What Brevard County Property Taxes Cost

Somebody will tell you Brevard County runs about such-and-such a rate. That number does not exist. The county's 2025 millage sheet lists more than fifty separate millage codes, each one a different combination of taxing authorities, and every parcel in the county is assigned exactly one of them. Two houses four minutes apart, both collecting mail addressed to Melbourne Beach, can sit under different codes with different totals — because one is inside the incorporated Town and the other is in unincorporated Brevard County. Same beach, same ZIP, different governments, different bill. So the useful question is not "what is the rate here." It is "which authorities reach this address, and what does each one charge." That is a jurisdiction question, and it is answerable in about ten minutes for any specific home.

I have helped people buy and sell on the Space Coast since 2015, and this is the cost line buyers most often get from the wrong source — a neighbor, a forum, a rate somebody remembers from a different city. It matters most in the four newest towns on this site, because all four sit right on top of a boundary that changes the answer: Titusville at the north end of the mainland, Cape Canaveral and Satellite Beach on the barrier island, and Melbourne Beach, where the Town and the ZIP code are two very different shapes. Below is how the bill is assembled, what the four cities charged in 2025, where the lines fall, and how to pull the real number for any address before you write an offer.

There is no Brevard rate. There is a rate for your parcel, and a boundary decides which one you get.

The rate you were quoted belongs to somebody else's parcel

Florida property tax is not one levy. It is a stack of separate levies, each set by a separate government, each with its own budget and its own hearing. The Florida Department of Revenue puts the arithmetic plainly: taxable value equals assessed value minus exemptions, and your total tax liability is that taxable value multiplied by the millage rate. The complication is the second half of that sentence. The millage rate is a sum, and what goes into the sum depends entirely on where the parcel sits.

The county publishes the whole stack once a year. The 2025 millage sheet, issued over the Tax Collector's name in the Property Appraiser's tax roll documents, is a single page of columns. Each column is a millage code. Down the left are the authorities: the County Commission's general fund, the library district, mosquito control, the environmentally endangered lands levies, the four school levies, the water management district, the Florida Inland Navigation District, various recreation and road districts, and at the bottom, the municipalities. Where a row and a column intersect, that authority charges that parcel. Where it does not, it charges nothing. The bottom row is the total. Your parcel's millage code is printed in the upper right of your tax notice, and reading down that one column is the entire answer.

What is on a Brevard tax bill

A Brevard tax bill has two halves, and only the first half is a rate at all.

The top half is ad valorem — based on value. Every authority that reaches your parcel levies a millage against your taxable value, and millage is expressed in dollars per thousand dollars of valuation. The 2025 sheet's own instruction is to take the total millage for your code and multiply it by the taxable valuation shown on your notice. That gives the gross ad valorem tax.

The bottom half is non-ad valorem, and it is not based on value at all. The Florida Department of Revenue describes these as assessments calculated on a unit basis rather than on value, tied to an improvement or a service — drainage, lighting, paving and the like. The Brevard County Tax Collector confirms they are set amounts, separated from the ad valorem taxes on the notice by a bold horizontal line, and billed on an October-to-September fiscal year. This is where solid waste disposal and collection, state-mandated recycling, the fire services special assessment, stormwater utility fees and any Community Development District assessment land. A homestead exemption does nothing to this half of the bill, because there is no value for it to reduce.

Four cities, four different totals

Here is what the jurisdiction question looks like in numbers. All four of these towns are incorporated municipalities, so each one levies its own municipal millage on top of the county and school levies. In the 2025 tax year those four municipal rates ranged from roughly three mills to nearly eight, and the resulting totals ranged by about five mills — on identical taxable value, that is a real spread.

City or town (2025 tax year)	Municipal millage	Total millage for that code	What else is in the column
City of Cape Canaveral	3.1429	13.0550	County general fund, library, mosquito control, environmentally endangered lands, the four school levies, water management, Florida Inland Navigation District
Town of Melbourne Beach	4.6910	15.0586	The same county and school levies, plus the South Brevard Recreation District and the Sebastian Inlet District
City of Titusville	6.3000	17.0240	The same county and school levies, plus three north-Brevard recreation district lines
City of Satellite Beach	7.9000	18.1121	The same county and school levies, plus the South Brevard Recreation District

Read that table sideways and the point lands. Cape Canaveral and Satellite Beach sit on the same barrier island about fifteen miles apart, and the gap between their totals is a little over five mills. Almost all of that — 4.7571 mills — is simply the difference between what the two cities charge. The remaining 0.3000 is a district: Satellite Beach's column carries a South Brevard recreation levy that Cape Canaveral's does not. Titusville's column, at the other end of the county, carries three separate north-Brevard recreation lines that exist nowhere in the south.

Rates are also reset every single year, which is why a figure someone repeats from memory ages badly. Between the 2024 and 2025 tax years, all four of these municipal rates came down: Cape Canaveral from 3.2422 to 3.1429, Melbourne Beach from 4.7120 to 4.6910, Titusville from 6.7753 to 6.3000, and Satellite Beach from 7.9812 to 7.9000. A falling rate does not guarantee a falling bill, though, because the bill is the rate multiplied by your taxable value — and if your assessed value rose more than the rate fell, you pay more anyway.

Where the line falls in each of the four towns

A ZIP code is a mail route. A city limit is a government. They are drawn by different organizations for different reasons, and on the Space Coast they diverge often enough to catch people out. This is the part that decides which column of that sheet you land in.

Melbourne Beach: the Town is small, the ZIP is long

The incorporated Town of Melbourne Beach covers about one square mile of land — 0.988 square miles by the U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer — at the north end of the south barrier island. The 32951 ZIP runs far south of the town line, down A1A through unincorporated Brevard County toward Sebastian Inlet. A home in the Town pays the Town of Melbourne Beach millage. A home three miles south with the same mailing address pays no municipal millage at all, and instead carries county municipal service taxing unit levies in its place. Both are "Melbourne Beach" to the post office. Only one is Melbourne Beach to the tax roll. My Melbourne Beach real estate guide walks the two halves separately for exactly this reason.

Satellite Beach: one ZIP, three jurisdictions

The 32937 ZIP is shared. Satellite Beach is an incorporated city with its own police and fire departments. Indian Harbour Beach, immediately south, is a separate incorporated city with its own municipal millage. And South Patrick Shores, to the north toward the Pineda Causeway, is a census-designated place — unincorporated Brevard County, policed by the sheriff, with no city millage on the bill and county service levies instead. Three different answers, one mailing ZIP. The Satellite Beach guide covers where those limits run.

Cape Canaveral: a city millage that buys contracted services

Cape Canaveral is incorporated and levies its own millage, and in 2025 that millage was the lowest of the four by a wide margin. Part of the reason is visible in how the city is staffed. Law enforcement is provided by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, whose precincts are organized around the unincorporated areas of the county plus the cities of Cape Canaveral and Palm Shores, and the city's own department list points residents to the Sheriff's Canaveral Precinct and to Canaveral Fire Rescue rather than to city departments. A lower municipal rate is not a free lunch and it is not a warning sign either — it is a different arrangement, and it is worth understanding rather than assuming.

Titusville: a city plus districts that only exist up north

Titusville runs its own police department and fire and emergency services, and its 2025 municipal millage was 6.3000. What pushes the Titusville column above Melbourne Beach's, though, is not only the city rate. The column also carries a recreation district MSTU that includes Titusville plus two more north-Brevard recreation district lines, and those three rows together add another 0.8119. They are blank in every south-county column. If you are comparing the north end of the county to the beaches, compare whole columns, not city rates. The Titusville guide has the rest of the north-Brevard picture.

The second half of the bill nobody quotes you

Below that bold horizontal line sit charges that have nothing to do with your home's value, and they can move the total meaningfully. The Brevard County Tax Collector lists the county's non-ad valorem assessments, among them solid waste disposal, solid waste collection, state-mandated recycling, the fire services special assessment and stormwater utility fees — and the same page carries contact numbers for the county's Community Development Districts, because CDD assessments ride on the tax bill too.

That last one reaches one of these four towns directly. The Montecito Community Development District was created on July 20, 2005 by Ordinance 904 of the City of Satellite Beach under Chapter 190, Florida Statutes, and it levies non-ad valorem assessments on the benefited property inside it. Where the district uses the uniform collection method, those assessments are mailed by the County Tax Collector on November 1 and due on or before March 31 — the same envelope, the same deadline, as the rest of the bill. A buyer inside that district is looking at a city millage, county and school millage, and a district assessment, all on one page. If that is your situation, the mechanics are the same ones I walk through in what CDD fees are and what they cost in Viera; only the district changes.

Non-ad valorem assessments are not optional and they are not soft. Under s. 197.3632, Florida Statutes, assessments collected by the uniform method go into the combined notice with the ad valorem taxes, and failure to pay can cause a tax certificate to be issued against the property, which can end in loss of title. Treat that half of the bill as seriously as the millage half.

Your TRIM notice is the answer key

Every August, the Property Appraiser mails a Notice of Proposed Property Taxes — the TRIM notice, for Truth in Millage. It is not a bill, and it is the single most useful document in this whole conversation, because it lays the jurisdiction question out in a table.

Section 200.069, Florida Statutes prescribes the format. Each taxing authority gets its own line: the county, the school district's state-required levy, the local school board levies, the municipality and any municipal service taxing units, the water management district, independent special districts, and voter-approved debt. Across each line run the columns — last year's taxes, last year's adjusted rate, what you would pay this year with no budget change, the proposed rate, what you would pay under the proposed budget, and when that authority's public hearing will be held. A second page carries assessed value, exemption value and taxable value for both the previous and the current year, and lists every assessment reduction and exemption applied to your property. Non-ad valorem assessments, when included, are partitioned off by a bold horizontal line with the levying board named and the rate shown in dollars and cents per unit.

Read down the left column of your own TRIM notice and you can see precisely which governments reach your parcel. If a city line is there, you are inside the city. If it is not, you are not, whatever the envelope says.

The dates, and the four percent most people leave on the table

The tax bill itself arrives later, and paying it early is worth real money. The Brevard County Tax Collector mails statements on or about November 1 each year, and the discount steps down a point a month from there. Discounts are based on the postmark, so a payment mailed on the last day of a month still earns that month's rate.

When you pay	Discount	Note
First 30 days after the original mailing date	4%	Statements mail on or about November 1
December	3%	Discounts are based on postmark
January	2%	—
February	1%	—
March	0%	Gross amount due
April 1	Delinquent	A 3% minimum mandatory charge is added to the gross amount

On a bill of any size, four percent is not a rounding error, and it is the easiest saving on this entire page. If you are escrowing through your lender, ask when they remit — the discount only lands if the payment goes out inside the window.

How to get the real number for a specific Space Coast home

None of this needs to be guesswork. Every piece of it is public, and the whole check takes about ten minutes per property.

Start at the Brevard County Property Appraiser and search the address. That gives you the parcel record, its assessed and taxable value, the exemptions the current owner holds, and the tax history. Note the millage code. Then open the millage sheet for the current tax year, find that code across the top, and read down the column — every authority that levies on the parcel, and the total at the bottom. Multiply the total by the taxable value you expect as the new owner, not the seller's. Then look at the non-ad valorem section of the tax record for the flat assessments, and if there is a Community Development District line, contact the district for the remaining bond balance.

Two cautions before you turn that into a budget. First, the seller's taxable value is usually not going to be yours — a change of ownership can reset the assessment, and the seller's accumulated Save Our Homes protection does not transfer with the keys, which is the whole subject of the homestead exemption and Save Our Homes. Second, taxes are one line in a bigger number; the insurance, flood, association and maintenance lines belong in the same spreadsheet, which is what the real cost of owning a home on the Space Coast pulls together. A local agent bound by the standards of the Space Coast Association of REALTORS® can run this check with you on any address before you tour.

Frequently asked questions

How much are property taxes in Brevard County?

There is no single countywide rate. Brevard's 2025 millage sheet lists more than fifty separate millage codes, and each parcel is assigned one. Among the four towns covered here, total 2025 millage ranged from 13.0550 in the City of Cape Canaveral to 18.1121 in the City of Satellite Beach, with the Town of Melbourne Beach at 15.0586 and the City of Titusville at 17.0240. Millage is expressed in dollars per thousand dollars of taxable value, so the total for your code multiplied by your taxable value gives the gross ad valorem tax. Rates are reset every year, so check the current sheet rather than relying on a figure from memory.

Why do two Brevard homes worth the same amount pay different property taxes?

Because different taxing authorities reach them. Your bill is the sum of every authority that levies on your parcel, and which ones those are depends on where the parcel sits: inside a city or in unincorporated county, inside a recreation or inlet district or not, inside a Community Development District or not. Two homes with identical taxable value in different millage codes pay different amounts. On top of that, exemptions differ from owner to owner, and the non-ad valorem assessments below the bold line on the bill are flat charges that vary by parcel and are not reduced by exemptions at all.

What is a millage code, and where do I find mine?

A millage code identifies the exact combination of taxing authorities that levy on a parcel. It is printed in the upper right portion of your tax notice. Take that code to the county millage sheet for the tax year, find the code across the top, and read down the column: every row with a figure in it is an authority that charges your parcel, and the bottom row is your total millage. Multiply that total by the taxable valuation shown on your notice to get the gross ad valorem tax due. If you are looking at a home you do not own yet, the parcel record at the Brevard County Property Appraiser will give you the code.

Do I pay city taxes if my address says Melbourne Beach or Satellite Beach?

Not necessarily, because a ZIP code is a mail route and a city limit is a government boundary, and on the Space Coast they do not match. The incorporated Town of Melbourne Beach covers about one square mile of land, while the 32951 ZIP runs far south of the town line through unincorporated Brevard County. The 32937 ZIP is shared by Satellite Beach, the separate city of Indian Harbour Beach, and South Patrick Shores, which is unincorporated. A parcel inside a city pays that city's millage; a parcel outside it pays county municipal service taxing unit levies instead. Confirm the city limit on the specific address rather than reading it off the mailing city.

What are the non-ad valorem assessments on a Brevard tax bill?

They are flat charges for a service or improvement rather than taxes on value, and they sit below a bold horizontal line on the tax notice. The Brevard County Tax Collector lists the county's assessments, which include solid waste disposal, solid waste collection, state-mandated recycling, the fire services special assessment and stormwater utility fees, and Community Development District assessments also ride on the bill. They are billed on an October-to-September fiscal year. A homestead exemption does not reduce them, because there is no value for the exemption to work against, and under Florida law failure to pay them can cause a tax certificate to be issued against the property.

When are Brevard property taxes due, and how do I get the discount?

The Brevard County Tax Collector mails tax statements on or about November 1 each year. A 4% discount applies for the first 30 days after the original mailing date, then 3% in December, 2% in January, 1% in February, and no discount in March. Taxes become delinquent on April 1, when a 3% minimum mandatory charge is added to the gross amount. All discounts are based on postmark, so a payment mailed on the last day of a month still earns that month's discount. If your taxes are escrowed, ask your lender when they remit, because the discount only applies if the payment goes out inside the window.

My city lowered its millage rate. Does that mean my tax bill goes down?

Not necessarily. Your bill is the rate multiplied by your taxable value, so if your assessed value rose by more than the rate fell, you can pay more than you did the year before. Between the 2024 and 2025 tax years all four of these municipal rates came down: Cape Canaveral from 3.2422 to 3.1429, Melbourne Beach from 4.7120 to 4.6910, Titusville from 6.7753 to 6.3000, and Satellite Beach from 7.9812 to 7.9000. Your August TRIM notice shows both sides of that equation, listing what you would pay with no budget change alongside what you would pay under the proposed budget, plus your assessed, exempt and taxable values for last year and this year.

What is a TRIM notice and should I do anything when it arrives?

The TRIM notice, short for Truth in Millage, is the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes mailed each August. It is not a bill, but it is the clearest document you will get all year, because Florida law requires it to list each taxing authority on its own line with last year's rate, the proposed rate, and the public hearing date for that authority's budget. A second page shows your assessed value, exemption value and taxable value for both years. Read it: the presence or absence of a city line tells you whether you are inside a municipality. And if you disagree with your value or an exemption decision, the petition to the value adjustment board is filed with the clerk of the court within 25 days of the notice.

Keep reading

Data last verified: August 2026. Millage rates and totals are for the 2025 and 2024 tax years as published in the Brevard County millage sheets in the Property Appraiser's tax roll documents; they are reset annually by each taxing authority and apply to the millage codes shown, not to every parcel with that mailing address. Non-ad valorem assessments, discount periods and deadlines are administered by the Brevard County Tax Collector and can change. Confirm the current year's millage code, rates and assessments for the specific property with the Brevard County Property Appraiser and the Brevard County Tax Collector, and consult a tax professional for your situation.