Property Tax in Bedford County, Virginia

What the Bedford County numbers mean

Read the two medians together: $1,265 is the middle tax bill among owner-occupied households in Bedford County, and $276,600 is the middle home value. Neither figure describes a specific property — together they describe the typical homeowner's situation in the county.

The derived effective rate for Bedford County is 0.46% (median tax ÷ median value). Treat it as an estimate for comparison only: it comes from survey medians of different households, not from the county's rate schedule.

The key figures for Bedford County

For context, the Virginia medians are $2,686 of tax on $360,700 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Bedford County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Virginia: #86 of 133 counties
• Median home value rank in Virginia: #54 of 133
• Population rank in Virginia: #25 of 133 (80,254 residents)
• Population density rank: #68 of 133 (106 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Virginia: #5 of 133 (760 sq mi, 1.9% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $105; per $1,000 of home value: $0.46

How Bedford County compares

Of the 133 Virginia counties with published data, 85 have a higher median property tax bill than Bedford County's $1,265, putting the county at #86 in the state. Its bill is about 53% lower than the state median of $2,686 and about 57% 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 0.46%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #54 within Virginia.

Some extra context for Bedford County: the median bill works out to about $105 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $457 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 80,254 people — the #25 most populous county in Virginia, spread over 760 square miles, a density of about 106 people per square mile. Its median home value, $276,600, ranks #54 among the state's 133 counties with data.

Nationally, Bedford County's median bill of $1,265 ranks #1998 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 64% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 0.9% of Virginia's population, its median home value is about 23% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 4.57% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Bedford County to the most expensive county, Falls Church city ($10,001), is $8,736 a year.

Counties nearest Bedford County in the Virginia ranking

Bedford County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Bedford County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 80,254 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Bedford County's median bill of $1,265 is #7 of 9.

The closest population match is Kosciusko County, Indiana (80,357 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,198 on a median home value of $200,300 — $67 more than Bedford County pays.

Staying within Virginia, the counties nearest Bedford County by population are Frederick County (93,355 residents, median tax $1,807 on a median value of $355,000); Rockingham County (84,739 residents, median tax $1,532 on a median value of $287,900); James City County (80,046 residents, median tax $2,786 on a median value of $419,200); Lynchburg city (79,255 residents, median tax $1,778 on a median value of $211,800). 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

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 0.46%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $457 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $1,828. 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 Bedford County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.46% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Bedford County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.74% 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 Bedford 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 Bedford 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 Virginia counties

• James City County, VA — $2,786
• Lynchburg city, VA — $1,778
• Augusta County, VA — $1,379
• Rockingham County, VA — $1,532
• Fauquier County, VA — $4,185
• York County, VA — $2,676

Frequently asked questions