Property Tax in Sullivan County, Tennessee

What the Sullivan County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Sullivan County homeowners pay more than $1,205 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 $190,800, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.63%. 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 Sullivan County

For context, the Tennessee medians are $1,400 of tax on $256,800 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Sullivan County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Tennessee: #23 of 95 counties
• Median home value rank in Tennessee: #41 of 95
• Population rank in Tennessee: #9 of 95 (159,693 residents)
• Population density rank: #10 of 95 (386 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Tennessee: #56 of 95 (413 sq mi, 1.0% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $100; per $1,000 of home value: $0.63

How Sullivan County compares

The median tax bill in Sullivan County is about 14% lower than the state median ($1,400 for Tennessee) and about 59% lower than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #23 out of 95 Tennessee counties with published Census data — 22 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. Sullivan County's derived rate of 0.63% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Sullivan County: the median bill works out to about $100 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $632 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 159,693 people — the #9 most populous county in Tennessee, spread over 413 square miles, a density of about 386 people per square mile. Its median home value, $190,800, ranks #41 among the state's 95 counties with data.

Nationally, Sullivan County's median bill of $1,205 ranks #2094 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 67% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 2.3% of Tennessee's population, its median home value is about 26% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 6.32% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Sullivan County to the most expensive county, Williamson County ($2,891), is $1,686 a year.

Counties nearest Sullivan County in the Tennessee ranking

Sullivan County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Sullivan 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, Sullivan County's $1,205 bill is #8 of 9.

The closest population match is Columbia County, Georgia (159,638 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $2,431 on a median home value of $287,400 — $1,226 less than Sullivan County pays.

Sullivan County's nearest population neighbours within Tennessee are Montgomery County (227,957 residents, median tax $1,671 on a median value of $248,300); Sumner County (200,553 residents, median tax $1,944 on a median value of $364,000); Wilson County (153,587 residents, median tax $1,743 on a median value of $397,000); Blount County (137,747 residents, median tax $1,387 on a median value of $275,700). 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 Sullivan County's derived rate of 0.63%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $2,528 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 Sullivan County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.63% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Sullivan County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.55% 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 Sullivan 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 Sullivan 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 Tennessee counties

• Wilson County, TN — $1,743
• Blount County, TN — $1,387
• Washington County, TN — $1,278
• Sumner County, TN — $1,944
• Bradley County, TN — $1,174
• Maury County, TN — $1,476

Frequently asked questions