Property Tax in Clarke County, Georgia

What the Clarke County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Clarke County homeowners pay more than $2,444 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 $271,900, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.90%. 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 Clarke County

For context, the Georgia medians are $2,214 of tax on $272,900 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Clarke County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Georgia: #16 of 159 counties
• Median home value rank in Georgia: #29 of 159
• Population rank in Georgia: #19 of 159 (129,267 residents)
• Population density rank: #7 of 159 (1,084 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Georgia: #159 of 159 (119 sq mi, 0.2% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $204; per $1,000 of home value: $0.90

How Clarke County compares

Of the 159 Georgia counties with published data, 15 have a higher median property tax bill than Clarke County's $2,444, putting the county at #16 in the state. Its bill is about 10% higher than the state median of $2,214 and about 18% 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 0.90%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #29 within Georgia.

Some extra context for Clarke County: the median bill works out to about $204 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $899 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 129,267 people — the #19 most populous county in Georgia, spread over 119 square miles, a density of about 1,084 people per square mile. Its median home value, $271,900, ranks #29 among the state's 159 counties with data.

Nationally, Clarke County's median bill of $2,444 ranks #728 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 23% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 1.2% of Georgia's population, its median home value is about 0% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 8.99% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Clarke County to the most expensive county, Fulton County ($3,847), is $1,403 a year.

Counties nearest Clarke County in the Georgia ranking

Clarke County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Clarke 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, Clarke County's $2,444 bill is #5 of 9.

The closest population match is Bossier Parish, Louisiana (129,134 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,380 on a median home value of $215,100 — $1,064 more than Clarke County pays.

Inside Georgia itself, the counties closest to Clarke County in population are Coweta County (150,071 residents, median tax $2,482 on a median value of $321,900); Douglas County (146,141 residents, median tax $2,079 on a median value of $262,200); Carroll County (122,187 residents, median tax $1,420 on a median value of $227,500); Fayette County (120,689 residents, median tax $3,168 on a median value of $405,600). 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 Clarke County's derived rate of 0.90%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $3,596 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 Clarke County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.90% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Clarke 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 Clarke County

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

• Carroll County, GA — $1,420
• Fayette County, GA — $3,168
• Lowndes County, GA — $1,643
• Newton County, GA — $2,133
• Douglas County, GA — $2,079
• Bartow County, GA — $1,901

Frequently asked questions