@ lies is all they tell- Just to let you know…when you purchase a newly built home or you purchase a lot and obtain a construction loan to build it the lender/broker (whichever is the case) can only use the current assessed value for computing taxes and qualifying you on the purchase. They cannot use a “calculation” of what it “might” be after the house is built. Since property taxes in Florida are essentially a year in arrears that is why it does not show up on your tax bill until the 2nd year in your residency. Basically the state cannot assess a value to a home that is not built yet so the taxes are based on what is referred to as “raw” land. However, although there is no law or regulation in place any lender or broker should have had the responsibility of informing a purchaser of an ‘anticipated’ property tax once the home was completed. As a matter of fact, the county assessors offices do offer a calulator on their sites for doing such calculations but most purchasers don’t know that even though it’s public information. Also, during the bubble years with property values going up, up and up faster than the assessor’s office could handle by the time the bubble burst those properties were being assessed at the prices from those years and not the current value. Having an escrow or not makes no difference one way or the other. If you still own the home you can apply to the county to have the property re-assessed to current values but you have to have your ducks in a row to do so.