Property Tax in Madera County, California

What the Madera County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Madera County pay more than $2,575, 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 0.70% for Madera 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 Madera 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.

Madera County at a glance

• Median tax rank in California: #41 of 58 counties
• Median home value rank in California: #40 of 58
• Population rank in California: #32 of 58 (158,790 residents)
• Population density rank: #35 of 58 (74 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in California: #24 of 58 (2,136 sq mi, 1.4% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $215; per $1,000 of home value: $0.70

How Madera County compares

Of the 58 California counties with published data, 40 have a higher median property tax bill than Madera County's $2,575, putting the county at #41 in the state. Its bill is about 48% lower than the state median of $4,926 and about 13% lower than the national median of $2,969.

Rates and values pull in opposite directions: an expensive housing market can produce big bills at ordinary rates. Here the derived rate is 0.70%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #40 within California.

Some extra context for Madera County: the median bill works out to about $215 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $700 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 158,790 people — the #32 most populous county in California, spread over 2,136 square miles, a density of about 74 people per square mile. Its median home value, $367,700, ranks #40 among the state's 58 counties with data.

Nationally, Madera County's median bill of $2,575 ranks #639 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 20% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 0.4% of California's population, its median home value is about 47% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 7.00% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Madera County to the most expensive county, Marin County ($10,001), is $7,426 a year.

Counties nearest Madera County in the California ranking

Madera County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Madera County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 158,790 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Madera County's median bill of $2,575 is #5 of 9.

The closest population match is Citrus County, Florida (158,693 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,320 on a median home value of $223,200 — $1,255 more than Madera County pays.

Staying within California, the counties nearest Madera County by population are Shasta County (181,554 residents, median tax $2,442 on a median value of $347,200); Imperial County (179,319 residents, median tax $2,348 on a median value of $279,500); Kings County (152,830 residents, median tax $2,295 on a median value of $305,700); Napa County (136,070 residents, median tax $5,840 on a median value of $838,800). The spread in their median bills — all under the same state framework — shows how much of the property tax burden is decided county by county and district by district.

How the tax is worked out

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Madera County's derived rate of 0.70%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $2,800 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 Madera County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.70% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Madera 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 Madera County

If your bill looks wrong, work through these steps:

1. Get your property record card from the assessor and check the basics — living area, lot size, bedrooms, condition, and any exemptions you should have.
2. Compare your assessed value with recent sale prices of similar homes in Madera County.
3. Talk to the assessor's office informally first; clear errors are often fixed without a hearing.
4. If needed, file a formal appeal with the local review board before the deadline on your assessment notice, with your evidence attached.
5. Keep paying the bill as issued while the appeal runs, unless your notice says otherwise — unpaid taxes accrue penalties regardless of an appeal.

More California counties

• Kings County, CA — $2,295
• Imperial County, CA — $2,348
• Napa County, CA — $5,840
• Shasta County, CA — $2,442
• Humboldt County, CA — $2,731
• El Dorado County, CA — $4,510

Frequently asked questions