Property Tax in Woodbury County, Iowa

What the Woodbury County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Woodbury County homeowners pay more than $2,542 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 $172,000, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 1.48%. 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 Woodbury 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.

Woodbury County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Iowa: #22 of 99 counties
• Median home value rank in Iowa: #31 of 99
• Population rank in Iowa: #6 of 99 (105,760 residents)
• Population density rank: #9 of 99 (121 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Iowa: #3 of 99 (872 sq mi, 1.6% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $212; per $1,000 of home value: $1.48

How Woodbury County compares

Of the 99 Iowa counties with published data, 21 have a higher median property tax bill than Woodbury County's $2,542, putting the county at #22 in the state. Its bill is about 9% lower than the state median of $2,795 and about 14% 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 1.48%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #31 within Iowa.

Some extra context for Woodbury County: the median bill works out to about $212 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,478 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 105,760 people — the #6 most populous county in Iowa, spread over 872 square miles, a density of about 121 people per square mile. Its median home value, $172,000, ranks #31 among the state's 99 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 655 record a higher median tax bill than Woodbury County — it sits in the top 21% nationally. The county holds roughly 3.3% of Iowa's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $172,000 versus $195,900), and a decade at the derived rate of 1.48% adds up to about 14.78% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Pocahontas County, medians $1,066 — $1,476 less than Woodbury County per year.

Counties nearest Woodbury County in the Iowa ranking

Woodbury County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Woodbury County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Woodbury County ($2,542) ranks #6 of 9 by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Walworth County, Wisconsin (105,447 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $3,964 on a median home value of $275,900 — $1,422 less than Woodbury County pays.

Staying within Iowa, the counties nearest Woodbury County by population are 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); Dallas County (104,136 residents, median tax $4,849 on a median value of $333,400); Dubuque County (98,948 residents, median tax $2,848 on a median value of $226,100). 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 1.48%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $1,478 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $5,912. 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 Woodbury County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.48% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Woodbury 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 Woodbury County

Believe your assessment is too high? The practical order of attack is: obtain your record card and audit it line by line; collect comparable recent sales in Woodbury County; ask the assessor's office to correct anything plainly wrong; and, if the value still seems off, lodge a formal appeal ahead of the deadline printed on your assessment notice. Windows are short — often 30 to 90 days — and late appeals are usually rejected outright, however strong the case.

More Iowa counties

• Dallas County, IA — $4,849
• Dubuque County, IA — $2,848
• Story County, IA — $3,586
• Pottawattamie County, IA — $2,961
• Black Hawk County, IA — $2,790
• Johnson County, IA — $4,587

Frequently asked questions