Property Tax in Scott County, Iowa

What the Scott County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Scott County homeowners pay more than $3,221 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 $212,500, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 1.52%. 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 Scott County

For context, the Iowa medians are $2,795 of tax on $195,900 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Scott County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Iowa: #9 of 99 counties
• Median home value rank in Iowa: #14 of 99
• Population rank in Iowa: #3 of 99 (174,302 residents)
• Population density rank: #2 of 99 (380 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Iowa: #77 of 99 (458 sq mi, 0.8% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $268; per $1,000 of home value: $1.52

How Scott County compares

Of the 99 Iowa counties with published data, 8 have a higher median property tax bill than Scott County's $3,221, putting the county at #9 in the state. Its bill is about 15% higher than the state median of $2,795 and about 8% higher 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 1.52%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #14 within Iowa.

Some extra context for Scott County: the median bill works out to about $268 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,516 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 174,302 people — the #3 most populous county in Iowa, spread over 458 square miles, a density of about 380 people per square mile. Its median home value, $212,500, ranks #14 among the state's 99 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 390 record a higher median tax bill than Scott County — it sits in the top 12% nationally. The county holds roughly 5.5% of Iowa's people. Its homes are worth more than the state norm (median $212,500 versus $195,900), and a decade at the derived rate of 1.52% adds up to about 15.16% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Pocahontas County, medians $1,066 — $2,155 less than Scott County per year.

Counties nearest Scott County in the Iowa ranking

Scott County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Scott County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 174,302 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Scott County's median bill of $3,221 is #4 of 9.

The closest population match is Paulding County, Georgia (174,292 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $2,444 on a median home value of $289,000 — $777 more than Scott County pays.

Inside Iowa itself, the counties closest to Scott County in population are Polk County (497,441 residents, median tax $4,364 on a median value of $248,400); Linn County (229,463 residents, median tax $3,396 on a median value of $204,400); Johnson County (154,881 residents, median tax $4,587 on a median value of $293,100); Black Hawk County (130,693 residents, median tax $2,790 on a median value of $182,400). 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 1.52%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $1,516 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $6,064. 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 Scott County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.52% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Scott County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.43% 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 Scott County

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

• Johnson County, IA — $4,587
• Black Hawk County, IA — $2,790
• Linn County, IA — $3,396
• Woodbury County, IA — $2,542
• Dallas County, IA — $4,849
• Dubuque County, IA — $2,848

Frequently asked questions