Property Tax in Fauquier County, Virginia

What the Fauquier County numbers mean

Read the two medians together: $4,185 is the middle tax bill among owner-occupied households in Fauquier County, and $543,700 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 Fauquier County is 0.77% (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 Fauquier 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.

Fauquier County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Virginia: #10 of 133 counties
• Median home value rank in Virginia: #7 of 133
• Population rank in Virginia: #29 of 133 (73,935 residents)
• Population density rank: #64 of 133 (114 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Virginia: #8 of 133 (647 sq mi, 1.6% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $349; per $1,000 of home value: $0.77

How Fauquier County compares

The median tax bill in Fauquier County is about 56% higher than the state median ($2,686 for Virginia) and about 41% higher than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #10 out of 133 Virginia counties with published Census data — 9 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. Fauquier County's derived rate of 0.77% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Fauquier County: the median bill works out to about $349 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $770 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 73,935 people — the #29 most populous county in Virginia, spread over 647 square miles, a density of about 114 people per square mile. Its median home value, $543,700, ranks #7 among the state's 133 counties with data.

Nationally, Fauquier County's median bill of $4,185 ranks #199 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 6% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 0.9% of Virginia's population, its median home value is about 51% above the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 7.70% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Fauquier County to the most expensive county, Falls Church city ($10,001), is $5,816 a year.

Counties nearest Fauquier County in the Virginia ranking

Fauquier County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Fauquier County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Fauquier County ($4,185) ranks the highest by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Wood County, Wisconsin (74,039 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $2,629 on a median home value of $168,100 — $1,556 more than Fauquier County pays.

Staying within Virginia, the counties nearest Fauquier County by population are Lynchburg city (79,255 residents, median tax $1,778 on a median value of $211,800); Augusta County (77,713 residents, median tax $1,379 on a median value of $281,400); York County (70,590 residents, median tax $2,676 on a median value of $411,200); Pittsylvania County (60,148 residents, median tax $907 on a median value of $153,000). 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 Fauquier County's derived rate of 0.77%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $3,080 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 Fauquier County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.77% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Fauquier 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 Fauquier 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 Fauquier 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

• York County, VA — $2,676
• Augusta County, VA — $1,379
• Lynchburg city, VA — $1,778
• James City County, VA — $2,786
• Bedford County, VA — $1,265
• Rockingham County, VA — $1,532

Frequently asked questions