Property Tax in Erie County, Ohio

What the Erie County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Erie County homeowners pay more than $2,330 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 $183,900, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 1.27%. 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.

The key figures for Erie County

For context, the Ohio medians are $2,712 of tax on $199,200 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Erie County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Ohio: #28 of 88 counties
• Median home value rank in Ohio: #33 of 88
• Population rank in Ohio: #33 of 88 (74,938 residents)
• Population density rank: #21 of 88 (298 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Ohio: #87 of 88 (251 sq mi, 0.6% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $194; per $1,000 of home value: $1.27

How Erie County compares

Of the 88 Ohio counties with published data, 27 have a higher median property tax bill than Erie County's $2,330, putting the county at #28 in the state. Its bill is about 14% lower than the state median of $2,712 and about 22% lower 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 1.27%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #33 within Ohio.

Some extra context for Erie County: the median bill works out to about $194 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,267 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 74,938 people — the #33 most populous county in Ohio, spread over 251 square miles, a density of about 298 people per square mile. Its median home value, $183,900, ranks #33 among the state's 88 counties with data.

Nationally, Erie County's median bill of $2,330 ranks #814 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 26% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 0.6% of Ohio's population, its median home value is about 8% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 12.67% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Erie County to the most expensive county, Delaware County ($6,896), is $4,566 a year.

Counties nearest Erie County in the Ohio ranking

Erie County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Erie 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, Erie County's $2,330 bill is #5 of 9.

The closest population match is Hancock County, Ohio (74,885 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,966 on a median home value of $196,500 — $364 more than Erie County pays.

Inside Ohio itself, the counties closest to Erie County in population are Muskingum County (86,382 residents, median tax $1,609 on a median value of $170,100); Ross County (76,748 residents, median tax $1,577 on a median value of $158,500); Hancock County (74,885 residents, median tax $1,966 on a median value of $196,500); Scioto County (73,118 residents, median tax $1,417 on a median value of $132,300). 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 1.27%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $1,267 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $5,068. 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 Erie County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.27% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Erie County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.36% 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 Erie County

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

• Hancock County, OH — $1,966
• Ross County, OH — $1,577
• Scioto County, OH — $1,417
• Belmont County, OH — $1,420
• Union County, OH — $3,847
• Marion County, OH — $1,432

Frequently asked questions