Marion County taxable value rises by $38 billion; property appraiser cautions median prices slipped in first half of 2025

Property Appraiser Jimmy Cowan told commissioners the 2025 preliminary assessment roll for Marion County reflected “remarkable growth,” reporting taxable value exceeding $38,000,000,000 and a 12.51% increase over the prior year. Cowan said roughly $1.9 billion of that growth was attributable to new construction.

Cowan said his office submitted the assessment roll to the Florida Department of Revenue on June 18 and had received provisional approval on July 15 after a slight reduction tied to retirement rate assumptions. “The property appraiser's proposed budget for 2025–26 is $6,950,940 reflecting a 5.39% increase,” Cowan said, and he gave the general-fund allocation as $5,181,332.

Laney, assistant property appraiser, presented market detail that the office uses to forecast values: recorded instruments — deeds and transfers — peaked at about 49,000 at the height of the market and have fallen to roughly 41,000–42,000 in recent months. For single‑family site‑built homes on parcels from 0.01 to 1.5 acres, Laney said median selling price decreased about 3.4% for January–June 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. Mobile-home median selling prices were down about 6.5% in the same comparison.

Commissioners asked for recurring updates. Cowan and Laney offered to provide regular reports on recorded instruments, median sale prices and transfers; staff asked that those be routed through Mike McCain for distribution to the full board.

Ending: Cowan told the board his office will continue to leverage technology and succession planning to manage workload as values and new construction rise. Commissioners asked staff to expect quarterly trend reports to inform future budgets.

(Note: numbers and deadlines were presented on the record by the property appraiser.)