Property Tax in Barrow County, Georgia

What the Barrow County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Barrow County homeowners pay more than $2,124 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 $255,200, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.83%. 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.

Barrow County by the numbers

*Estimate derived from Census medians (tax ÷ value), not an official rate.

Barrow County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Georgia: #28 of 159 counties
• Median home value rank in Georgia: #36 of 159
• Population rank in Georgia: #29 of 159 (86,982 residents)
• Population density rank: #19 of 159 (540 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Georgia: #153 of 159 (161 sq mi, 0.3% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $177; per $1,000 of home value: $0.83

How Barrow County compares

The median tax bill in Barrow County is about 4% lower than the state median ($2,214 for Georgia) and about 28% lower than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #28 out of 159 Georgia counties with published Census data — 27 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. Barrow County's derived rate of 0.83% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Barrow County: the median bill works out to about $177 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $832 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 86,982 people — the #29 most populous county in Georgia, spread over 161 square miles, a density of about 540 people per square mile. Its median home value, $255,200, ranks #36 among the state's 159 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 961 record a higher median tax bill than Barrow County — it sits in the top 31% nationally. The county holds roughly 0.8% of Georgia's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $255,200 versus $272,900), and a decade at the derived rate of 0.83% adds up to about 8.32% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Wheeler County, medians $562 — $1,562 less than Barrow County per year.

Counties nearest Barrow County in the Georgia ranking

Barrow County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Barrow County beside the counties closest to it in population anywhere in the country — communities of a similar scale operating under different state and local tax systems. Ranked by median tax paid within this peer group of 9, Barrow County's $2,124 bill is #4 of 9.

The closest population match is Angelina County, Texas (86,791 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,872 on a median home value of $149,800 — $252 more than Barrow County pays.

Inside Georgia itself, the counties closest to Barrow County in population are Floyd County (98,985 residents, median tax $1,560 on a median value of $194,100); Rockdale County (94,293 residents, median tax $1,843 on a median value of $256,600); Glynn County (84,987 residents, median tax $1,712 on a median value of $268,300); Dougherty County (83,915 residents, median tax $1,800 on a median value of $129,200). 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 Barrow County's derived rate of 0.83%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $3,328 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 Barrow County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.83% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Barrow County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.81% 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 Barrow County

Most successful appeals are won on facts, not arguments. Start with the property record card held by the Barrow 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 Georgia counties

• Glynn County, GA — $1,712
• Dougherty County, GA — $1,800
• Bulloch County, GA — $1,491
• Jackson County, GA — $2,761
• Rockdale County, GA — $1,843
• Floyd County, GA — $1,560

Frequently asked questions