Property Tax in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania

What the Lackawanna County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Lackawanna County pay more than $2,910, 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 1.53% for Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna County

For context, the Pennsylvania medians are $3,241 of tax on $240,500 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Lackawanna County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Pennsylvania: #20 of 67 counties
• Median home value rank in Pennsylvania: #35 of 67
• Population rank in Pennsylvania: #17 of 67 (215,834 residents)
• Population density rank: #14 of 67 (470 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Pennsylvania: #48 of 67 (458 sq mi, 1.0% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $242; per $1,000 of home value: $1.53

How Lackawanna County compares

The median tax bill in Lackawanna County is about 10% lower than the state median ($3,241 for Pennsylvania) and about the same as the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #20 out of 67 Pennsylvania counties with published Census data — 19 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. Lackawanna County's derived rate of 1.53% sits above the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Lackawanna County: the median bill works out to about $242 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,532 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 215,834 people — the #17 most populous county in Pennsylvania, spread over 458 square miles, a density of about 470 people per square mile. Its median home value, $189,900, ranks #35 among the state's 67 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 470 record a higher median tax bill than Lackawanna County — it sits in the top 15% nationally. The county holds roughly 1.7% of Pennsylvania's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $189,900 versus $240,500), and a decade at the derived rate of 1.53% adds up to about 15.32% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Forest County, medians $1,162 — $1,748 less than Lackawanna County per year.

Counties nearest Lackawanna County in the Pennsylvania ranking

Lackawanna County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Lackawanna County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Lackawanna County ($2,910) ranks #6 of 9 by median tax paid.

The closest population match is York County, Maine (214,731 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $3,691 on a median home value of $357,200 — $781 less than Lackawanna County pays.

Staying within Pennsylvania, the counties nearest Lackawanna County by population are Erie County (269,544 residents, median tax $2,754 on a median value of $169,500); Cumberland County (264,422 residents, median tax $3,180 on a median value of $261,900); Washington County (209,778 residents, median tax $2,445 on a median value of $220,600); Butler County (195,870 residents, median tax $2,950 on a median value of $275,600). 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 Lackawanna County's derived rate of 1.53%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $6,128 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 Lackawanna County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.53% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna 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

• Washington County, PA — $2,445
• Butler County, PA — $2,950
• Monroe County, PA — $4,435
• Cumberland County, PA — $3,180
• Beaver County, PA — $2,672
• Erie County, PA — $2,754

Frequently asked questions