Property Tax in Madison County, Mississippi

What the Madison County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Madison County pay more than $2,071, 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 0.72% 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.

The key figures for Madison County

For context, the Mississippi medians are $1,189 of tax on $161,400 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Madison County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Mississippi: #1 of 82 counties
• Median home value rank in Mississippi: #1 of 82
• Population rank in Mississippi: #6 of 82 (110,303 residents)
• Population density rank: #8 of 82 (154 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Mississippi: #15 of 82 (714 sq mi, 1.5% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $173; per $1,000 of home value: $0.72

How Madison County compares

The median tax bill in Madison County is about 74% higher than the state median ($1,189 for Mississippi) and about 30% lower than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #1 out of 82 Mississippi counties with published Census data — 0 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. Madison County's derived rate of 0.72% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Madison County: the median bill works out to about $173 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $723 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 110,303 people — the #6 most populous county in Mississippi, spread over 714 square miles, a density of about 154 people per square mile. Its median home value, $286,300, ranks #1 among the state's 82 counties with data.

Nationally, Madison County's median bill of $2,071 ranks #1020 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 33% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 3.7% of Mississippi's population, its median home value is about 77% above the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 7.23% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Madison County to the most expensive county, Madison County ($2,071), is $0 a year.

Counties nearest Madison County in the Mississippi ranking

Madison County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Madison 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, Madison County's $2,071 bill is #5 of 9.

The closest population match is Warren County, New Jersey (110,238 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $8,156 on a median home value of $323,100 — $6,085 less than Madison County pays.

Inside Mississippi itself, the counties closest to Madison County in population are Rankin County (158,218 residents, median tax $1,384 on a median value of $223,400); Jackson County (144,437 residents, median tax $1,332 on a median value of $181,700); Lee County (83,138 residents, median tax $1,356 on a median value of $187,800); Forrest County (78,027 residents, median tax $1,284 on a median value of $152,900). 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

Think of the final bill as three ingredients: the assessed value of the property, the exemptions subtracted from it, and the combined rate of every district the property sits in. Madison County's medians imply a derived rate of 0.72%; applied illustratively, a $400,000 home would owe about $2,892 a year, or around $241 a month spread evenly. Individual properties depart from the illustration in both directions.

Illustrative bills in Madison County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.72% 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 0.74% 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

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

• Lee County, MS — $1,356
• Forrest County, MS — $1,284
• Jackson County, MS — $1,332
• Lauderdale County, MS — $1,223
• Jones County, MS — $1,116
• Lamar County, MS — $1,459

Frequently asked questions