Property Tax in Gallatin County, Montana

What the Gallatin County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Gallatin County pay more than $3,625, 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 0.60% for Gallatin 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.

Gallatin County by the numbers

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

Gallatin County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Montana: #2 of 56 counties
• Median home value rank in Montana: #1 of 56
• Population rank in Montana: #2 of 56 (122,194 residents)
• Population density rank: #3 of 56 (47 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Montana: #24 of 56 (2,605 sq mi, 1.8% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $302; per $1,000 of home value: $0.60

How Gallatin County compares

Of the 56 Montana counties with published data, 1 have a higher median property tax bill than Gallatin County's $3,625, putting the county at #2 in the state. Its bill is about 43% higher than the state median of $2,535 and about 22% higher 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 0.60%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #1 within Montana.

Some extra context for Gallatin County: the median bill works out to about $302 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $599 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 122,194 people — the #2 most populous county in Montana, spread over 2,605 square miles, a density of about 47 people per square mile. Its median home value, $604,900, ranks #1 among the state's 56 counties with data.

Nationally, Gallatin County's median bill of $3,625 ranks #286 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 9% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 11.1% of Montana's population, its median home value is about 79% above the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 5.99% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Gallatin County to the most expensive county, Missoula County ($3,833), is $208 a year.

Counties nearest Gallatin County in the Montana ranking

Gallatin County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Gallatin 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, Gallatin County's $3,625 bill is the highest.

The closest population match is Carroll County, Georgia (122,187 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,420 on a median home value of $227,500 — $2,205 more than Gallatin County pays.

Inside Montana itself, the counties closest to Gallatin County in population are Yellowstone County (167,340 residents, median tax $2,669 on a median value of $317,600); 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). 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. Gallatin County's medians imply a derived rate of 0.60%; applied illustratively, a $400,000 home would owe about $2,396 a year, or around $200 a month spread evenly. Individual properties depart from the illustration in both directions.

Illustrative bills in Gallatin County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.60% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Gallatin 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 Gallatin County

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

• Missoula County, MT — $3,833
• Flathead County, MT — $2,867
• Cascade County, MT — $2,236
• Yellowstone County, MT — $2,669
• Lewis and Clark County, MT — $2,886
• Ravalli County, MT — $2,303

Frequently asked questions