser sets the assessed value, the tax figure that Florida's Save Our Homes cap holds below market. You and your agent set the listing price, which is only a starting point.
What Is Market Value?
Market value is the price a home actually sells for after full exposure to the open market. Buyers and sellers set it together through competition, not opinion. A sale confirms the figure only when the property reached every potential buyer and the closing was arm's length.
On the Discover South Florida Podcast, Larry Mastropieri framed the concept in the simplest possible terms.
"Market value is essentially what the market is willing to pay for a home."
The mechanism behind that definition matters as much as the words themselves.
"A market is comprised of a bunch of buyers and sellers running around buying and selling."
How the Open Market Reveals the Number
Genuine market value requires genuine exposure, since a price means nothing when only a handful of people ever saw the home. Larry describes what proper marketing involves before any number can be trusted.
"Market would be posting on the MLS and then letting it syndicate through Zillow, everywhere else. Everybody who wants to see this thing can see it."
Time is the second ingredient, because buyer feedback accumulates over weeks instead of days.
"A pool of buyers comes through the home and they make offers. You've given it enough time, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and you have offers. That's your market value."
The closing then converts an estimate into a fact.
"Market value ends up being the value at which you end up selling your home on the open market. When it closes officially, that was your market value."
What Does Not Establish Market Value
- A private sale between family members, since no competition shaped the price.
- A pocket listing shown to a limited circle of buyers.
- A distressed or foreclosure sale completed under time pressure.
- An online estimate generated by an algorithm that never toured the property.
- A neighbor's asking price, which reflects hope instead of a completed transaction.
Each of these produces a number, though none of them survives scrutiny. Sellers across Palm Beach County learn true market value only through open exposure.
What Is Assessed Value?
Assessed value is the figure your county property appraiser assigns to calculate property taxes. Florida starts with just value, its estimate of market worth on January 1, then applies caps such as Save Our Homes. The result usually sits well below what your home would sell for.
Larry ties the term directly to its single purpose.
"Assessed value is a term that is used when we're talking about taxation, property tax."
The office producing the number has no interest in pricing your home for sale.
"Assessed value is what the property appraiser will assess your property at."
The practical consequence is what homeowners actually feel each November.
"Assessed value is the value that you are taxed on for property tax at the end of the day."
Just Value, Assessed Value, and Taxable Value
Your annual notice shows three separate figures, and each one performs a distinct job in the calculation.
- Just value is the property appraiser's estimate of market value as of January 1.
- Assessed value is just value reduced by assessment limitations such as Save Our Homes.
- Taxable value is assessed value minus your homestead and any other exemptions.
- Your annual bill equals taxable value multiplied by the local millage rate.
Save Our Homes caps annual increases on a homestead at 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever proves lower. Non-homestead property carries a 10% cap on most taxing authorities. The 2026 cap landed at 2.7%, far below actual appreciation across most South Florida neighborhoods.
How the Gap Widens Over Time
The cap restrains assessed value while market value climbs without any limit, so the two figures separate a little more every year. That growing difference is known as the Save Our Homes differential, and it represents real tax savings for long-term owners.
Picture a home bought years ago and assessed near its original purchase price. Market value may have doubled since then, while the assessed figure crept upward only a few percent annually. The owner enjoys a tax bill anchored to the past, which is precisely what the cap was designed to accomplish.
Why Your Tax Bill Jumps After You Buy
The cap vanishes the moment ownership transfers, and your buyer gets reassessed at full just value the following year. Their bill can double or even triple compared with what the previous owner paid.
Buyers should never budget from the seller's current tax figure, since that number reflects years of accumulated protection. Estimate instead from your purchase price and the local millage rate. This single oversight catches new owners in Boca Raton every year.
What Is Listing Price?
Your listing price is the number you and your agent choose to advertise when the home goes on the market. No authority sets it and no rule limits it. That freedom carries weight, since the figure decides which buyers ever see your property.
Larry states the reality with characteristic humor.
"Listing price can be whatever you want it to be. That's how that goes."
The decision rests entirely with the seller and the listing agent.
"Listing price is the price that we're going to pop on the market. Whatever price we decide we're going to post it at, that's the listing price."
Curious what your home in Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, or Palm Beach Gardens would actually sell for? We build a full comparative market analysis from recent neighborhood sales, then explain exactly how it differs from your tax notice. Call The Mastropieri Group at (561) 544-7000.
How to Choose a Listing Price That Works
Freedom to name any number does not make every number wise, because your list price determines whether buyers ever encounter the home. Search filters group listings into brackets, so a figure just above a common threshold quietly removes you from consideration.
Anchor the decision to recent comparable sales, not your assessment or your mortgage balance. Round toward the top of a search bracket instead of just above it. Leave modest negotiating room without creating a gap the market will punish.
The Three Numbers Side by Side
- Market value comes from buyers competing openly and is confirmed at closing.
- Assessed value comes from your county property appraiser and drives property taxes.
- The listing price comes from you and your agent before marketing ever begins.
- Only market value reflects genuine demand for your specific property.
- Assessed value updates once a year, while market value shifts continuously.
- A listing price becomes meaningful only when the market validates it.
Two More Numbers Worth Knowing
Most homeowners encounter additional valuation figures during a transaction, and confusing them with market value creates expensive misunderstandings.
Appraised Value
A licensed appraiser hired by the lender produces this opinion once you go under contract. The analysis relies on recent comparable sales, condition, and square footage, and it exists to protect the bank, not either party to the deal. Your lender funds against the appraised figure, so a shortfall can force renegotiation, additional cash from the buyer, or a canceled contract.
Replacement Cost
Your insurance carrier works from replacement cost, which estimates what rebuilding the home would take at today's labor and material prices. Land is excluded entirely, which explains why waterfront properties often show a replacement cost below market value while inland homes show the reverse. A policy set too low leaves you short after a hurricane claim, and an inflated figure simply wastes premium every year.
Why Online Estimates Miss the Mark
Automated valuation tools generate a number from public records and past sales without ever seeing the property. The algorithm cannot detect a renovated kitchen, a failing roof, or the traffic noise from a nearby road.
Accuracy also varies dramatically by neighborhood, since these models perform best where homes are uniform and sales are frequent. Custom properties, waterfront homes, and unusual lots produce the widest errors. Treat any online estimate as a rough starting point and nothing more.
How a Comparative Market Analysis Works
A comparative market analysis is the professional alternative to guesswork, and it produces the closest estimate available before buyers weigh in. Your agent studies homes that recently sold nearby, then adjusts for the differences that genuinely move price.
The analysis leans on sales from the last 30 to 60 days, since older figures reflect a market that has already moved on. Adjustments account for square footage, lot size, condition, upgrades, and position within the neighborhood. A thorough analyst also reviews active listings, because those homes are your direct competition, along with expired ones that reveal where the ceiling sits.
The result is a defensible range instead of a single optimistic figure. Sellers throughout Broward County use that range to set a list price with real confidence.
Why Assessed Value Makes a Poor Pricing Guide
Sellers frequently anchor to the county figure when forming expectations, and that instinct produces bad pricing in both directions. The assessment reflects tax policy and statutory caps, never buyer demand.
A long-held homestead often carries an assessed value far beneath market, which tempts an owner to underprice and surrender equity. A recently purchased property may show an assessment close to the last sale price, ignoring any appreciation since that closing. Neither figure tells you what a buyer will pay this month.
What Happens When Listing Price Misses Market Value
Your list price and market value should sit close together, because a meaningful gap produces predictable and costly consequences.
- An overpriced home draws few showings, since buyers filter searches by price bracket.
- Days on market accumulate, which signals a problem to every buyer who looks later.
- Price reductions follow, often landing below what a correct price would have produced.
- An underpriced home can attract multiple offers that push above the asking figure.
- A wide gap in either direction leaves real money on the table.
The market delivers its verdict regardless of where you started. A price near market value simply shortens the path to that verdict.
Can You Challenge Your Assessed Value?
Yes, though Florida allows a remarkably narrow window. Your TRIM notice arrives each August showing the proposed assessment, and you have 25 days from that notice to petition the Value Adjustment Board.
A successful appeal argues that just value exceeds what your property would genuinely sell for, supported by recent comparable sales. Open that notice the day it arrives and calendar the deadline immediately, since this ranks among the shortest appeal periods in the country.
Which Number Matters for Your Situation
- Sellers setting a price should study recent comparable sales, never the assessment.
- Buyers estimating future taxes should calculate from their purchase price.
- Homeowners reviewing a tax bill should focus on assessed and taxable value.
- Anyone financing a purchase should watch the appraised value closely.
- Investors calculating returns should work from market value and actual rents.
- Owners weighing an appeal should mark the 25-day TRIM deadline in August.
Tax rules and cap percentages change annually, and this page covers general concepts. Your county property appraiser and a tax professional can confirm your specific figures.
Know Which Number Decides Your Equity
Your tax notice, your online estimate, and your asking price each describe the same home in a different language. Only one of them ever becomes a check at closing. We translate all of it into a single defensible figure built from recent neighborhood sales and current buyer demand. That clarity protects your equity whether you list next month or hold for another decade. Reach out to The Mastropieri Group, Realtors® at (561) 544-7000 and give us your address and we will walk you through the comps behind your true market value.