St. Johns County Property Records

St. Johns County property records are maintained by the Property Appraiser's office in St. Augustine and are available to the public under Florida's open records law. You can search parcel data, look up assessed values, and request copies of records online or in person.

St. Johns County Property Appraiser's Office

The St. Johns County Property Appraiser's office is located at 4030 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084. You can reach the office by phone at 904-827-5500. The official website is at sjcpa.org. St. Augustine is the county seat and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the United States, though the Property Appraiser's office operates from a modern facility just north of the downtown area.

St. Johns County has seen rapid population growth in recent decades. New residential developments in areas like Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, and St. Johns have added thousands of parcels to the county's tax roll. The Property Appraiser's office handles assessment, exemptions, and records for all of these parcels, from older homes in St. Augustine to brand-new construction in master-planned communities.

The office values all real property in St. Johns County as of January 1 each year. That value drives the property tax calculation made by the Tax Collector. The appraiser must physically inspect each property at least once every five years under Florida law, using on-site visits or aerial photography. In a fast-growing county, keeping up with new construction and changes to existing properties is an ongoing challenge for the office.

Property Tax Oversight and State Resources

The Florida Department of Revenue oversees property tax administration in all 67 counties, including St. Johns. DOR sets rules for how property must be valued, reviews county tax rolls for compliance, and publishes guidance for both property owners and county officials. If you have a question about state-level rules that affect your St. Johns County property, the DOR Property Tax Oversight program is a useful resource.

The Florida DOR Property Tax Oversight contact page at floridarevenue.com lists phone numbers, addresses, and email contacts for reaching the state office that supervises property tax administration in St. Johns County and across Florida.

Land Title and Survey Records

For questions about land title, boundaries, and official survey records in St. Johns County, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Survey and Mapping is a key state resource. This bureau maintains title and land records for state-owned lands and can provide information about original government surveys and subdivision plats.

The Florida DEP Bureau of Survey and Mapping maintains title and land records for state-owned properties and provides public access to survey data that is relevant to understanding St. Johns County land boundaries and descriptions.

For privately held property in St. Johns County, the source of title information is the St. Johns County Clerk of Circuit Court. The Clerk records deeds, mortgages, liens, and other instruments affecting real property under Chapter 28 of the Florida Statutes. The Property Appraiser uses recorded deeds to update ownership in the parcel database, but the actual deed documents are held by the Clerk.

Homestead Exemption in St. Johns County

Florida law allows homeowners to exempt up to $50,000 from their assessed value through homestead exemption. You must own and use the property as your primary residence on January 1. The deadline to apply in St. Johns County is March 1. Applications can be filed in person at the Property Appraiser's office or through the office's online portal.

The Save Our Homes cap, established under Florida law, limits annual increases in assessed value to 3% or the Consumer Price Index change for homesteaded properties. Non-homestead properties are capped at 10% per year. In a county like St. Johns, where property values have risen sharply, long-term homeowners often find their assessed values significantly below current market prices because of this cap.

If you sell your home and buy another in Florida, you may be able to carry your accumulated Save Our Homes benefit to the new property through portability. File the portability application along with your new homestead application. Both must be submitted by March 1 to apply for the upcoming tax year.

Additional exemptions are available to seniors, veterans with service-connected disabilities, totally disabled individuals, widows, and widowers. Some disabled veterans pay no property taxes at all under Florida law. Contact the St. Johns County Property Appraiser's office at 904-827-5500 to find out what you may qualify for and what documents you need to bring.

Public Records and Access Rights

Under Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, most records held by the St. Johns County Property Appraiser are public. You can request parcel data, assessment rolls, exemption records, and other documents by contacting the office in writing or in person. There is no required format for a request. Copy fees apply for printed records.

Property assessment in St. Johns County follows the same Florida statutes as every other county. Chapter 192 covers general property tax rules. Chapter 193 governs assessment procedures. If you believe your assessed value is incorrect, contact the office for an informal review or file a petition with the St. Johns County Value Adjustment Board before the deadline shown on your TRIM notice.

New Construction and Rapidly Growing Areas

St. Johns County has some of the fastest-growing zip codes in Florida. New subdivisions and developments continue to add parcels to the tax roll each year. If you own or are buying a new construction home, keep in mind that the assessed value may change significantly in the year after construction is complete, since the property may have been assessed as vacant land or a partial improvement during the building phase.

Also be aware that new construction additions and deletions may not appear in the online parcel database until after January 1 of the next tax year. If you recently closed on a new build, give the system time to catch up before assuming the listed data is fully current.

Cities in St. Johns County

St. Johns County's largest communities include St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra, and Nocatee. St. Augustine has a population of approximately 14,000, and Ponte Vedra is around 36,000. Neither meets the 100,000 population threshold, so no individual city pages exist for St. Johns County on this site. All St. Johns County properties are assessed by the Property Appraiser's office at 4030 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine.

Nearby Counties

St. Johns County shares borders with four other Florida counties in the northeast part of the state.