Property Tax in Morgan County, Alabama

What the Morgan County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Morgan County homeowners pay more than $674 a year and half pay less. The exact bill for any one home depends on its assessed value, exemptions, and which school, municipal and special districts cover it.

Set against the median home value of $193,000, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.35%. That rate is an estimate computed from the two medians — no county publishes a rate calculated this way — but it adjusts for home prices, which makes comparisons between counties more meaningful.

The key figures for Morgan County

For context, the Alabama medians are $738 of tax on $195,100 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Morgan County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Alabama: #11 of 67 counties
• Median home value rank in Alabama: #11 of 67
• Population rank in Alabama: #9 of 67 (123,742 residents)
• Population density rank: #7 of 67 (213 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Alabama: #59 of 67 (579 sq mi, 1.1% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $56; per $1,000 of home value: $0.35

How Morgan County compares

The median tax bill in Morgan County is about 9% lower than the state median ($738 for Alabama) and about 77% lower than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #11 out of 67 Alabama counties with published Census data — 10 counties in the state have a higher median bill.

Comparisons cut both ways: a county can have a modest rate but high bills because homes are expensive, or a high rate but modest bills because homes are cheaper. Morgan County's derived rate of 0.35% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Morgan County: the median bill works out to about $56 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $349 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 123,742 people — the #9 most populous county in Alabama, spread over 579 square miles, a density of about 213 people per square mile. Its median home value, $193,000, ranks #11 among the state's 67 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 2823 record a higher median tax bill than Morgan County — it sits in the top 90% nationally. The county holds roughly 2.4% of Alabama's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $193,000 versus $195,100), and a decade at the derived rate of 0.35% adds up to about 3.49% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Choctaw County, medians $199 — $475 less than Morgan County per year.

Counties nearest Morgan County in the Alabama ranking

Morgan County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Morgan County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Morgan County ($674) ranks the lowest by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Jasper County, Missouri (123,532 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,171 on a median home value of $158,500 — $497 less than Morgan County pays.

Inside Alabama itself, the counties closest to Morgan County in population are Shelby County (226,955 residents, median tax $1,343 on a median value of $298,700); Lee County (177,663 residents, median tax $1,183 on a median value of $238,700); Calhoun County (116,141 residents, median tax $610 on a median value of $149,500); Houston County (107,628 residents, median tax $534 on a median value of $178,000). Same state, same broad tax framework — yet the median bills still differ, because assessed values and the mix of county, municipal and school-district rates are set locally.

How the tax is worked out

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Morgan County's derived rate of 0.35%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $1,396 a year. That is only an illustration using the derived rate — a real bill is computed from the property's assessed value, its exemptions, and the combined rates of its specific taxing districts, so it can be higher or lower.

The usual sequence is: the local assessor values the property; exemptions are applied; the taxable value is multiplied by the combined local rates; and the county bills and collects the tax, distributing it to the schools, municipalities and districts that levied it.

Illustrative bills in Morgan County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.35% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Morgan County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.38% and the US figure of 0.98%:

Illustration only: real bills are computed from the assessed value, exemptions, and the combined rates of the property's actual taxing districts.

Checking your assessment in Morgan County

Believe your assessment is too high? The practical order of attack is: obtain your record card and audit it line by line; collect comparable recent sales in Morgan County; ask the assessor's office to correct anything plainly wrong; and, if the value still seems off, lodge a formal appeal ahead of the deadline printed on your assessment notice. Windows are short — often 30 to 90 days — and late appeals are usually rejected outright, however strong the case.

More Alabama counties

• Calhoun County, AL — $610
• Houston County, AL — $534
• Limestone County, AL — $782
• Etowah County, AL — $585
• Marshall County, AL — $699
• Lauderdale County, AL — $697

Frequently asked questions