Property Tax in Bowie County, Texas

What the Bowie County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Bowie County pay more than $2,091, 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 1.30% for Bowie 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 Bowie County

For context, the Texas medians are $4,111 of tax on $260,400 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Bowie County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Texas: #100 of 250 counties
• Median home value rank in Texas: #119 of 250
• Population rank in Texas: #44 of 250 (92,321 residents)
• Population density rank: #45 of 250 (104 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Texas: #163 of 250 (884 sq mi, 0.3% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $174; per $1,000 of home value: $1.30

How Bowie County compares

Of the 250 Texas counties with published data, 99 have a higher median property tax bill than Bowie County's $2,091, putting the county at #100 in the state. Its bill is about 49% lower than the state median of $4,111 and about 30% 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 1.30%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #119 within Texas.

Some extra context for Bowie County: the median bill works out to about $174 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,296 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 92,321 people — the #44 most populous county in Texas, spread over 884 square miles, a density of about 104 people per square mile. Its median home value, $161,300, ranks #119 among the state's 250 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 997 record a higher median tax bill than Bowie County — it sits in the top 32% nationally. The county holds roughly 0.3% of Texas's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $161,300 versus $260,400), and a decade at the derived rate of 1.30% adds up to about 12.96% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Crockett County, medians $466 — $1,625 less than Bowie County per year.

Counties nearest Bowie County in the Texas ranking

Bowie County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Bowie County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 92,321 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Bowie County's median bill of $2,091 is #5 of 9.

The closest population match is Ozaukee County, Wisconsin (92,345 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $4,629 on a median home value of $368,900 — $2,538 less than Bowie County pays.

Staying within Texas, the counties nearest Bowie County by population are Bastrop County (102,370 residents, median tax $4,077 on a median value of $269,500); Liberty County (97,993 residents, median tax $2,091 on a median value of $167,100); Victoria County (91,281 residents, median tax $2,941 on a median value of $197,600); Angelina County (86,791 residents, median tax $1,872 on a median value of $149,800). 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 Bowie County's derived rate of 1.30%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $5,184 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 Bowie County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.30% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Bowie County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.58% 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 Bowie 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 Bowie 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 Texas counties

• Victoria County, TX — $2,941
• Angelina County, TX — $1,872
• Liberty County, TX — $2,091
• Orange County, TX — $2,036
• Coryell County, TX — $2,509
• Henderson County, TX — $1,859

Frequently asked questions