Miami and Miami-Dade
This is the third Florida layer on this site, which means the state's rules are now held constant three ways over — the same exemption, the same Save Our Homes cap, the same two Zillow indexes in the same month. What is left is local, and in this county that means three things: which five municipalities run their own fire departments, what a barrier island does to a premium, and a deed tax that exists here and in no other county in Florida.
All 24, sorted by distance from downtown
Home values and rents are Zillow's indexes for June 2026. The millage column is what is actually charged: 12.6262 countywide for every incorporated address, plus the municipality's own levy, plus the 2.3965-mill Fire Rescue district unless the municipality runs its own department. The rate column is what a homesteaded buyer really pays after the exemption.
| Municipality | Miles | Typical home | Year on year | Millage | Buyer's rate | Tax a year | Insurance a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami · own fire | 0 | $582,621 | -0.7% | 19.7342 | 1.83% | $10,673 | $6,060 |
| Miami Beach · own fire · island | 4 | $524,997 | -2.0% | 18.4822 | 1.70% | $8,941 | $9,600 |
| North Bay Village · island | 6 | $390,287 | -0.9% | 20.7289 | 1.85% | $7,216 | $9,600 |
| Coral Gables · own fire | 6 | $1,576,723 | +3.2% | 18.1852 | 1.77% | $27,926 | $6,060 |
| Key Biscayne · own fire · island | 6 | $1,706,575 | +2.6% | 15.5108 | 1.52% | $25,857 | $9,600 |
| Miami Shores | 6 | $756,424 | +1.3% | 22.8227 | 2.15% | $16,285 | $6,060 |
| Biscayne Park | 8 | $971,449 | +5.6% | 24.3227 | 2.32% | $22,575 | $6,060 |
| Hialeah · own fire | 8 | $445,331 | -1.5% | 18.9280 | 1.72% | $7,645 | $6,060 |
| North Miami | 8 | $424,771 | -1.1% | 22.4227 | 2.02% | $8,566 | $6,060 |
| Surfside · island | 8 | $1,339,801 | +5.3% | 18.9057 | 1.83% | $24,547 | $9,600 |
| Bay Harbor Islands · island | 9 | $680,617 | -2.2% | 18.4810 | 1.74% | $11,817 | $9,600 |
| Bal Harbour · island | 9 | $1,938,594 | +3.1% | 17.1666 | 1.68% | $32,583 | $9,600 |
| Opa-locka | 10 | $475,081 | -0.9% | 23.9224 | 2.17% | $10,331 | $6,060 |
| Pinecrest | 10 | $2,258,425 | +2.8% | 17.5257 | 1.72% | $38,867 | $6,060 |
| Doral | 11 | $545,000 | -2.1% | 16.7393 | 1.55% | $8,448 | $6,060 |
| North Miami Beach | 11 | $455,813 | -0.5% | 21.1227 | 1.92% | $8,734 | $6,060 |
| Miami Lakes | 12 | $654,573 | -0.3% | 17.1804 | 1.61% | $10,549 | $6,060 |
| Miami Gardens | 12 | $475,214 | -1.1% | 21.9590 | 2.00% | $9,500 | $6,060 |
| Sunny Isles Beach · island | 12 | $645,634 | -2.4% | 16.7227 | 1.57% | $10,123 | $9,600 |
| Aventura | 13 | $417,156 | -7.9% | 16.7488 | 1.51% | $6,312 | $6,060 |
| Palmetto Bay | 13 | $1,117,851 | +1.0% | 17.3245 | 1.67% | $18,662 | $6,060 |
| Golden Beach · island | 14 | $7,792,428 | +8.2% | 22.8227 | 2.27% | $176,866 | $9,600 |
| Cutler Bay | 16 | $566,892 | -0.8% | 17.8559 | 1.66% | $9,392 | $6,060 |
| Homestead | 28 | $437,066 | -4.6% | 20.9831 | 1.90% | $8,284 | $6,060 |
More than half of Miami-Dade is not on this table and cannot be. Kendall, Westchester, The Hammocks, Country Walk, Richmond West and the rest of the unincorporated county have no municipal government; they pay the 12.6262 countywide base plus the 2.3965-mill Fire Rescue district plus a 1.909-mill Unincorporated Municipal Service Area levy in place of a city rate, for a published total of 16.9317 mills. That figure is how this layer's stack was verified: the five components add to exactly what the county publishes.
Five municipalities run their own fire departments
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue covers the unincorporated county and twenty-nine of the thirty-four municipalities, funded by a district levy of 2.3965 mills. Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne and Hialeah are outside it — they run their own departments and pay none of it. That is worth more than most of the municipal rates on this table, and it is why the rate column does not follow the municipal levy column.
Miami is the clearest case. Its own levy of 7.1080 mills is the third highest of these twenty-four — but it pays no fire district levy, so its total of 19.7342 lands mid-table and a homesteaded buyer's rate is 1.83%, or about $10,673 a year on the typical home. The saving and the high municipal rate cancel almost exactly.
Across the county the effective rate runs from Aventura at 1.51% to Biscayne Park at 2.32%. In dollars the spread is far wider, because the low rates and the high values are not in the same places: $6,312 a year in Aventura against $176,866 in Golden Beach — a factor of 28, and the largest property tax figure anywhere on this site. North Bay Village at $390,287 and Golden Beach at $7,792,428 are both in this county.
The deed tax is different here, and it depends what you are selling
Miami-Dade is the only county in Florida where the deed tax is not 70 cents per $100. It is 60 cents, plus a 45-cent surtax that a transfer of a single-family dwelling does not pay — so a house is taxed at 0.6% and a condominium or townhouse at 1.05% on the same price. It is the seller's by convention either way, but it is priced into what a seller will accept, and in this county a great deal of what trades is not a single-family dwelling.
On a $600,000 sale that is $3,600 if the property is a single-family dwelling and $6,300 if it is a condominium, townhouse or duplex — a difference of $2,700 at the same price. Elsewhere in Florida the deed tax is a flat 0.7% on everything, so a Miami-Dade house is actually taxed less than it would be in Orlando or Palm Beach, and a Miami-Dade condominium half again more. In the county with the largest condominium market in the United States, that is not a footnote.
It is the seller's by convention either way, so it does not appear in the buyer's closing costs on these pages — but it is priced into what a seller will accept, and this layer's cost-of-selling rate of 6.10% reflects the 0.6% rather than the 0.7% the rest of the state uses.
Surfside, and the law that followed it
On 24 June 2021 the Champlain Towers South building collapsed in Surfside, killing ninety-eight people. Florida's response — a 2022 law requiring a milestone structural inspection at thirty years, twenty-five within three miles of the coast, and a structural integrity reserve study with mandatory full funding — has reshaped the economics of every older condominium in the state, and this county has more of them than anywhere.
The consequence is special assessments running into six figures per unit, association fees that have risen faster than prices, and a bifurcated market: newer buildings on current wind codes with funded reserves on one side, and older stock facing bills nobody underwrote for on the other. It shows in the indexes — Aventura, almost entirely condominium, fell 7.9% over the year to June 2026, the steepest drop of these twenty-four. If you are buying a condominium in this county, the reserve study and the milestone inspection matter more than anything on this page.
The other Florida surprise is insurance, and it runs the opposite way to expectation. Miami-Dade averages about $6,060 a year — below Palm Beach County's $6,600 one county north, though well above inland Orlando's $3,720. The three Florida layers here are measured identically, so that comparison is real: the median effective tax rate is 1.77% here, 1.79% on the Palm Beach coast and 1.53% around Orlando. Being further south is not the same as being more expensive. 8 of these 24 municipalities are on a barrier or bay island, and that — rather than the county line — is where the premium jumps.
Five groupings, and none of them official
Miami-Dade publishes no sub-regions, so this grouping is editorial, built from the way people here describe the place.
Downtown and the bay
Miami The county's core and only a fifth of it, with its own fire department and the region's only real transit. · Miami Beach A barrier island of eighty-three thousand, its own fire department, and a raised-road programme against the sea. · North Bay Village Three artificial islands in Biscayne Bay, and the cheapest typical home in this layer. · Key Biscayne The lowest total millage in this layer, on an island reached by one causeway.
The north beaches
Surfside The town where Champlain Towers South collapsed, and where Florida's condominium law was rewritten. · Bay Harbor Islands Two islands in the bay, one residential and one commercial, by deliberate design since 1947. · Bal Harbour Three thousand people, the country's most productive luxury mall, and a very low municipal rate. · Sunny Isles Beach A wall of new oceanfront towers, at the second-lowest municipal rate in the county. · Golden Beach A thousand people, no condominiums by law, and the largest property tax bill on this site.
The north-east villages
Miami Shores A 1920s planned village of Mediterranean houses, at one of the highest rates in the county. · Biscayne Park Three thousand people, a canopy of banyans, and the highest total millage in the county. · North Miami The heart of the Haitian diaspora in the United States, at a high rate on modest houses. · North Miami Beach Not on the beach at all, and running the water utility half the county drinks from. · Aventura The lowest effective tax rate in the county, funded by a shopping mall.
The north-west
Hialeah The second-largest city in the county, the most Cuban city in America, and its own fire department. · Opa-locka Moorish Revival architecture from 1926, an airport, and the second-highest municipal rate in the county. · Doral The county's fastest-growing city, its largest industrial base, and a very low municipal rate. · Miami Lakes A 1962 planned town around twenty-three lakes, at a low municipal rate. · Miami Gardens The largest majority-Black city in Florida, and home to the Dolphins' stadium.
Coral Gables and the south
Coral Gables America's first great planned suburb, with its own fire department and its own architectural code. · Pinecrest Acre lots, the county's best public schools, and the second-highest home values here. · Palmetto Bay A village of large lots on Biscayne Bay, incorporated to control its own zoning. · Cutler Bay The county's youngest municipality, and the most affordable of the southern suburbs. · Homestead The far south: farmland, the Speedway, and the cheapest way into a house in this county.
Miami-Dade has thirty-four municipalities and this layer covers twenty-four; Medley, Indian Creek, Virginia Gardens, Sweetwater, West Miami, Miami Springs, Hialeah Gardens, El Portal and Florida City are left out for space rather than principle. Fisher Island is deliberately excluded — an unincorporated island reachable only by ferry, with the highest per-capita income of any place in the United States and a Zillow index near $7 million, but no municipal government, so putting it in a table of municipalities would be a category error.
Sources
Every millage component comes from the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's 2025 table, cross-checked against the Florida Department of Revenue's comparison of levies. The stack is verified rather than assumed: the countywide base, the Fire Rescue district and the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area levy add to exactly the 16.9317 mills the county publishes for unincorporated Miami-Dade. The homestead derivation applies the state's own exemption — $25,000 for every authority and a second $25,000 for all but the 6.4990-mill school district — and Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded assessment at 3% a year until a sale resets it. These are the figures on this page that are estimates:
- Home insurance — $505 a month on the mainland and $800 on the barrier islands, against a Miami-Dade average of about $6,045 a year. It varies more by roof age, construction, opening protection and flood zone than by municipality, and it is the input most worth replacing with a real quote
- The condominium fee at $850 a month, which in this county is conservative and has been moving upward since Florida's 2022 milestone inspection and reserve legislation
- The split of rent by bedroom count, derived on the same ratios the other Florida layers use — the level is measured, the shape is assumed
- The rent in the two municipalities Zillow publishes no index for, which falls back to the median of the other twenty-two
- The utilities an owner pays over a renter, at $160 a month
- Maintenance at 1% of the home's value a year
- Every forward-looking rate: appreciation, rent growth, cost inflation and the return on the invested difference
- And nothing at all for a community development district assessment, which is less common here than in central Florida but not absent
- Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted — city file, June 2026 — Zillow Research, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), all homes, smoothed — city file, June 2026 — Zillow Research, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Table 1 — Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26: Miami-Dade — Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight, retrieved 2026-08-14
- 2025 millage rates and taxing authorities, Miami-Dade County — Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser, retrieved 2026-08-14
- About Fire Rescue — Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Documentary stamp tax — Florida Department of Revenue, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 — United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Average cost of home insurance in Florida, 2026 — MoneyGeek, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey — Freddie Mac, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Documentary stamp tax — Florida Department of Revenue, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages — Florida Department of Revenue, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Property tax exemptions and additional benefits — Florida Department of Revenue, retrieved 2026-08-14
- Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida — preemption of rent control — The Florida Senate, retrieved 2026-08-14
None of this includes a community development district assessment. A CDD is a special-purpose government that borrows to build a master-planned community's roads, drainage and amenities and repays the bonds through a non-ad-valorem line on your tax bill — commonly $1,200 to $3,000 a year in the newer parts of Florida. It is in no millage, it is not in any figure here, and it is the first thing to check on a new-build address. Nothing here is a listing, a lender quote or financial advice. Millage is set every September, exemptions are claimed by 1 March, and condominium reserve requirements are still working through this market. Confirm anything you plan to act on, and read the research and sourcing methodology for how the line between a fact and an assumption is drawn on this site.