Understand Homestead before you commit to an address
Homestead is eighty-six thousand people at the southern end of the county, forty-four kilometers from downtown Miami, surrounded by the agricultural land of the Redland and closer to the Everglades and the Keys than to the city. It was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and rebuilt, and it has grown six percent since 2020. Figures are the same two indexes measured the same way in all 24 municipalities here, on Florida's rules including the homestead exemption.
The cost of living in Homestead, and what a home costs
Two calculators on Florida's own rules: monthly compounding and the month private mortgage insurance stops, and the closing costs this state actually charges.
Rent or buy in Homestead
Whether buying here beats renting, and the year it turns over. Association fees and reserves move faster than price here, and both are figures you can edit.
Mortgage calculator
Monthly compounding, the 30-year fixed loan, the private mortgage insurance a low down payment triggers, and Florida's documentary stamp and intangible taxes on the loan itself.
Then work out whether Homestead is the right part of the county
No neighborhood guides for Homestead yet. What is here instead is the county on one comparable footing.
All 24 municipalities in Miami-Dade
Every municipality side by side on home value, millage, the rate a homesteaded buyer pays, and which five run their own fire departments.
Compare the countyBoca Raton and the Palm Beach coast
The same state, the same exemptions and the same two Zillow indexes in the same month, and, counter to what almost everyone assumes, a higher average insurance premium than Miami-Dade's.
Compare the two coastsMiami, neighborhood by neighborhood
One of the two municipalities here with sourced guides rather than a single row of figures. What each part of the city costs and is like to live in, dated and cited.
Explore MiamiHialeah, area by area
The other municipality here with a hub of its own: the same row of figures as this table, the city in five areas drawn from its own master plan, and neighborhood guides in a city that runs its own fire department and library.
Explore HialeahWhat buying in Homestead actually involves
The city levies 5.9604 mills, contracts fire from the county, adds 0.2446 of voted debt service and runs its own library rather than joining the county district, for a total of 20.9465 and an effective rate of about 1.89%, roughly $8,300 a year on a typical home value of $437,066. That value is among the lowest in this layer, and combined with a large stock of post-Andrew construction it makes Homestead the most affordable route into a modern single-family house anywhere in Miami-Dade.
The distance is the whole of the trade and it is a serious one: forty-four kilometers to downtown with no rail, on US-1 or the Turnpike, is an hour and a half each way at peak. Values fell 4.6% over the year to June 2026, the second steepest drop of these twenty-four behind Aventura's 7.9%, and the two have opposite causes: this one is the commute and a large pipeline of new construction, Aventura's is an aging condominium stock. Agricultural operations in the Redland bring spraying and equipment noise on the western edge.
This is the working agricultural end of the county: nurseries, groves and packing operations surround the city, along with an air reserve base and the speedway. Those bring seasonal traffic, aircraft noise on some approaches and a job base that is genuinely local, all of which are worth checking against the specific address rather than the city as a whole.
Much of the newer housing sits in subdivisions with community development district assessments attached, which appear on the tax bill alongside the millage on this page and can add a substantial amount to the annual cost. That charge amortises the infrastructure of the subdivision and it is not optional, so it belongs in any comparison against an older house in the city.
Moving to Homestead: check these before you commit
- The commute north, driven at your actual hour: this is the furthest point in the layer by a wide margin.
- Whether the house is a post-Andrew build and what its wind rating is, which decides the insurance.
- Proximity to agricultural operations and to the Homestead-Miami Speedway, both of which affect specific neighborhoods.
- Whether the subdivision carries a community development district assessment, and what it adds annually.
- Aircraft noise from the reserve base and seasonal agricultural traffic near the address.
Homestead levies 5.9604 of the 20.9465 mills charged here. The rest is Miami-Dade County, the school district and the countywide districts, including the 2.3965-mill Fire Rescue district levy: none of which the municipality sets.
Sourced, dated, and separated from the guesswork
Every Homestead figure below is cited, stamped with the period it describes, and editable, because a number for the whole city rarely describes your purchase. Appreciation and investment returns are assumptions rather than facts, and they are labelled that way. Read the methodology for how the line is drawn.
- Prices, rents and tax rates: published statistics and the official schedules.
- Nothing here is a lender quote, a pre-approval or financial advice.
Where the Homestead figures come from
- Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value for the 35th to 65th percentile of each municipality's market, computed on one method across all twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte, Orlando and Palm Beach pages use, so all four American layers can be read against each other, Year-over-year change to June 2026
- Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), all homes, smoothed: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: Asking rents across the whole rental stock for the twenty-two municipalities Zillow indexes
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26: Miami-Dade · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved Supports: The adopted 2025-26 millage rate for Miami-Dade County and every municipality in it, The county's own components: countywide 4.5740, Fire/Rescue 2.3965, Library 0.2812 and the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area at 1.9090, Municipal rates from Sunny Isles Beach's 1.7000 to Biscayne Park's 9.3000
- 2025 millage rates and taxing authorities, Miami-Dade County · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: A published combined rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade of 16.9317 mills, Its components: school district 6.4990, countywide 5.7361, regional water districts 0.3911, Fire Rescue 2.3965 and UMSA 1.9090, which this layer's stack reproduces exactly, Millage code 0100, the City of Miami, at 19.9878 mills for 2025: 7.1080 of city operating levy and 0.2536 of city debt service on the countywide 12.6262, Opa-locka's municipal operating levy of 8.9797, and a 2025 total of 24.0024 for millage code 0800, A city debt service column, which nine of the twenty-four municipalities here carry: Miami 0.2536, Miami Beach 0.2779, North Bay Village 1.1666, Golden Beach 0.6000, Miami Shores 0.1331, North Miami Beach 0.2000, Miami Gardens 0.4331, Doral 0.4810 and Homestead 0.2446, A blank library district column for Hialeah, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Homestead, Miami Shores, Bal Harbour and Surfside, which are outside the county library district, A blank Fire Rescue column for Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne, which is the five this layer flags
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A Miami-Dade deed rate of 60 cents per $100 rather than the 70 cents charged in every other county, A Miami-Dade surtax of 45 cents per $100, not due on a document transferring only a single-family dwelling, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note, statewide
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: 70 cents per $100 on a deed, in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note or other written obligation to pay money