Property Tax in Cambria County, Pennsylvania

What the Cambria County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Cambria County homeowners pay more than $1,487 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 $115,900, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 1.28%. 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.

Cambria County by the numbers

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

Cambria County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Pennsylvania: #61 of 67 counties
• Median home value rank in Pennsylvania: #63 of 67
• Population rank in Pennsylvania: #26 of 67 (132,355 residents)
• Population density rank: #28 of 67 (192 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Pennsylvania: #31 of 67 (687 sq mi, 1.5% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $124; per $1,000 of home value: $1.28

How Cambria County compares

Of the 67 Pennsylvania counties with published data, 60 have a higher median property tax bill than Cambria County's $1,487, putting the county at #61 in the state. Its bill is about 54% lower than the state median of $3,241 and about 50% 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 1.28%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #63 within Pennsylvania.

Some extra context for Cambria County: the median bill works out to about $124 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,283 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 132,355 people — the #26 most populous county in Pennsylvania, spread over 687 square miles, a density of about 192 people per square mile. Its median home value, $115,900, ranks #63 among the state's 67 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 1640 record a higher median tax bill than Cambria County — it sits in the top 52% nationally. The county holds roughly 1.0% of Pennsylvania's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $115,900 versus $240,500), and a decade at the derived rate of 1.28% adds up to about 12.83% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Forest County, medians $1,162 — $325 less than Cambria County per year.

Counties nearest Cambria County in the Pennsylvania ranking

Cambria County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Cambria 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, Cambria County's $1,487 bill is #6 of 9.

The closest population match is Pickens County, South Carolina (132,604 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $821 on a median home value of $216,000 — $666 more than Cambria County pays.

Cambria County's nearest population neighbours within Pennsylvania are Lebanon County (143,592 residents, median tax $3,180 on a median value of $227,300); Schuylkill County (143,259 residents, median tax $2,147 on a median value of $140,400); Fayette County (126,967 residents, median tax $1,516 on a median value of $126,900); Blair County (121,854 residents, median tax $1,711 on a median value of $156,700). 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

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Cambria County's derived rate of 1.28%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $5,132 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 Cambria County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.28% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Cambria County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.35% 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 Cambria County

Believe your assessment is too high? The practical order of attack is: obtain your record card and audit it line by line; collect comparable recent sales in Cambria County; ask the assessor's office to correct anything plainly wrong; and, if the value still seems off, lodge a formal appeal ahead of the deadline printed on your assessment notice. Windows are short — often 30 to 90 days — and late appeals are usually rejected outright, however strong the case.

More Pennsylvania counties

• Fayette County, PA — $1,516
• Blair County, PA — $1,711
• Schuylkill County, PA — $2,147
• Lebanon County, PA — $3,180
• Lycoming County, PA — $2,647
• Mercer County, PA — $1,943

Frequently asked questions