Habitat for Humanity of Collier County progresses on new Naples community
Scenes from Habitat for Humanity of Collier County’s Majestic Place community. When construction is complete, it will have 109 single-family homes.
- Collier County’s preliminary property values increased by roughly 3% to $229.3 billion in 2025.
- Taxable property values saw a larger increase of 8.2%, reaching $164.5 billion, largely due to new construction.
- While market value growth slowed, new construction added $4.18 billion to the tax rolls.
- The final tax roll will be submitted to the state on July 1st, with TRIM notices sent to taxpayers by August 25th.
Collier County’s property values increased by about 3% over last year.
According to preliminary estimates from the Property Appraiser’s Office, the market value for all properties in the county rose to more than $229.3 billion in 2025 — up from about $222.6 billion last year.
“So it’s still increasing, but at a decreasing rate,” said Vickie Downs, the county’s property appraiser.
Last year, the county saw an even smaller increase of less than half of a percent, as the housing market stabilized, following huge spikes in values.
In 2022, property values rose by more than 40.7% over the year, following a buying frenzy, then by another 19.75% in 2023, following Hurricane Ian.
Ian did some heavy damage in September 2022, especially near the coastline, as it barreled by — before making landfall in neighboring Lee County as a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane. That led to some significant “land-only sales” that drove up values in the aftermath of the storm, along with other factors, contributing to the spike in 2023.
“Over the past few years, Collier County has seen some big changes in property values, but this year, things have started to level out a bit,” Downs said.
She continued: “What’s interesting, though, is that taxable value — the number that determines what folks actually pay in property taxes — went up even more — about 8.2%, from $152 billion in 2024 to an estimated $164.5 billion in 2025. Most of that increase is coming from new construction.”
The county added about $4.18 billion in new construction to the tax roll — up from $3.57 billion last year.
“So, while the overall market growth has cooled, development activity remains strong,” Downs said.
Another factor contributing to the larger percentage increase in taxable values: “There’s also an impact from recapture, which kicks in under Save Our Homes for homesteaded properties and the 10% cap for non-homesteaded ones. So even if the market isn’t surging, taxable values still creep up each year unless there’s a drop in market value,” Downs said.
Under state law, the recapture rule ensures the assessed value is gradually brought up to the current market value over time, as long as the market value remains higher. The assessed value can increase by 3% a year for properties with a homestead exemption, versus 10% for ones without it.
Here’s a preliminary look at market value changes in the three cities:
- In Naples, they rose by 2.09% to $55.7 billion.
- On Marco Island, they increased by 2.42% to $24.3 billion.
- In Everglades City, they grew by 2.83% to $197.6 million.
In each of the cities, taxable values rose by higher percentages, in part due to new construction.
New construction added more than $810 million of market value in Naples, more than $341 million on Marco Island, and nearly $1.6 million in Everglades City.
Marco saw the largest increase in taxable values this year – at 8.03%.
“All in all, 2025 is shaping up to be a more balanced year — still growing, but at a steadier pace. And from the Property Appraiser’s Office standpoint, that kind of stability makes it easier to maintain accurate assessments,” Downs said.
Matt Simmons, managing partner at Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons LLC, a real estate market analyst in Fort Myers, said the 3% increase in the total just value, or market value of all property across Collier County surprised him a bit.
“I would have expected to see it flat compared to 2024, or even slightly lower. For comparison, Lee County is reporting a 3.72% decrease in county-wide just value,” he said.
He pointed out the median sales price for all residential properties in Collier County was $600,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024, down 2.4% from $614,625 a year earlier. The median is the price at which half the homes sell for more and half for less.
Residential property makes up much of the tax roll.
Every year, it’s always interesting to see how individual properties are being assessed, through work on tax appeals, which can identify larger patterns where the information is “off in some way,” Simmons said.
“Each year it’s like a puzzle to be solved, and it’s never the same puzzle. It’s tedious and challenging to pull off what each county property appraiser has to do each year — assessing each and every parcel. It’s not realistic to expect that they get every parcel correct each year, but overall, they do great work with a difficult job,” Simmons said.
Local governments, including counties, cities and school districts, will use the preliminary tax roll data as a starting point to plan their budgets for next year.
The final roll will be submitted to the Florida Department of Revenue on July 1. The department must approve the roll before it becomes certified.
TRIM (Truth in Millage) notices will be sent to taxpayers by Aug. 25. The notices provide information to owners about their property values, exemptions, and proposed tax rates.
Tax rates don’t become final until final budgets are adopted by the taxing authorities. Annual property tax bills are mailed by Nov. 1.