Property Tax in Cascade County, Montana

What the Cascade County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Cascade County homeowners pay more than $2,236 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 $243,300, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.92%. 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.

Cascade County by the numbers

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

Cascade County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Montana: #12 of 56 counties
• Median home value rank in Montana: #23 of 56
• Population rank in Montana: #5 of 56 (84,601 residents)
• Population density rank: #5 of 56 (31 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Montana: #21 of 56 (2,698 sq mi, 1.9% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $186; per $1,000 of home value: $0.92

How Cascade County compares

Set against its state, Cascade County's median bill of $2,236 is about 12% lower than the Montana median ($2,535). Against the country as a whole it is about 25% lower than the US median ($2,969). That places the county #12 of 56 Montana counties ranked by median taxes paid.

Remember what drives the ranking: bills follow home values as much as rates. Cascade County's median home, at $243,300, ranks #23 by value in Montana, while its derived rate of 0.92% compares with a derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Cascade County: the median bill works out to about $186 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $919 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 84,601 people — the #5 most populous county in Montana, spread over 2,698 square miles, a density of about 31 people per square mile. Its median home value, $243,300, ranks #23 among the state's 56 counties with data.

Nationally, Cascade County's median bill of $2,236 ranks #885 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 28% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 7.7% of Montana's population, its median home value is about 28% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 9.19% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Cascade County to the most expensive county, Missoula County ($3,833), is $1,597 a year.

Counties nearest Cascade County in the Montana ranking

Cascade County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Cascade County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Cascade County ($2,236) ranks #3 of 9 by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Rockingham County, Virginia (84,739 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,532 on a median home value of $287,900 — $704 more than Cascade County pays.

Inside Montana itself, the counties closest to Cascade County in population are Missoula County (119,639 residents, median tax $3,833 on a median value of $423,100); Flathead County (108,445 residents, median tax $2,867 on a median value of $467,700); Lewis and Clark County (72,580 residents, median tax $2,886 on a median value of $358,200); Ravalli County (45,807 residents, median tax $2,303 on a median value of $435,000). 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

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Cascade County's derived rate of 0.92%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $3,676 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 Cascade County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.92% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Cascade County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.75% 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 Cascade County

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

• Lewis and Clark County, MT — $2,886
• Flathead County, MT — $2,867
• Missoula County, MT — $3,833
• Gallatin County, MT — $3,625
• Ravalli County, MT — $2,303
• Silver Bow County, MT — $2,357

Frequently asked questions