Property Tax in Vigo County, Indiana

What the Vigo County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Vigo County pay more than $1,256, 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 0.90% for Vigo 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 Vigo County

For context, the Indiana medians are $1,496 of tax on $201,600 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Vigo County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Indiana: #31 of 92 counties
• Median home value rank in Indiana: #71 of 92
• Population rank in Indiana: #17 of 92 (106,201 residents)
• Population density rank: #19 of 92 (263 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Indiana: #42 of 92 (403 sq mi, 1.1% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $105; per $1,000 of home value: $0.90

How Vigo County compares

Set against its state, Vigo County's median bill of $1,256 is about 16% lower than the Indiana median ($1,496). Against the country as a whole it is about 58% lower than the US median ($2,969). That places the county #31 of 92 Indiana counties ranked by median taxes paid.

Remember what drives the ranking: bills follow home values as much as rates. Vigo County's median home, at $140,400, ranks #71 by value in Indiana, while its derived rate of 0.90% compares with a derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Vigo County: the median bill works out to about $105 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $895 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 106,201 people — the #17 most populous county in Indiana, spread over 403 square miles, a density of about 263 people per square mile. Its median home value, $140,400, ranks #71 among the state's 92 counties with data.

Nationally, Vigo County's median bill of $1,256 ranks #2012 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 64% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 1.6% of Indiana's population, its median home value is about 30% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 8.95% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Vigo County to the most expensive county, Hamilton County ($3,340), is $2,084 a year.

Counties nearest Vigo County in the Indiana ranking

Vigo County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Vigo 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, Vigo County's $1,256 bill is #7 of 9.

The closest population match is Eau Claire County, Wisconsin (106,328 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $3,461 on a median home value of $242,400 — $2,205 less than Vigo County pays.

Inside Indiana itself, the counties closest to Vigo County in population are LaPorte County (112,141 residents, median tax $1,435 on a median value of $180,700); Delaware County (112,109 residents, median tax $997 on a median value of $127,600); Howard County (83,610 residents, median tax $1,110 on a median value of $151,500); Bartholomew County (82,881 residents, median tax $1,597 on a median value of $221,100). 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

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 0.90%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $895 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $3,580. 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 Vigo 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 Vigo County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.74% 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 Vigo County

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

• Delaware County, IN — $997
• LaPorte County, IN — $1,435
• Clark County, IN — $1,566
• Howard County, IN — $1,110
• Bartholomew County, IN — $1,597
• Hancock County, IN — $1,756

Frequently asked questions