In 1960, my parents left Communist Poland. The state, at the time, owned the factories, owned the farms, and effectively decided who was permitted to hold property and who was not. They chose to leave rather than live inside that arrangement, and they eventually settled in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, where I was born and raised. Eighteen years ago, I made a smaller version of the same decision, on a much smaller scale. I moved to the Vero Beach barrier island. I have spent every year since in a business built entirely on the thing my parents once had to leave a country to obtain: the right to own a piece of the place where you intend to build a life.
This year the coincidence has a specific occasion attached to it. The United States turns two hundred and fifty years old, and Vero Beach has built an official program around the milestone — Pioneers to Paradise, a Semiquincentennial time capsule ceremony, and an antique automobile exhibition at the Old Vero Beach Train Station, running alongside the fireworks that close over Riverside Park every Independence Day. It is not a generic anniversary this year. It is the anniversary, and it happens to land in the same year I mark eighteen on this island.
I · Property, Plainly UnderstoodThe thing my parents left to find
The details of what my parents left are not abstract to me, even secondhand. In the Poland of 1960, the state held the deed to nearly everything that mattered: the factories, the large farms, the terms under which a family could occupy an apartment. Private ownership of meaningful property was not a right so much as a permission, granted or withheld by people my parents had never voted for and could not remove. They left for the same reason most people leave that kind of arrangement. They wanted the right to own something outright, and to pass it to their children without asking anyone’s approval first.
That right is not incidental to the American story. It sits close to the center of it. And it is, not coincidentally, the exact transaction I have spent a career facilitating. Every closing I have attended is a small, specific instance of the same freedom my parents crossed an ocean to obtain.
II · A State Built Around OwnershipFlorida wrote the rest of the answer
Where a family chooses to exercise that freedom still matters, and Florida has spent decades writing law that treats homeownership as something to encourage rather than something to tax into difficulty. The state levies no income tax on wages, capital gains, or retirement income, a policy unchanged since Florida’s constitution was adopted. Since 1992, the Save Our Homes amendment has capped the annual increase in a homesteaded property’s assessed value at the lesser of three percent or the rate of inflation, regardless of what the surrounding market does. And a standing homestead exemption removes the first fifty thousand dollars of a primary residence’s assessed value from most property tax calculations today, as a matter of current law.
A further expansion is now on the ballot, not yet in the law. This November, Florida voters will decide Amendment 3, the measure known as HJR 1-F, which would raise that homestead exemption to one hundred fifty thousand dollars in 2027 and two hundred fifty thousand in 2028 if sixty percent of voters approve it.
III · What The Work Has Shown MeEighteen years of closings
I have now spent eighteen years watching families sign the paperwork that makes a house theirs on this island. Some are retiring. Some are relocating a business. A few, like my own parents once did, are simply choosing a place that lets them keep more of what they build. The specific reasons vary. The moment does not. It is the same moment, repeated many times over, and it has never once stopped being worth taking seriously.
Vero Premier Properties, the firm I co-founded with J. Vance Brinkerhoff as the Signature Division of Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, exists to handle that moment with the seriousness it deserves. We rank among RealTrends’ top 1.5 percent of agents nationally, were named to Apple News’s Top 10 Most Trusted Realtors in Florida for 2025, and hold the Cleveland Clinic Preferred Physician Realtors designation, exclusive to Indian River County. We are members of the International Luxury Alliance, a network spanning sixty markets, and between us we have closed more than $1.2 billion across over 2,000 transactions.
Deep-water access, oceanfront amenities, and championship golf — the life a closing makes possible.
The nation turns two hundred fifty years old this year. I turn eighteen on this island. Both numbers point at the same idea: a place worth choosing, and worth staying. My parents understood that with almost nothing else to their name. I get to spend a career helping other families understand it too. My parents chose a country. I chose an island.
Answer DeskFrequently asked questions
Does Florida have a state income tax?
No. Florida has never levied a state income tax on wages, capital gains, or retirement income, a policy set in the state’s constitution.
What is the Save Our Homes assessment cap?
Since 1992, Florida’s Save Our Homes amendment has limited the annual increase in a homesteaded property’s assessed value to the lesser of 3 percent or the rate of inflation, protecting long-term owners from sharp tax increases regardless of market swings.
What is the current Florida homestead exemption, and could it grow?
Florida’s standing exemption removes $50,000 of a primary residence’s assessed value today. A pending amendment, HJR 1-F (Amendment 3), would raise that to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 if 60 percent of voters approve it on November 3, 2026. It is not yet law.
What is Vero Beach doing to mark America’s 250th anniversary?
Vero Beach’s 2026 program, Pioneers to Paradise, includes a Semiquincentennial time capsule ceremony, an antique automobile exhibition at the Old Vero Beach Train Station, and the city’s traditional Riverside Park festival and fireworks.
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Raised in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and a resident of the Vero Beach barrier island for eighteen years. Co-founder of the Signature Division of Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, specializing in Sea Oaks, Grand Harbor, John’s Island, Orchid Island, and Windsor.
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