Property Tax Base — Palm Bay, Florida

Palm Bay's gross taxable value for city operating purposes is $11,098,266,589 for fiscal 2027, according to the City Manager's July 31, 2026 budget message.

That total is up $730,541,568, or 7.0%, from the prior year's final taxable values, and $548,615,838 of it is new construction, which fell 11.3% from the year before (Palm Bay FY 2027 Proposed Budget, page 5). The budget message also marks a milestone: fiscal 2023 was the first year Palm Bay's gross taxable values passed the highest level recorded in 2008/2009, after an economic downturn the budget dates from 2008/2009 to 2013/2014 (FY 2027 Proposed Budget, page 6).

The audited figures run a step behind the budget. In the city's fiscal 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the Brevard County Property Appraiser's numbers put Palm Bay's total estimated actual value at $15,970,841,401, of which $8,000,106,860 was tax-exempt property, leaving a total taxable assessed value of $7,970,734,541 (Palm Bay ACFR FY2024, Schedule 5, page 198). Dividing the exempt amount by the estimated actual value shows that about 50.1% of Palm Bay's property value was exempt from city tax that year ($8,000,106,860 divided by $15,970,841,401).

Almost all of the Palm Bay base is land and buildings. Of the fiscal 2024 estimated actual value, real property was $15,400,357,520, tangible personal property such as business equipment was $564,793,332, and centrally assessed property was $5,690,549.

Palm Bay's total taxable assessed value grew from $2,795,949,723 in fiscal 2015 to $7,970,734,541 in fiscal 2024, about 2.85 times in nine years, according to the city's audited ten-year schedule.

The ten-year table in the Palm Bay ACFR shows the climb was steady but uneven (ACFR FY2024, Schedule 5). Subtracting each year from the next, the Palm Bay base added about $1.24 billion in fiscal 2023 ($6,594,430,511 less $5,358,640,791) and about $1.38 billion in fiscal 2024, far more than the $0.40 billion and $0.46 billion it added in fiscal 2020 and 2021. The nine-year multiple is $7,970,734,541 divided by $2,795,949,723.

New building is a large part of the story. The ACFR's introductory section says new construction, meaning improvements that were not on the roll the year before, added $691,747,467 to the Palm Bay tax roll for 2024, the tenth year in a row that assessed valuations showed steady growth (ACFR FY2024, page 10). Fiscal 2027's $548,615,838 in new construction is smaller, and the budget describes moderate growth continuing into fiscal 2027 (FY 2027 Proposed Budget, page 6).

Homes carry Palm Bay's city tax: in fiscal 2024-25 homestead property paid 42.2% of the city levy and non-homestead residential paid 38.3%, while commercial property paid only 6.4%, according to the Florida Department of Revenue.

The state's Distribution of Taxes table for Brevard County lists the City of Palm Bay's 2024-25 levy at $62,472,005 and splits it by property type (Florida Department of Revenue, Table 2, Brevard County, 2024-25). Vacant lots paid 4.3% of Palm Bay's city taxes, far more than the 0.5% vacant lots paid in Melbourne. Property new to the roll paid 7.5% of the Palm Bay levy, the highest share of any Brevard city or town in the table.

Read across, the table shows Palm Bay leaning on residential property more than Melbourne does. Commercial and industrial property together paid 9.5% of the Palm Bay levy against 25.6% in Melbourne (adding the two rows for each city). Homestead and non-homestead residential property together paid 80.5% of the Palm Bay levy and 61.4% of Melbourne's.

Palm Bay's 20 largest property taxpayers paid $3,182,773 in fiscal 2024, only 5.0% of all taxes levied, and no single taxpayer on the list paid more than 0.6% of the levy.

The ACFR's principal taxpayer schedule, drawn from Brevard County Tax Collector records, puts Aqua Property LP first at $393,106 and L3Harris Technologies second at $363,033, each about 0.6% of the Palm Bay levy (ACFR FY2024, Schedule 7, page 200). Further down the top ten, Renesas Electronics America, which pays $144,120, ranks ninth.

The 2015 column of the same Palm Bay schedule shows how much the list has turned over. L3Harris ranked first in 2015 too, at $227,375 or 0.9% of the levy, but Intersil Corporation, Palm Bay Shopping Plaza, Bayside Lakes LLP and Bass Pro Outdoor World have all dropped off. The top 20 then paid $1,208,453, or 5.1% of the levy, almost the same concentration as today.

A Palm Bay property owner paid a combined 18.4894 mills in fiscal 2024: 7.9255 to the city (7.0171 operating plus 0.9084 for debt service), 3.8662 to Brevard County, 6.3830 to the School Board and 0.3147 to special districts.

Those are the direct and overlapping rates in the ACFR's Schedule 6, sourced to the Brevard County Tax Collector (ACFR FY2024, Schedule 6, page 199). The combined Palm Bay rate has drifted down from 22.6659 mills in fiscal 2015, as the county and school rates fell while values rose. The city's own debt service millage first appears in the schedule in fiscal 2020, at 0.8296 mills. The operating rate then fell to 6.7339 mills for fiscal 2025 (ACFR FY2024, page 40).

State law caps the Palm Bay operating rate. A Florida municipality may levy up to 10 mills, not counting taxes for bonds and short voter-approved levies (section 166.211, Florida Statutes). Palm Bay's operating rate stayed below that ceiling in every year of the ten-year schedule, peaking at 8.6326 mills in fiscal 2015 (ACFR FY2024, Schedule 6).

Three rules hold back Palm Bay's property tax take: the state cap on homestead assessments, the city charter's 3% cap on budgeted revenue growth, and voter-approved business tax exemptions.

Florida's homestead assessment cap limits the yearly change in a Palm Bay homestead's assessed value to 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower (section 193.155, Florida Statutes). Under the same statute, a home is assessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership, and the annual cap applies again from then on.

Palm Bay's charter adds a revenue cap. Section 6.01 bars the City Council from setting a millage that raises budgeted ad valorem revenue more than 3% over the prior year (Palm Bay City Charter, page 26). The cap excludes revenue from new construction and major renovations, may be exceeded for one year by a supermajority finding of emergency or critical need, and does not apply to millage for general obligation bonds (City Charter, page 27).

Palm Bay also forgives some business taxes on purpose. Under its Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemption Program, approved by Palm Bay voters in November 1998, August 2008 and November 2018, the city abated $512,580 in property taxes in fiscal 2024 (ACFR FY2024, Note 14, page 125). Benefiting businesses must file an annual compliance report for each of the ten years they are eligible for the exemption.

Palm Bay collected 97.6% of its fiscal 2024 property tax levy of $63,319,921 within the year, and 97.9% once late payments were counted, a rate that has held near 98% for a decade.

The ACFR's levy and collection schedule shows $61,820,825 collected in the year of the levy plus $146,312 in delinquent taxes, for $61,967,137 in total (ACFR FY2024, Schedule 8, page 201). The levy itself grew from $24,125,115 in fiscal 2015, so Palm Bay's property tax revenue more than doubled while the rate went down.

The Brevard County Tax Collector collects and distributes Palm Bay's taxes. Bills are due on the November 1 levy date, or as soon as the Brevard County Property Appraiser certifies the roll, and owners get a 4% discount for paying in November (ACFR FY2024, Note 1, page 66). In the city's FY 2027 Proposed Budget, property taxes are the largest single General Fund revenue at $70,556,758, or 53.7% (FY 2027 Proposed Budget, page 21).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, in the City of Palm Bay ACFR and FY 2027 Proposed Budget and the Florida Department of Revenue tax tables.