Pasco County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

Pasco County covers about 747 square miles of land north of Tampa, from Anclote Key and the Gulf coast to Dade City, and about 675,000 people live here. The county is named for U.S. Senator Samuel Pasco, who never visited it.

If you’re buying in Pasco or already own here, this page gives you the working picture: the cities and the big unincorporated communities, where the loan limits are, the county and HFA money for down payments, homestead filing at three appraiser offices, sinkhole and surge risk, and the utilities to set up when you move.

All of our sources for this guide are listed at the bottom of the page.

  • County seatDade City
  • Founded1887, from Hernando County
  • PopulationAbout 675,000
  • Land areaAbout 747 sq mi
  • Main highwaysI-75, Suncoast Parkway, US 19, SR 54
  • FHA limit, 1 unit$541,287 in 2026
  • Conventional limit, 1 unit$832,750 in 2026
  • School districtPasco County Schools

Cities and communities across Pasco County

Pasco’s cities are Zephyrhills, Dade City, New Port Richey, Port Richey, San Antonio and St. Leo. Wesley Chapel, Land O’ Lakes, Holiday, Hudson, Trinity, Odessa, Bayonet Point and Connerton are communities rather than cities, so check the address before you count on any city program.

The county was carved from the southern third of Hernando County on June 2, 1887. County government runs two identical government centers built in 1979, in Dade City on the east side and New Port Richey on the west, plus the Central Pasco Government Center in Land O’ Lakes.

Wesley Chapel

Wesley Chapel sits about 25 miles north of Tampa, next to New Tampa, with access to I-75 and I-275. The Shops at Wiregrass, Tampa Premium Outlets and Cypress Creek Town Center are here, along with AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, opened in 2013.

Land O’ Lakes

Land O’ Lakes holds the Central Pasco Government Center at 4111 Land O’ Lakes Blvd. and the Pasco County Schools district office at 7227 Land O’ Lakes Blvd.

Dade City

Dade City has been the county seat since 1889 and is named for Major Francis L. Dade. It covers about 7.8 square miles at 118 feet of elevation, its courthouse square hosts the Dade City Cruise-In car show, and the Pioneer Florida Museum, opened on Labor Day 1975, is just outside town.

Zephyrhills

Zephyrhills was known as Abbott until 1910 and incorporated in 1914. It’s the headquarters of Zephyrhills bottled water, Skydive City operates at the municipal airport, and the 5th Avenue downtown historic district has been on the National Register since 2001.

New Port Richey

New Port Richey grew in the 1920s land boom, when silent-film star Thomas Meighan and golfer Gene Sarazen spent their winters there. The West Pasco Government Center is at 8731 Citizens Drive.

Holiday and the Gulf coast

US 19 carries traffic along Pasco’s Gulf coast past Holiday, where SR 54 begins its run east, and commercial fishing works out of West Pasco. Offshore, Anclote Key is a barrier island that sits mostly in Pasco County, inside Anclote Key Preserve State Park.

Buying in Pasco, and the loan limits

Pasco feels like three counties in one. On the west side, New Port Richey, Port Richey and Holiday sit along US 19 near the Gulf. In the middle, Land O’ Lakes holds the Central Pasco Government Center, and Wesley Chapel sits by I-75 next to New Tampa. On the east side, Dade City is the county seat and SR 54 runs out to Zephyrhills. Pasco keeps adding new construction, so if you’re touring model homes, get pre-approved with us before you sit down in a builder’s sales office.

If you’re still renting, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll show you what that rent could buy in Pasco.

The FHA and Conventional limits for Pasco County are in the table below. HUD and FHFA reset them every January, and the table pulls HUD’s new figures on its own.

Loan limits in Pasco County for 2026 Maximum loan
FHA, single-family home $541,287
FHA, two-unit home $693,050
FHA, three-unit home $837,700
FHA, four-unit home $1,041,125
Conventional, single-family home $832,750

HUD sets the FHA limits and FHFA sets the Conventional limits for every county, and both change each January. This table refreshes itself from HUD's published figures.

Pasco is in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro for HUD’s limits. On a $375,000 purchase, FHA’s 3.5% minimum down payment is $13,125, and down payment programs can cover part or all of that, though the county’s own program has its own price cap. Call or text us at 954-816-8820 with the address, Wesley Chapel, Holiday or Dade City, and we’ll work up the payment and tell you which programs that house can use.

Down payment help for Pasco County buyers

Pasco buyers can use a county down payment program, the Pinellas County Housing Finance Authority, which lends here too, and statewide Florida Housing programs. Each comes with income, price and property rules that change over time, so we check the house against them before you write the offer.

Pasco County Down Payment Assistance

Pasco County Community Development offers down payment help to very-low and low income buyers as a 0% second mortgage that’s deferred and then forgiven at the end of its term. You can’t have owned a home in the last 3 years, and you’ll take a county-sponsored class through Suncoast Housing Connections (727-442-7075). Community Development: 727-834-3445.

The program won’t fund homes in special flood hazard or repetitive-loss areas or homes with a sinkhole or ground-settlement history, and it sets a purchase price cap and income limits that the county revisits.

Pasco opens and closes this program as its funding allows, and the award amounts move with income tier. Call us before you commit to a house and we’ll check with Community Development what the program pays, whether it’s taking applications, and whether the house clears the price cap, the flood map and its sinkhole history.

Official program page

Pinellas HFA First-Time Homebuyer Program in Pasco

The Housing Finance Authority of Pinellas County serves Pasco with an FHA, VA, RD or Freddie Mac HFA Advantage first mortgage plus Home Key Plus down payment assistance, a 0% deferred second you repay when you sell, refinance or move out. It’s for first-time buyers or veterans and requires an education class, with higher income and price limits in target tracts.

Pasco’s own Housing Finance Authority has an agreement that lets Pinellas issue single-family mortgage revenue bonds on Pasco’s behalf; Pasco HFA line: (727) 834-3447. Pinellas resets the Home Key Plus amount, credit minimum and limits when it updates the program, so text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll confirm the Pinellas terms for a Pasco address before you lean on them.

Official program page

Pasco Opportunity Program

The Pasco Opportunity Program puts a deep subsidy on homes built or rehabilitated by the county’s partner nonprofit agencies, through Pasco County Community Development.

Which homes are in the program depends on what the partner nonprofits have built or rehabbed at the time. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll ask Community Development whether one is available and what it takes to qualify.

Official program page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Florida Hometown Heroes pairs a Florida Housing 30-year fixed first mortgage with a 0% down payment and closing cost second with no monthly payment. It’s deferred and repaid, not forgiven, when you sell, refinance, pay off the first or stop living in the home. At least one buyer works full time for a Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care, so AdventHealth staff in Wesley Chapel and Dade City and Pasco County Schools employees can be in eligible fields.

In Pasco, active-duty buyers qualify with any employer, and veterans and Reserve or National Guard members qualify if they work full time for a Florida-based employer. Pasco buyers must complete a homebuyer education course and apply through a participating lender or broker. Florida Housing help is once in a lifetime, so use it on the right Pasco house with the right lender. Its purchase limit is set separately from the county program’s cap, so call 888-601-8344 first and we’ll confirm Hometown Heroes is reserving funds and what it pays on your price.

Official program page

FL Assist and HFA Preferred / HFA Advantage (statewide)

Florida Housing’s FL Assist is a 0% deferred second with no monthly payment, repaid on sale, refinance, transfer or when you move out, behind a Florida Housing FHA, VA, USDA or Conventional HFA Preferred or HFA Advantage first. FL HLP is a second with a small fixed monthly payment over 30 years, and HFA Advantage PLUS adds a second that’s forgiven over 5 years while you live in the home.

Florida Housing reserves these loan by loan and they can run out. Call us and we’ll tell you which one is funded and pairs best with the county program or Home Key Plus on the house you’ve picked.

Official program page

We also offer FHA 100% financing: a 96.5% FHA first mortgage paired with a down payment assistance second, so the down payment can come entirely from the second instead of your savings. That matters in Pasco, where a house over the county program’s price cap can still work this way. Call us before you write an offer and we’ll check which programs are funded that week and which one works on that house.

Property taxes and your homestead exemption

Owner-occupants in Pasco should file for the Florida homestead exemption. It takes up to $50,000 off your assessed value in two pieces: $25,000 against every tax, school taxes included, and a second $25,000 against non-school taxes on value above $50,000. It also brings the Save Our Homes cap on assessment increases, and you can port some or all of that savings to your next Florida homestead.

Homestead goes by who owns the home on January 1, and the filing deadline is March 1 of the following year. The Pasco County Property Appraiser has homestead details and filing online and three offices, one on each side of the county and one in the middle.

The Pasco County Tax Collector runs five offices, in New Port Richey, Gulf Harbors, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel/Lutz and Dade City, for property taxes, driver licenses and tags. If your loan carries an escrow account, the lender sends the payment to the Tax Collector for you.

Pasco County Property Appraiser

East Pasco Government Center, 14236 6th St., Suite 101, Dade City 33523; 352-521-4433

Central Pasco Government Center, 4111 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., Suite 106, Land O’ Lakes 34639; 813-929-2780

West Pasco Government Center, 8731 Citizens Dr., Suite 130, New Port Richey 34654; 727-847-8151

Property search: pascopa.com

Tax bills and payments: Pasco County Tax Collector, phone (727) 847-8032

Sinkholes, storm surge and insurance in Pasco

Sinkholes are the Pasco insurance question. Pasco, Hernando and Hillsborough are the three ‘sinkhole alley’ counties that together held about two-thirds of Florida sinkhole claims in state Office of Insurance Regulation data, and Pasco had the largest share of Citizens sinkhole claims of any county from 2006 to 2009.

Every residential policy in Florida must cover catastrophic ground cover collapse. Anything broader is extra: insurers have to offer full sinkhole coverage for an added premium, with a choice of percentage-based sinkhole deductibles, and they can require an inspection first.

On the coast, Hurricane Helene pushed 6 to 9 feet of storm surge inundation from south of Cedar Key to the Anclote River in 2024, and a protected sensor in Pasco measured 7.60 feet above mean higher high water. A few weeks later, Hurricane Milton’s rain flooded the Anclote River, which crested at 26.57 feet. The county set up its Better Future program to repair, rebuild or replace homes damaged by hurricanes.

  • Especially near the Gulf or the Anclote River, look up a Pasco address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center before you make an offer. A high-risk zone means a flood policy on any federally backed loan, and it also rules out the county’s own down payment help.
  • Ask the seller about any sinkhole claims, repairs or ground settlement, and price full sinkhole coverage before your inspection period ends. You can reach the Florida Geological Survey’s sinkhole helpline at 850-245-2118.
  • Find your evacuation zone with the county’s Evacuation Zone Finder, sign up for Alert Pasco, and download the county’s Disaster Guide from Emergency Management.
  • Get homeowners and sinkhole quotes side by side before you’re under contract. The roof’s age moves the homeowners premium most, and a wind mitigation inspection can bring it down.

Jobs, schools and getting around

Pasco promotes itself as Florida’s Sports Coast, and the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus in Wesley Chapel hosts tournaments that bring in visitors. AdventHealth runs hospitals in Wesley Chapel and Dade City, Zephyrhills bottled water is produced here, Duke Energy’s Anclote plant sits on the coast, and commercial fishing works out of West Pasco.

Schools and colleges

Pasco County Schools runs the public schools. The district office is at 7227 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., (813) 794-2000, and can tell you which schools serve an address.

Pasco-Hernando State College has its Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch in Wesley Chapel.

Getting around

I-75 and the Suncoast Parkway (SR 589, a toll road) run north-south, US 19 serves the Gulf coast cities, and US 41, US 98 and US 301 cross the county. SR 52, SR 54 and SR 56 are the main east-west roads: SR 54 runs from US 19 near Holiday to US 301 in Zephyrhills, and SR 56 reached US 301 in Zephyrhills in late 2019. County Line Road (CR 578) marks the Hernando line.

There’s no commercial airport in the county, so Tampa International is the closest. General aviation uses Zephyrhills Municipal, Pilot Country and Tampa North Aero Park, and Pasco County Public Transportation runs local buses.

Lakes, trails and local favorites

Anclote Key Preserve State Park

Anclote Key is a Gulf barrier island that sits mostly in Pasco County, protected inside Anclote Key Preserve State Park off the Anclote River.

Hancock Lake and the trail network

Hancock Lake is the county’s largest at 478 acres. Pasco’s county park system also includes paved trails, unpaved trails and designated blueways for paddling.

Dade City traditions

Dade City holds an annual Kumquat Festival for the locally grown fruit, and the Dade City Cruise-In fills the courthouse square with cars. The Pioneer Florida Museum has been open just outside town since Labor Day 1975.

Zephyrhills airport

The Zephyrhills Museum of Military History sits in the former World War II infirmary at the municipal airport, which was an army training field during the war. Skydive City runs jumps from the same airport.

Movie history

A house in the Lutz area was a main set for the film ‘Edward Scissorhands.’

Pasco was citrus country before the Great Freeze of 1894-1895 wiped out many of the county’s growers.

Moving to Pasco County: your first-month checklist

  • Electric: three companies split Pasco. Duke Energy Florida (with its Anclote plant on the coast) and Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Dade City, operate in the county, and Tampa Electric serves parts of it, so ask which one covers the address.
  • Water and sewer: Pasco County Utilities opens, closes and reconnects water accounts online and has offered a Septic Upgrade Incentive Program. Lawn irrigation follows Southwest Florida Water Management District rules.
  • Driver license and tag: handled at the Pasco County Tax Collector offices, including road tests.
  • Homestead: file online or at the Property Appraiser’s Dade City, Land O’ Lakes or New Port Richey office by March 1 after the year you close.
  • County questions: call 727-847-2411 or go to pascocountyfl.gov.
  • Hurricane season: look up your evacuation zone and sign up for Alert Pasco.

Buying or refinancing in Pasco County with AAA Capital Funding

Buying a home

FHA is the loan most of our Pasco buyers choose: 3.5% down, flexible credit guidelines, and it works with the county program and Home Key Plus. Veterans who qualify can use VA with no down payment, and we also close Conventional, Hometown Heroes, FHA 100% financing and DSCR loans for rentals.

We’ve held a Florida mortgage broker license since 1997 and lend statewide in all 67 Florida counties, so a house in Hudson and one in Zephyrhills get the same attention, and so does your next move anywhere in Florida. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders and tell you what you qualify for before you tour a model home.

Refinancing the home you have

A refinance can lower your monthly payment, take cash out for a new roof or storm repairs, pay off higher-interest debt, or buy out a co-owner on the title. If your Pasco home has gained value, that equity can go to work.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll show you the new payment, what you’d walk away with in cash and the full cost of the refinance on one page, so the choice on your Pasco house rests on real numbers.

Pasco County questions we hear a lot

What is the FHA loan limit in Pasco County, Florida?

The FHA and Conventional limits for Pasco are in the loan limit table on this page. HUD and FHFA reset them every January, and Pasco shares its FHA limits with the rest of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro.

Is there down payment assistance in Pasco County?

Yes. Pasco County’s program offers a deferred, forgivable second to income-qualified buyers, and the Pinellas County HFA adds Home Key Plus help in Pasco. Statewide, Hometown Heroes and FL Assist reach Pasco buyers as well. Ask us which ones have money the week you write an offer.

Will the Pasco County program pay toward any house?

No. It has a purchase price cap, and it won’t fund homes in special flood hazard or repetitive-loss areas or homes with a sinkhole or ground-settlement history. On a house that doesn’t fit, the HFA program or FHA 100% financing may still work.

When do I file for homestead in Pasco County?

By March 1 of the year after you buy, with the Pasco County Property Appraiser in Dade City, Land O’ Lakes or New Port Richey, or online. Ownership on January 1 decides the year.

Do I need sinkhole insurance in Pasco County?

Your policy already covers catastrophic ground cover collapse, because Florida law requires it. Full sinkhole coverage is an added premium and may need an inspection, and since Pasco led Citizens sinkhole claims from 2006 to 2009, price it before your inspection period ends.

Sources for this guide (28)
  1. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Pasco County, FL
  2. Pasco County, Florida (Wikipedia, history, roads and parks)
  3. Dade City, Florida (Wikipedia)
  4. Wesley Chapel, Florida (Wikipedia)
  5. Zephyrhills, Florida (Wikipedia)
  6. HUD: FHA mortgage limits lookup
  7. Pasco County: Down Payment Assistance Program
  8. Pasco County: Community Development
  9. Pasco County: Housing Finance Authority
  10. Pinellas County: First-Time Homebuyer Program
  11. Pasco County: Better Future program
  12. Florida Housing: Hometown Heroes
  13. Florida Housing: Homebuyer programs
  14. Florida Department of Revenue: Homestead exemption (PT-113)
  15. Pasco County Property Appraiser
  16. Pasco County Property Appraiser: Homestead
  17. Pasco County Tax Collector
  18. Pasco County Emergency Management
  19. National Hurricane Center: Hurricane Helene report
  20. Florida Senate: Sinkhole insurance interim report
  21. Florida Statutes 627.706: Sinkhole coverage
  22. Florida Geological Survey: Sinkholes
  23. Pasco County Schools
  24. Florida PSC: Electric service area map
  25. Emera: Tampa Electric
  26. Pasco County Utilities
  27. Pasco County government
  28. FEMA Flood Map Service Center

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. NMLS #374739. Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700. Licensed Florida mortgage broker serving Pasco County and all 67 Florida counties since 1997. Equal Housing Opportunity.

You work with the same person from start to finish, in every county in Florida.

We've been closing Florida loans since 1997, in all 67 counties. If you want to know what's possible in Pasco County, call 888-601-8344 or text 954-816-8820. One call, under ten minutes. No application needed to start.

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. · NMLS #374739 · Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700