Property Tax in Josephine County, Oregon

What the Josephine County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Josephine County homeowners pay more than $2,023 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 $383,100, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.53%. 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 Josephine County

For context, the Oregon medians are $3,767 of tax on $454,200 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Josephine County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Oregon: #25 of 36 counties
• Median home value rank in Oregon: #17 of 36
• Population rank in Oregon: #13 of 36 (88,069 residents)
• Population density rank: #13 of 36 (54 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Oregon: #21 of 36 (1,638 sq mi, 1.7% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $169; per $1,000 of home value: $0.53

How Josephine County compares

The median tax bill in Josephine County is about 46% lower than the state median ($3,767 for Oregon) and about 32% lower than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #25 out of 36 Oregon counties with published Census data — 24 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. Josephine County's derived rate of 0.53% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Josephine County: the median bill works out to about $169 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $528 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 88,069 people — the #13 most populous county in Oregon, spread over 1,638 square miles, a density of about 54 people per square mile. Its median home value, $383,100, ranks #17 among the state's 36 counties with data.

Nationally, Josephine County's median bill of $2,023 ranks #1048 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 33% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 2.1% of Oregon's population, its median home value is about 16% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 5.28% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Josephine County to the most expensive county, Multnomah County ($5,061), is $3,038 a year.

Counties nearest Josephine County in the Oregon ranking

Josephine County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Josephine 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, Josephine County's $2,023 bill is #5 of 9.

The closest population match is Burke County, North Carolina (87,863 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,191 on a median home value of $170,500 — $832 more than Josephine County pays.

Josephine County's nearest population neighbours within Oregon are Benton County (96,359 residents, median tax $4,713 on a median value of $481,700); Polk County (88,553 residents, median tax $3,534 on a median value of $419,500); Umatilla County (80,087 residents, median tax $2,534 on a median value of $256,100); Klamath County (69,812 residents, median tax $1,734 on a median value of $255,700). Comparing them is a reminder that even inside one state's rules, the bill follows local home values and local district rates more than anything decided at the state level.

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 0.53%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $528 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $2,112. 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 Josephine County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.53% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Josephine County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.83% 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 Josephine County

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

• Polk County, OR — $3,534
• Umatilla County, OR — $2,534
• Benton County, OR — $4,713
• Klamath County, OR — $1,734
• Yamhill County, OR — $3,318
• Coos County, OR — $2,243

Frequently asked questions