When you buy a property in Florida there will be closing costs and prepaid items which will be largely eliminated if you pay cash. If you buy a property today then property taxes for 2008 are due in November and late by April 2009. The tax bill in November will be estimated and prorated so the existing owner pays the taxes fom Jan 1 until today. You will then be charged taxes from today until Dec 31. When you close on the property you will recieve a credit for the sellers prorated tax amount and and will then be completely responsible for the entire bill in November.

There are requirements for Homestead Exemption but if you meet the criteria you will receive a $25,000 reduction from the assessed value of your home. If you have a $100,000 value then the reduction is significant, if you have a $1 mill home then it has little impact. The Save Our Homes exemption limits annual increases in the assessed value to 3%. Every county has a property appraiser website that will explain this in more detail. (If you find a home - go to the property appraiser website for that county, go to the search records option, then search by address. Type in the address for the home you like and there will be a tax link that will show the recent history for property taxes on that home). Historically, this exemption has little benefit in the short term as property prices have not gone up significantly. Only non-exempt owners in recent years were hurt when the property market exploded. As homes are assessed annually taxes for those people are now coming down in conjunction with the overall market.

If you are looking to obtain green cards in the near future then not qualifying for homestead exemption is not a big deal - just make sure you file when you become qualified.

Hope this helps