Property Tax in Madison County, Kentucky

What the Madison County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Madison County pay more than $1,631, 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 0.74% for Madison 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.

Madison County by the numbers

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

Madison County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Kentucky: #17 of 120 counties
• Median home value rank in Kentucky: #15 of 120
• Population rank in Kentucky: #8 of 120 (94,064 residents)
• Population density rank: #14 of 120 (215 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Kentucky: #22 of 120 (437 sq mi, 1.1% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $136; per $1,000 of home value: $0.74

How Madison County compares

Of the 120 Kentucky counties with published data, 16 have a higher median property tax bill than Madison County's $1,631, putting the county at #17 in the state. Its bill is about 11% higher than the state median of $1,472 and about 45% 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 0.74%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #15 within Kentucky.

Some extra context for Madison County: the median bill works out to about $136 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $739 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 94,064 people — the #8 most populous county in Kentucky, spread over 437 square miles, a density of about 215 people per square mile. Its median home value, $220,700, ranks #15 among the state's 120 counties with data.

Nationally, Madison County's median bill of $1,631 ranks #1467 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 47% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 2.1% of Kentucky's population, its median home value is about 15% above the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 7.39% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Madison County to the most expensive county, Oldham County ($3,454), is $1,823 a year.

Counties nearest Madison County in the Kentucky ranking

Madison County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Madison County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 94,064 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Madison County's median bill of $1,631 is #7 of 9.

The closest population match is Rockdale County, Georgia (94,293 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,843 on a median home value of $256,600 — $212 less than Madison County pays.

Inside Kentucky itself, the counties closest to Madison County in population are Hardin County (111,452 residents, median tax $1,451 on a median value of $205,900); Daviess County (103,195 residents, median tax $1,595 on a median value of $185,800); Campbell County (93,193 residents, median tax $2,495 on a median value of $234,500); Bullitt County (83,209 residents, median tax $1,994 on a median value of $233,700). 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 0.74%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $739 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $2,956. 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 Madison County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.74% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Madison 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 Madison County

If your bill looks wrong, work through these steps:

1. Get your property record card from the assessor and check the basics — living area, lot size, bedrooms, condition, and any exemptions you should have.
2. Compare your assessed value with recent sale prices of similar homes in Madison County.
3. Talk to the assessor's office informally first; clear errors are often fixed without a hearing.
4. If needed, file a formal appeal with the local review board before the deadline on your assessment notice, with your evidence attached.
5. Keep paying the bill as issued while the appeal runs, unless your notice says otherwise — unpaid taxes accrue penalties regardless of an appeal.

More Kentucky counties

• Campbell County, KY — $2,495
• Daviess County, KY — $1,595
• Bullitt County, KY — $1,994
• Hardin County, KY — $1,451
• Christian County, KY — $1,065
• Oldham County, KY — $3,454

Frequently asked questions