Property Tax in Clay County, Florida

What the Clay County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Clay County homeowners pay more than $2,080 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 $281,500, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.74%. 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 Clay County

For context, the Florida medians are $2,555 of tax on $325,000 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Clay County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Florida: #28 of 67 counties
• Median home value rank in Florida: #27 of 67
• Population rank in Florida: #25 of 67 (223,436 residents)
• Population density rank: #22 of 67 (370 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Florida: #43 of 67 (604 sq mi, 1.1% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $173; per $1,000 of home value: $0.74

How Clay County compares

Set against its state, Clay County's median bill of $2,080 is about 19% lower than the Florida median ($2,555). Against the country as a whole it is about 30% lower than the US median ($2,969). That places the county #28 of 67 Florida counties ranked by median taxes paid.

Remember what drives the ranking: bills follow home values as much as rates. Clay County's median home, at $281,500, ranks #27 by value in Florida, while its derived rate of 0.74% compares with a derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Clay County: the median bill works out to about $173 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $739 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 223,436 people — the #25 most populous county in Florida, spread over 604 square miles, a density of about 370 people per square mile. Its median home value, $281,500, ranks #27 among the state's 67 counties with data.

Nationally, Clay County's median bill of $2,080 ranks #1009 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 32% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 1.0% of Florida's population, its median home value is about 13% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 7.39% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Clay County to the most expensive county, Monroe County ($3,943), is $1,863 a year.

Counties nearest Clay County in the Florida ranking

Clay County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Clay County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Clay County ($2,080) ranks #3 of 9 by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Jackson County, Oregon (222,563 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $3,032 on a median home value of $400,200 — $952 less than Clay County pays.

Staying within Florida, the counties nearest Clay County by population are St. Johns County (292,243 residents, median tax $3,547 on a median value of $457,600); Alachua County (281,751 residents, median tax $2,623 on a median value of $266,800); Okaloosa County (214,281 residents, median tax $1,948 on a median value of $324,800); Hernando County (201,512 residents, median tax $1,732 on a median value of $240,700). 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

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 0.74%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $739 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $2,956. 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 Clay County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.74% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Clay County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.79% 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 Clay 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 Clay 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 Florida counties

• Okaloosa County, FL — $1,948
• Hernando County, FL — $1,732
• Charlotte County, FL — $2,581
• Santa Rosa County, FL — $1,809
• Bay County, FL — $1,653
• Alachua County, FL — $2,623

Frequently asked questions