Property Tax in Butte County, California

What the Butte County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Butte County pay more than $2,819, and half pay less. Your own bill is set by your home's assessed value, the exemptions you qualify for, and the local taxing districts your property sits in — so individual bills vary widely around the median.

Dividing the median tax by the median home value gives a derived effective rate of 0.69% for Butte County. It is an estimate built from two survey medians, not the county's official rate, but it is a fair way to compare the local tax burden with other counties where home values are very different.

The key figures for Butte County

For context, the California medians are $4,926 of tax on $695,400 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Butte County at a glance

• Median tax rank in California: #36 of 58 counties
• Median home value rank in California: #34 of 58
• Population rank in California: #28 of 58 (209,470 residents)
• Population density rank: #27 of 58 (128 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in California: #28 of 58 (1,636 sq mi, 1.0% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $235; per $1,000 of home value: $0.69

How Butte County compares

The median tax bill in Butte County is about 43% lower than the state median ($4,926 for California) and about 5% lower than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #36 out of 58 California counties with published Census data — 35 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. Butte County's derived rate of 0.69% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Butte County: the median bill works out to about $235 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $690 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 209,470 people — the #28 most populous county in California, spread over 1,636 square miles, a density of about 128 people per square mile. Its median home value, $408,700, ranks #34 among the state's 58 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 515 record a higher median tax bill than Butte County — it sits in the top 16% nationally. The county holds roughly 0.5% of California's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $408,700 versus $695,400), and a decade at the derived rate of 0.69% adds up to about 6.90% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Modoc County, medians $1,445 — $1,374 less than Butte County per year.

Counties nearest Butte County in the California ranking

Butte County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Butte County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 209,470 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Butte County's median bill of $2,819 is #4 of 9.

The closest population match is Harrison County, Mississippi (209,443 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,289 on a median home value of $199,300 — $1,530 more than Butte County pays.

Butte County's nearest population neighbours within California are Marin County (258,765 residents, median tax $10,001 on a median value of $1,390,000); Yolo County (217,782 residents, median tax $4,567 on a median value of $593,800); El Dorado County (192,299 residents, median tax $4,510 on a median value of $640,500); Shasta County (181,554 residents, median tax $2,442 on a median value of $347,200). Comparing them is a reminder that even inside one state's rules, the bill follows local home values and local district rates more than anything decided at the state level.

How the tax is worked out

The bill is built in stages. First the assessor puts a market value on the property. Exemptions — a homestead exemption above all — then reduce the taxable amount. Finally the combined local rate is applied. To see the scale: at the county's derived rate of 0.69%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $690 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $2,760. Real bills use the official assessment and district rates, not this derived figure, so treat the example as a sense of scale only.

Illustrative bills in Butte County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.69% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Butte County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.71% 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 Butte County

Most successful appeals are won on facts, not arguments. Start with the property record card held by the Butte County assessor: wrong square footage, an extra room, or a missing homestead exemption are common and fixable. Next, line your assessed value up against recent sales of genuinely similar homes nearby. Many disputes end at an informal conversation with the assessor's office; if yours does not, file the formal appeal with the review board named on your notice before its deadline, evidence attached, and keep paying the bill in the meantime so penalties do not build up.

More California counties

• Yolo County, CA — $4,567
• El Dorado County, CA — $4,510
• Shasta County, CA — $2,442
• Imperial County, CA — $2,348
• Marin County, CA — $10,001
• Madera County, CA — $2,575

Frequently asked questions