Property Tax in Ross County, Ohio

What the Ross County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Ross County pay more than $1,577, 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 0.99% for Ross 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 Ross 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.

Ross County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Ohio: #60 of 88 counties
• Median home value rank in Ohio: #54 of 88
• Population rank in Ohio: #32 of 88 (76,748 residents)
• Population density rank: #49 of 88 (111 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Ohio: #2 of 88 (689 sq mi, 1.7% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $131; per $1,000 of home value: $0.99

How Ross County compares

Of the 88 Ohio counties with published data, 59 have a higher median property tax bill than Ross County's $1,577, putting the county at #60 in the state. Its bill is about 42% lower than the state median of $2,712 and about 47% 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 0.99%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #54 within Ohio.

Some extra context for Ross County: the median bill works out to about $131 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $995 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 76,748 people — the #32 most populous county in Ohio, spread over 689 square miles, a density of about 111 people per square mile. Its median home value, $158,500, ranks #54 among the state's 88 counties with data.

Nationally, Ross County's median bill of $1,577 ranks #1530 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 49% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 0.7% of Ohio's population, its median home value is about 20% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 9.95% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Ross County to the most expensive county, Delaware County ($6,896), is $5,319 a year.

Counties nearest Ross County in the Ohio ranking

Ross County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Ross 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, Ross County's $1,577 bill is #7 of 9.

The closest population match is Tooele County, Utah (76,648 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $2,303 on a median home value of $391,300 — $726 less than Ross County pays.

Staying within Ohio, the counties nearest Ross County by population are Tuscarawas County (92,585 residents, median tax $1,910 on a median value of $176,800); Muskingum County (86,382 residents, median tax $1,609 on a median value of $170,100); Erie County (74,938 residents, median tax $2,330 on a median value of $183,900); Hancock County (74,885 residents, median tax $1,966 on a median value of $196,500). The spread in their median bills — all under the same state framework — shows how much of the property tax burden is decided county by county and district by district.

How the tax is worked out

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Ross County's derived rate of 0.99%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $3,980 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 Ross County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.99% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Ross 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 Ross County

If your bill looks wrong, work through these steps:

1. Get your property record card from the assessor and check the basics — living area, lot size, bedrooms, condition, and any exemptions you should have.
2. Compare your assessed value with recent sale prices of similar homes in Ross County.
3. Talk to the assessor's office informally first; clear errors are often fixed without a hearing.
4. If needed, file a formal appeal with the local review board before the deadline on your assessment notice, with your evidence attached.
5. Keep paying the bill as issued while the appeal runs, unless your notice says otherwise — unpaid taxes accrue penalties regardless of an appeal.

More Ohio counties

• Erie County, OH — $2,330
• Hancock County, OH — $1,966
• Scioto County, OH — $1,417
• Muskingum County, OH — $1,609
• Belmont County, OH — $1,420
• Union County, OH — $3,847

Frequently asked questions