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

Sumter County covers about 557 square miles of land, and about 158,000 people live here. Its nickname is Hog County, for its large wild hog population, and its county seat, Bushnell, is home to the battlefield where the Second Seminole War began.

On a first call about buying or refinancing in Sumter, we’d walk you through the cities and rural communities, how the loan limits work, the county’s SHIP purchase loan, why your tax rate changes from one city to the next, homestead filing, storm and tornado history, and the offices you’ll deal with after you move in.

Every source for this guide is listed at the bottom of the page.

  • County seatBushnell
  • Founded1853
  • PopulationAbout 158,000
  • Land area557 sq mi
  • Named forGen. Thomas Sumter
  • FHA limit, 1 unit$541,287 in 2026
  • Conventional limit, 1 unit$832,750 in 2026
  • School districtSumter County School District

Cities and communities across Sumter County

Sumter has five incorporated cities: Wildwood (1877), Coleman (1908), Bushnell (1911), Center Hill (1925) and Webster (1957). Bushnell is the county seat, but the county’s main administration building is in Wildwood, at 7375 Powell Road. Communities outside the cities include The Villages, Lake Panasoffkee, Sumterville, Mabel, Tarrytown, Rutland, Wahoo, Linden and St. Catherine.

The county was created on January 8, 1853, and named for General Thomas Sumter, a general in the American Revolutionary War.

Bushnell

Bushnell is the county seat, incorporated in 1911, and home to Dade Battlefield Historic State Park and Florida National Cemetery. The city runs its own municipal electric utility, and the Property Appraiser’s main office is on E McCollum Avenue.

Wildwood

Wildwood is Sumter’s oldest city, incorporated in 1877, and its largest. The county’s main administration building is here at 7375 Powell Road, and Florida’s Turnpike meets I-75 in the county.

The Villages

The Villages is a legally age-restricted (55+) master-planned community that spans Sumter, Lake and Marion counties. The Tax Collector runs a drive-thru office there at 8033 E CR 466.

Webster

Webster is Sumter’s newest city, incorporated in 1957. Every Monday, Webster Westside Flea Market fills 35 acres of an 80-acre compound of three open-air markets at 516 NW 3rd Street, and it has been running for more than 50 years.

Sumterville

Sumterville sits on U.S. 301 and is headquarters for SECO Energy, at 330 S. U.S. Hwy. 301. Lake-Sumter State College’s Sumter Center is here too.

Lake Panasoffkee

Lake Panasoffkee is a census-designated place around the lake of the same name. The 9,911-acre Lake Panasoffkee park and preserve is reached from the south side of State Route 44, two miles west of I-75.

Coleman, Center Hill and Mabel

Coleman was incorporated in 1908, and the Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman, is in the area. Center Hill was incorporated in 1925. Mabel, a rural community, sits at the Sumter end of the General James A. Van Fleet State Trail.

Where people buy in Sumter County, and how the loan limits work

Outside The Villages, Sumter is rural, with small cities at Bushnell, Webster, Coleman and Center Hill and agricultural land along U.S. 301 and the Van Fleet trail corridor, which runs past former citrus land and cattle ranches. Wildwood, the oldest and largest city, sits where Florida’s Turnpike meets I-75, and the community of Lake Panasoffkee surrounds the lake of the same name, off SR 44 near I-75.

Prices differ from one part of the county to the next and move month to month, so we’d rather pull the sales for the exact area you’re shopping than print a county number that ages badly. If you’re renting in Wildwood, Bushnell or anywhere else in the county, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll put your rent next to a real house payment, the local property tax rate included.

In a master-planned community, ask whether the tax bill carries a community development district (CDD) assessment. It gets paid along with your property taxes and counts in your monthly payment.

The FHA and Conventional limits for Sumter County are in the table below. HUD and FHFA reset them every January, and the table brings in the new figures by itself.

Loan limits in Sumter 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.

Here’s the FHA minimum as an example: a $375,000 home takes 3.5% down, or $13,125, and the programs below can cover part or all of it. Call or text us at 954-816-8820 with the address, and we’ll figure the payment using that city’s tax rate.

Down payment help for Sumter County buyers

Sumter’s local help works differently from many counties. Its SHIP money comes as a 0% loan you pay back monthly, not a deferred or forgiven second, so it’s worth comparing with the statewide Florida Housing programs before you choose.

Sumter County SHIP Purchase Assistance

Sumter County Housing Services offers SHIP help toward the down payment and closing costs for very-low, low and moderate income first-time buyers, meaning no home owned in the prior 3 years, on a new or existing single-family home. It’s a 0% loan repaid in monthly installments, and you can pay it off anytime. The plan caps the purchase price, and you finish a HUD-approved homeownership course before closing. We’ll count the monthly payment when we qualify you.

Sumter runs SHIP first-qualified, first-served, and the loan size and price cap come from a housing plan the county updates. Before you sign on a house in Wildwood or Bushnell, we ask Housing Services what SHIP is lending and whether purchase money is still on hand. Call 888-601-8344, or reach the county’s main line at 352-689-4400.

County housing plan

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Unlike the county’s SHIP loan, the Hometown Heroes second has no monthly payment. It’s a 0% down payment and closing cost second behind a 30-year fixed FHA, VA, USDA or Conventional first, repaid when you sell, refinance or pay off the home or stop living in it, and it’s never forgiven. Buyers qualify by working full time for a Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care. Active-duty military qualify with any employer, and veterans, Reserve and Guard members qualify when they work full time for a Florida-based employer, an employer in Bushnell or Wildwood included.

There’s a homebuyer education course (online counts), and you apply through a participating lender or broker. Florida Housing assistance can be used once in a lifetime, so pick the Sumter home you’ll want to keep and the right loan to go with it. Funds are reserved loan by loan, so call 888-601-8344 and we’ll check Hometown Heroes against your address before you write an offer.

Official program page

FL Assist, FL HLP and HFA Preferred (statewide)

FL Assist is a 0% deferred second with no monthly payment, repaid when you sell, refinance, transfer or move out, paired with a Florida Housing first mortgage: FHA, VA, USDA, or the Conventional HFA Preferred and HFA Advantage loans. The HLP second, like Sumter’s SHIP loan, does carry a monthly payment: a small fixed one over 30 years. HFA Advantage PLUS adds a second to a Freddie Mac Conventional first that’s forgiven over 5 years while you live there.

Florida Housing calls a Sumter buyer first-time after 3 years of not owning a primary residence, and a veteran with a DD-214 may be exempt. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll set the monthly cost of each one against Sumter’s SHIP loan for you.

Official program page

FHA 100% financing puts a 96.5% FHA first mortgage together with a down payment assistance second, so the down payment can be covered in full. Since Sumter’s SHIP loan carries a monthly payment and the state seconds mostly don’t, call us before you write an offer and we’ll check which programs are funding that week and which one leaves you the lowest monthly payment.

Property taxes and your homestead exemption

Make the Sumter house your primary residence and you can file for the Florida homestead exemption. It cuts your taxable value by as much as $50,000: the first $25,000 against all property taxes, and the additional exemption against non-school taxes.

Applications are due March 1 of the year after you buy, since homestead goes by ownership on January 1. The Sumter County Property Appraiser takes homestead filings online and has offices in Bushnell and Wildwood. After the first year, Save Our Homes limits yearly increases in your assessed value to 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, and portability lets you carry some or all of that difference to your next Florida homestead.

Where the house sits can change your tax rate a lot. Each city sets its own tax rate on top of the county, school and water board rates, and parcels in the Sumter County Fire District or The Villages Fire District carry an added levy. The appraiser publishes the full rate table each year and has a tax calculator, so run the address before you budget. With a mortgage, your escrow account usually pays the bill.

Sumter County Property Appraiser

218 E McCollum Avenue, Bushnell, FL 33513

Wildwood office: 7375 Powell Rd, Wildwood, FL 34785

Phone: 352-569-6800

Property search, tax calculator and tax rate table: sumterpa.com

Tax bills and payments: Sumter County Tax Collector

Storms, tornadoes and insurance in an inland county

Being inland helped Sumter in Hurricane Ian. When Ian crossed Florida in late September of 2022, only 1,159 of the county’s 84,948 electric customers were without power, far better than the coast.

Tornadoes are the other storm risk. Sumter was hit in the Central Florida tornado outbreak of February of 2007, and a state of emergency was declared.

Water levels move too. In 1981, Lake Panasoffkee dropped to its lowest level since 1962, so if you’re looking at lakefront, ask how the water line has changed over the years.

  • Before you make an offer in Sumter County, check the address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, and look closest near Lake Panasoffkee and the Withlacoochee River. If FEMA maps the home in a high-risk zone, one starting with A or V, an FHA, VA or other federally backed loan comes with required flood insurance.
  • Get homeowners insurance quotes early, especially on an older home, and ask whether a wind mitigation inspection would lower the premium.
  • Sign up for Alert Sumter emergency notifications through the county’s Everbridge sign-up. Text-to-911 is available when a voice call isn’t possible.

Jobs, schools and getting around

SECO Energy, a member-owned electric cooperative founded in 1938, is headquartered in Sumterville and serves members across Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Levy, Marion, Pasco and Sumter counties. The Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman, is a major federal facility in the county, and the growth of The Villages, managed through its community development districts, drives much of the local economy.

Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell sits on land the state transferred to the VA in 1983, and it held its first interment in 1988.

Schools and colleges

Public schools are run by the Sumter County School District, at 2680 West County Road 476, Bushnell, FL 33513, 352-793-2315. Call the district office in Bushnell to confirm which schools are assigned to a given address.

Lake-Sumter State College has its Sumter Center in Sumterville, alongside its Leesburg, South Lake and Four Corners locations.

Getting around

Interstate 75 crosses the western and northern parts of the county, and Florida’s Turnpike has Sumter interchanges at U.S. 301, SR 44 and I-75. U.S. 301 is the main southwest-to-northeast road, and SR 44, SR 50, SR 471 and SR 48 are the key state roads.

Golf carts are a common way to get around The Villages. There’s no passenger rail; Amtrak’s Wildwood stop ended in late 2004.

Trails, fish camps and local favorites

Dade Battlefield Historic State Park

Dade Battlefield, at 7200 Battlefield Parkway in Bushnell, marks Dade’s Battle of 1835, which began the Second Seminole War. The annual reenactment is a January tradition.

Van Fleet State Trail

The General James A. Van Fleet State Trail is 29.2 miles of paved rail-trail, 8 feet wide with a parallel equestrian trail, and it has only one curve in its whole length. It crosses the Green Swamp, headwaters of the Withlacoochee, Hillsborough and Peace rivers, and passes through the Withlacoochee State Forest.

Lake Panasoffkee

Lake Panasoffkee’s fish camps have long drawn anglers. The FWC once counted 15 of them on the lake and called it one of the state’s best places to fish.

Wysong Park

The 5-acre Wysong Park sits on the Withlacoochee River at the Wysong-Coogler Dam, built in 1962.

Webster Westside Flea Market

Webster’s flea market opens every Monday, rain or shine, and hosts a monthly motorcycle swap meet.

The Scenic Sumter Heritage Byway became Florida’s 24th designated Scenic Highway in 2013.

Moving to Sumter County: your first-month checklist

  • Electric: four providers split the county: SECO Energy, Duke Energy Florida, the City of Bushnell and Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative. Ask the seller which one serves the address.
  • Water and sewer: confirm the provider for the address with the seller before closing.
  • Driver license and tag: the Sumter County Tax Collector has four offices: Bushnell (220 E. McCollum Ave., 352-569-6740), Wildwood (7375 Powell Rd., Suite 135, 352-689-4540), The Villages (8033 E CR 466, 352-689-4645, drive-thru) and Sumterville (215 Gloria Rowe Hayward Way, 352-689-4630). Services are for Sumter residents only, and written and road tests need appointments.
  • Homestead: file online or at the appraiser’s Bushnell or Wildwood office by March 1 of the year after your closing.
  • County questions: call 352-689-4400 or go to sumtercountyfl.gov. The county’s main administration building is at 7375 Powell Road in Wildwood.
  • Emergencies: sign up for Alert Sumter.

Buying or refinancing in Sumter County with AAA Capital Funding

Buying a home

FHA is the loan most of our Sumter buyers use: 3.5% down, flexible credit guidelines, and it pairs with SHIP and the statewide programs. We also write VA loans with no down payment for eligible veterans, plus Conventional, Hometown Heroes, DSCR loans for rentals and FHA 100% financing.

We’ve been a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997, lending in all 67 Florida counties statewide, Sumter and its neighbors included. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders and build your city’s tax rate and any CDD assessment into the payment estimate up front.

Refinancing the home you have

A refinance on your Sumter home can lower your monthly payment, take cash out for a roof or a remodel, pay off higher-interest debt, or buy out a co-owner on the title.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll show you the new payment with your city’s tax rate built in, the cash you’d take out and every closing cost, all on one page.

Sumter County questions we hear a lot

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

The current FHA limits for one to four units in Sumter, plus the one-unit Conventional limit, are in the table on this page. HUD and FHFA reset Sumter’s limits every January, and the table changes when they do.

Is there down payment assistance in Sumter County?

Yes. Sumter County SHIP lends first-time buyers down payment help as a 0% loan repaid monthly, and Hometown Heroes and FL Assist are open to Sumter buyers as well. SHIP money is first-qualified, first-served, so ask us what’s available before you count on it.

Is the county seat Bushnell or Wildwood?

Bushnell is the county seat. The county’s main administration building is in Wildwood, at 7375 Powell Road, and the Property Appraiser and Tax Collector have offices in both cities.

When do I file for homestead in Sumter County?

Homestead applications are due to the Sumter County Property Appraiser by March 1 of the year after you buy, and you can file online at app.sumterpa.com/homestead.

Do I need flood insurance in Sumter County?

It’s required when the home sits in a high-risk FEMA flood zone and the loan is federally backed. Sumter came through Hurricane Ian with only a small share of electric customers out, but check the flood map on every house, especially near Lake Panasoffkee and the Withlacoochee River.

Sources for this guide (23)
  1. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Sumter County, FL
  2. Sumter County, Florida (Wikipedia, history and roads)
  3. List of municipalities in Florida (Wikipedia)
  4. The Villages, Florida (Wikipedia)
  5. Lake Panasoffkee (Wikipedia)
  6. Sumter County Local Housing Assistance Plan
  7. Florida Housing: Hometown Heroes
  8. Florida Housing: Homebuyer programs
  9. Florida Department of Revenue: Property tax exemptions
  10. Sumter County Property Appraiser
  11. Sumter County Property Appraiser: Tax rates
  12. Sumter County Tax Collector
  13. Florida PSC: Hurricane Ian outage report
  14. Florida PSC: Storm report with electric providers
  15. SECO Energy: About
  16. Sumter County School District
  17. Lake-Sumter State College
  18. Florida State Parks: Dade Battlefield
  19. Florida State Parks: Van Fleet State Trail
  20. VA: Florida National Cemetery
  21. Webster Westside Flea Market
  22. Sumter County government
  23. Sumter County Property Appraiser: Important dates

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. NMLS #374739. Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700. Licensed Florida mortgage broker serving Sumter 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 Sumter 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