Estimated figures from property appraiser offices in three Southwest Florida counties tell a negative tale:
- Collier County lost an estimated $13 billion in market property value in 2025, compared to the previous year. That's a roughly 5.7 percent loss.
- Lee County property lost $4 billion in market value — a drop of about two percent from the previous year.
- Charlotte County also lost just under two percent in market value from '24 to '25.
The drops in market value stand in sharp contrast to some years in the past decade when values increased by at least several percentage points each year.
However taxable property values went up in Collier, Lee and Charlotte Counties, but not by much. Taxable values increased almost three percent in Lee, 2.24 percent in Charlotte, and 1.56 percent in Collier.
The differences occur because the market value, the sales price, may be quite different from the assessed taxable value of a piece of property.
Some individual bodies, funded by property taxes, did not gain that much. Take Lee County for example:
The publicly-funded Lee County School District went up in taxable value less than one percent. And Sanibel Island actually went down one percent. The Village of Estero lost almost one percent. Taxable value in the City of Fort Myers was estimated to stay virtually the same as the previous year, while Cape Coral gained about 2.3 percent.
Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell put out a release saying the estimates should not come as a major surprise. "These estimates reflect the mixed bag of our current market, with hurricane-damaged properties continuing to be restored and sold, while much of the overall market in 2025 was stable at best," he said.
The Town of Fort Myers Beach showed the only robust gains in tax value — up nine percent. That likely reflects the increased re-building from Hurricane Ian destruction.
In Collier County, the City of Naples lost just over six percent in market value in the one year. Naples will have a taxable value that is up 1.4 percent. Marco Island properties lost five percent in market value, but the city's taxable value is going up two percent.
Charlotte County Property Appraiser Paul Polk said that the City of Punta Gorda is losing about three percent in taxable value. He explained that after hurricanes Ian, Helene and Milton, some owners in Punta Gorda became frustrated by long delays in getting insurance money or other financial help. He said some people just put their damaged properties up for sale, and took whatever they could get. That drove down values in the city =— both market and taxable. He also said that Punta Gorda did not have a lot of new, high-priced construction, and that contributed to a loss in taxable value.
The numbers could mean that some local governments, which may have become used to large increases in taxable value every year, could be in for some budgeting changes. They might have to lower expectations for the coming fiscal year. All tax-funded local bodies must approve next year's budgets, and tax rates, by October 1.
The appraiser's offices will finalize the values during June, and the various governments and districts will use the figures to work out their budgets. The estimated values give administrators and elected officials an early look at what they face in the budgeting process. It allows them to get a head start in evaluating where they spend money, and how much.
Right now the Florida Legislature is holding a special session to consider a referendum on phasing out property taxes on many Florida home owners. However any changes to the long-standing property tax system would not happen before October 1 of this year, meaning local governments and taxing districts will rely on property taxes for the coming fiscal year at least.
Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
