County guide · Pinellas
Pinellas County property search, and how to read its flood zones
Find the parcel on the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's site, pcpao.gov, by address, owner, parcel ID or subdivision. Then check two flood answers, not one: FEMA's flood zone, and the state's storm surge zone. In Pinellas they disagree often: half of the parcels FEMA puts in zone X, outside the 100-year floodplain, are in a surge zone all the same.
Step 1: the parcel on PCPAO
PCPAO's Quick Search takes an address, an owner, a parcel ID or a subdivision or condo name. A Pinellas parcel number has six groups, 18 digits in all, in the shape 99-99-99-99999-999-9999: three survey pairs, then the subdivision, block and lot. The record shows owner, values, exemptions, the tax district and the last deed, with links to the Clerk's documents.
The state's 2026 roll has 433,770 Pinellas parcels; PCPAO's home page counts 437,615 real property parcels today. The two are counted on different days and by different rules; for the current record of one parcel, PCPAO's is the one to read.
Step 2: FEMA's flood zone
FEMA calls the 100-year floodplain the Special Flood Hazard Area, "the area where the mandatory purchase of flood insurance applies". Zones beginning with A or V are in it. Of the 326,477 Pinellas parcels with their own outline (condo units share their building's), 82,212 are in it, 25.2%: 77,038 in zone AE, 3,148 in zone A and 1,916 in zone VE, on the coast. Single-family homes are close to the county's rate: 58,084 of 252,430, or 23.0%. AE, X and VE explained.
Step 3: the storm surge zone
Surge is seawater pushed ashore by a hurricane, mapped by the state's evacuation study by storm category. On a peninsula between the Gulf and Tampa Bay, it is the bigger number:
| Pinellas parcels, measured on 31 October 2026 | Parcels | Share |
|---|---|---|
| In a storm surge zone of any category (of 431,704 on the map) | 283,021 | 65.6% |
| In the Category 1 surge zone | 130,568 | 30.2% |
| In FEMA's Special Flood Hazard Area (of 326,477 with an outline) | 82,212 | 25.2% |
| In FEMA zone X but in a surge zone (of 244,125 in zone X) | 122,498 | 50.2% |
| Single-family homes in the Category 1 surge zone (of 252,430) | 55,093 | 21.8% |
| In evacuation zone A | 116,198 | 26.9% |
Read the two together. Zone X with no surge is the quietest answer Pinellas gives. Zone X with a Category 3 surge means FEMA's map sets no flood insurance requirement, yet seawater can reach the lot in a strong storm. AE with a Category 1 surge is the most exposed. The evacuation zone, A through E, is the one the county uses to tell people when to leave. More on surge and evacuation zones.
Where it stops
- Neither zone is the elevation. A flood zone and a surge category describe the area, not the building's floor height. An elevation certificate, where one exists, does.
- Zoning on our map has three holes. We have the county's zoning and 21 cities' and towns'; Belleair Beach, Belleair Bluffs and Belleair Shore are missing, so 2,672 of their 2,735 parcels show no code.
- Our sales lag. Deeds thin out on our copy after May 2026; PCPAO and the Clerk are ahead. Over June 2025 to May 2026 the median qualified sale of one parcel was $380,000 over 37,756 deeds: $425,000 for a single-family home, $220,000 for a condo unit, $125,000 for a mobile home.
Pinellas is also a mobile home county: 16,953 parcels, 3.9%, a larger share than in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Orange or Hillsborough, and 12,593 of the 16,952 we place on the map are in a surge zone, so run both flood checks on them too. Condo units are 24.0% of parcels. The millage runs across 52 districts, from 13.94 to 22.92 mills in 2025.
All three steps in Map Views
Type the address. The report puts the FEMA zone, with the share of the lot in each zone, next to the surge category, the evacuation zone and the wetlands, with the owner, its Sunbiz filing, the sales and the values above them. Turn on the flood or surge layer to see the lines over an aerial, and write down what you saw while you stand at the property.
FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Map is the authority for the flood zone, and the county's emergency managers for evacuation orders. PCPAO is the authority for owner and value. A flood zone or surge category here is a reading of their layers, never a substitute for an elevation certificate or an insurance quote.