Property Tax in Blue Earth County, Minnesota

What the Blue Earth County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Blue Earth County pay more than $2,487, 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 0.98% for Blue Earth 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.

Blue Earth County by the numbers

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

Blue Earth County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Minnesota: #28 of 87 counties
• Median home value rank in Minnesota: #26 of 87
• Population rank in Minnesota: #13 of 87 (69,386 residents)
• Population density rank: #16 of 87 (93 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Minnesota: #34 of 87 (747 sq mi, 0.9% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $207; per $1,000 of home value: $0.98

How Blue Earth County compares

Set against its state, Blue Earth County's median bill of $2,487 is about 22% lower than the Minnesota median ($3,184). Against the country as a whole it is about 16% lower than the US median ($2,969). That places the county #28 of 87 Minnesota counties ranked by median taxes paid.

Remember what drives the ranking: bills follow home values as much as rates. Blue Earth County's median home, at $252,800, ranks #26 by value in Minnesota, while its derived rate of 0.98% compares with a derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Blue Earth County: the median bill works out to about $207 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $984 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 69,386 people — the #13 most populous county in Minnesota, spread over 747 square miles, a density of about 93 people per square mile. Its median home value, $252,800, ranks #26 among the state's 87 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 695 record a higher median tax bill than Blue Earth County — it sits in the top 22% nationally. The county holds roughly 1.2% of Minnesota's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $252,800 versus $305,500), and a decade at the derived rate of 0.98% adds up to about 9.84% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Traverse County, medians $1,070 — $1,417 less than Blue Earth County per year.

Counties nearest Blue Earth County in the Minnesota ranking

Blue Earth County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Blue Earth 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, Blue Earth County's $2,487 bill is #3 of 9.

The closest population match is Greenwood County, South Carolina (69,329 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $973 on a median home value of $166,400 — $1,514 more than Blue Earth County pays.

Inside Minnesota itself, the counties closest to Blue Earth County in population are Carver County (108,622 residents, median tax $4,380 on a median value of $426,900); Sherburne County (99,178 residents, median tax $3,311 on a median value of $332,700); Rice County (67,389 residents, median tax $2,899 on a median value of $298,500); Crow Wing County (67,113 residents, median tax $2,161 on a median value of $274,400). 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 0.98%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $984 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $3,936. 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 Blue Earth County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.98% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Blue Earth County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.04% 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 Blue Earth County

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

• Rice County, MN — $2,899
• Crow Wing County, MN — $2,161
• Clay County, MN — $2,854
• Otter Tail County, MN — $1,966
• Chisago County, MN — $3,668
• Winona County, MN — $2,099

Frequently asked questions