Property Tax in Daviess County, Kentucky

What the Daviess County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Daviess County pay more than $1,595, 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 0.86% for Daviess 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.

Daviess County by the numbers

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

Daviess County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Kentucky: #18 of 120 counties
• Median home value rank in Kentucky: #28 of 120
• Population rank in Kentucky: #7 of 120 (103,195 residents)
• Population density rank: #13 of 120 (225 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Kentucky: #18 of 120 (458 sq mi, 1.2% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $133; per $1,000 of home value: $0.86

How Daviess County compares

Of the 120 Kentucky counties with published data, 17 have a higher median property tax bill than Daviess County's $1,595, putting the county at #18 in the state. Its bill is about 8% higher than the state median of $1,472 and about 46% 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 0.86%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #28 within Kentucky.

Some extra context for Daviess County: the median bill works out to about $133 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $858 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 103,195 people — the #7 most populous county in Kentucky, spread over 458 square miles, a density of about 225 people per square mile. Its median home value, $185,800, ranks #28 among the state's 120 counties with data.

Nationally, Daviess County's median bill of $1,595 ranks #1509 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 48% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 2.3% of Kentucky's population, its median home value is about 3% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 8.58% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Daviess County to the most expensive county, Oldham County ($3,454), is $1,859 a year.

Counties nearest Daviess County in the Kentucky ranking

Daviess County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Daviess County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Daviess County ($1,595) ranks #6 of 9 by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Etowah County, Alabama (103,208 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $585 on a median home value of $160,600 — $1,010 more than Daviess County pays.

Daviess County's nearest population neighbours within Kentucky are Warren County (137,549 residents, median tax $1,558 on a median value of $242,600); Hardin County (111,452 residents, median tax $1,451 on a median value of $205,900); Madison County (94,064 residents, median tax $1,631 on a median value of $220,700); Campbell County (93,193 residents, median tax $2,495 on a median value of $234,500). Comparing them is a reminder that even inside one state's rules, the bill follows local home values and local district rates more than anything decided at the state level.

How the tax is worked out

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Daviess County's derived rate of 0.86%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $3,432 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 Daviess County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.86% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Daviess County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.77% 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 Daviess County

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

• Hardin County, KY — $1,451
• Madison County, KY — $1,631
• Campbell County, KY — $2,495
• Bullitt County, KY — $1,994
• Christian County, KY — $1,065
• Warren County, KY — $1,558

Frequently asked questions