The other midterms issue: Florida voted against Canadian snowbirds

Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.

Canadian snowbirds who own vacation properties in Florida got a clear message from Sunshine State voters this week: It’s time to pay your fair share of property taxes, or at least take some of the weight off our backs.

By a 62-per-cent majority, Floridians approved a sweeping state constitutional amendment that will give property-tax relief to state residents and shift more of the burden to non-residents who own second homes in the state.

The situation is particularly acute for Canadians, who consistently rank as the number-one group of foreign owners of property in the state.

It is another slap in the face souring the long-standing love affair that Canadians had with Florida as a relatively inexpensive, easily accessible, snowbird-friendly tropical getaway.

In recent times, rising home insurance costs, back-breaking condominium fees, skyrocketing house prices in many areas of the state and a perpetually sluggish Canadian dollar – hovering in the low 70-cent range in U.S. dollars – have made Florida an increasingly costly place for Canadians to live and play in the winter.

The political climate hasn’t helped. The trade battle, exacerbated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s numerous jibes, has led to many Canadians boycotting vacations to the U.S.

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Florida, one of the most popular U.S. destinations alongside Arizona and California, has been hit hard as many Canadians stay away. Canadian airlines have cut back on flights, and cars bearing Ontario and Quebec licence plates don’t seem as plentiful on Florida roads as in past years.

The numbers bear that out. According to Visit Florida, Canadian tourism to the state dropped nearly 14 per cent in the first half of this year. Almost 1.7 million Canadians visited Florida during that time, down from close to two million during the same period in 2025.

The economic impact of the situation is so significant that Florida and other states are mounting promotional campaigns and sending tourism delegations to Canada to mend some bridges.

And now, this. Florida’s property-tax proposal singled out Canadians as part of the problem – and pitted them against the state’s residents.

“I want Canadian tourists and Brazilian tourists subsidizing the state and making it so Florida residents pay less taxes – I don’t want to give Canadians a tax cut,” outgoing governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said at a real-estate convention in Orlando last year.

Mr. DeSantis’s successor, governor-elect Byron Donalds, also a Republican, has advocated for the measure and is expected to support it as he takes office and it moves to implementation on Jan. 1, 2027.

The new measure does not actually increase taxes for non-residents. But because most of the properties they own are not primary residences, it does cut foreign owners out of a key exemption and enables residents to take more advantage of Florida’s homestead provision, which limits property-tax increases even as the values of properties increase.

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The amendment increases the homestead exemption for residents from US$50,000 to to US$150,000 next year, and then to US$250,000 in 2028. As an example, a resident property owner with a house assessed at US$500,000 would eventually have local non-school taxes calculated as if the home was half that value.

Non-residents whose Florida properties are typically second homes would have no such benefit, and would be required to pay full freight on the assessed value of their homes. In simple terms, they would make up the difference as the higher homestead benefits take effect.

There is a ray of sunshine in the new measure – sort of. Now, any annual tax increase on a property ineligible for the homestead exemption will be capped at 5 per cent, rather than the current 10-per-cent limit. That reduction will apply to second homes, vacation properties and rental apartments or condominiums.

Any non-residents, including Canadians, hoping to become Florida residents to take advantage of the new measure should beware – and move quickly. The amendment imposes a five-year residency requirement for anyone who is not a resident by Dec. 31 of this year before they can qualify for the larger homestead exemption. In the interim, they can get an annual exemption of US$50,000.

On its own, the new property-tax amendment may seem like small potatoes when compared with other factors driving up the costs of vacationing in Canada’s most popular foreign playground. And few people will shed a tear for any Canadian who can afford a second home in Florida.