Property Tax in Androscoggin County, Maine

What the Androscoggin County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Androscoggin County homeowners pay more than $2,913 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 $232,000, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 1.26%. 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.

Androscoggin County by the numbers

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

Androscoggin County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Maine: #5 of 16 counties
• Median home value rank in Maine: #8 of 16
• Population rank in Maine: #5 of 16 (112,323 residents)
• Population density rank: #2 of 16 (240 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Maine: #13 of 16 (467 sq mi, 1.5% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $243; per $1,000 of home value: $1.26

How Androscoggin County compares

The median tax bill in Androscoggin County is about the same as the state median ($2,926 for Maine) and about the same as the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #5 out of 16 Maine counties with published Census data — 4 counties in the state have a higher median bill.

Comparisons cut both ways: a county can have a modest rate but high bills because homes are expensive, or a high rate but modest bills because homes are cheaper. Androscoggin County's derived rate of 1.26% sits above the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Androscoggin County: the median bill works out to about $243 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,256 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 112,323 people — the #5 most populous county in Maine, spread over 467 square miles, a density of about 240 people per square mile. Its median home value, $232,000, ranks #8 among the state's 16 counties with data.

Nationally, Androscoggin County's median bill of $2,913 ranks #468 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 15% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 8.2% of Maine's population, its median home value is about 13% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 12.56% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Androscoggin County to the most expensive county, Cumberland County ($4,577), is $1,664 a year.

Counties nearest Androscoggin County in the Maine ranking

Androscoggin County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Androscoggin 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, Androscoggin County's $2,913 bill is #5 of 9.

The closest population match is Ontario County, New York (112,405 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $4,460 on a median home value of $202,900 — $1,547 less than Androscoggin County pays.

Androscoggin County's nearest population neighbours within Maine are Penobscot County (153,571 residents, median tax $2,435 on a median value of $193,800); Kennebec County (125,614 residents, median tax $2,510 on a median value of $219,900); Aroostook County (67,227 residents, median tax $1,611 on a median value of $131,700); Oxford County (58,728 residents, median tax $2,103 on a median value of $192,300). 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 Androscoggin County's derived rate of 1.26%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $5,024 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 Androscoggin County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.26% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Androscoggin County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.10% 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 Androscoggin 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 Androscoggin 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 Maine counties

• Kennebec County, ME — $2,510
• Penobscot County, ME — $2,435
• Aroostook County, ME — $1,611
• Oxford County, ME — $2,103
• Hancock County, ME — $2,445
• Somerset County, ME — $1,798

Frequently asked questions