Property Tax Comparison Calculator

Property tax is quoted in several incompatible ways — a mill rate, a percentage, a dollar amount per thousand of assessed value — and the assessed value is often not the market value. That makes two places genuinely hard to compare without doing the arithmetic.

The chain is always the same: market value, times assessment ratio, minus exemptions, times the rate.

Why the mill rate alone tells you nothing

A 42-mill rate on a 40% assessment ratio is a lower tax than an 18-mill rate on full value. Any comparison that quotes only the rate is comparing two different things — which is why the effective rate line above, tax as a share of market value, is the one to use.

Reassessment is the risk

In many places assessed value resets on sale, so the tax the current owner pays is not the tax you will pay. Ask the assessor's office what the property would be assessed at after a sale at your offer price.

Exemptions are not automatic

Homestead and similar exemptions usually require an application, sometimes within a window after purchase. Missing it costs a year of the benefit, and it is one of the most commonly missed filings in a move.