Property Tax in Rockingham County, Virginia

What the Rockingham County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Rockingham County pay more than $1,532, 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 0.53% for Rockingham 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 Rockingham 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.

Rockingham County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Virginia: #67 of 133 counties
• Median home value rank in Virginia: #46 of 133
• Population rank in Virginia: #24 of 133 (84,739 residents)
• Population density rank: #69 of 133 (100 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Virginia: #3 of 133 (849 sq mi, 2.2% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $128; per $1,000 of home value: $0.53

How Rockingham County compares

Set against its state, Rockingham County's median bill of $1,532 is about 43% lower than the Virginia median ($2,686). Against the country as a whole it is about 48% lower than the US median ($2,969). That places the county #67 of 133 Virginia counties ranked by median taxes paid.

Remember what drives the ranking: bills follow home values as much as rates. Rockingham County's median home, at $287,900, ranks #46 by value in Virginia, while its derived rate of 0.53% compares with a derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Rockingham County: the median bill works out to about $128 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $532 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 84,739 people — the #24 most populous county in Virginia, spread over 849 square miles, a density of about 100 people per square mile. Its median home value, $287,900, ranks #46 among the state's 133 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 1587 record a higher median tax bill than Rockingham County — it sits in the top 51% nationally. The county holds roughly 1.0% of Virginia's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $287,900 versus $360,700), and a decade at the derived rate of 0.53% adds up to about 5.32% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Buchanan County, medians $404 — $1,128 less than Rockingham County per year.

Counties nearest Rockingham County in the Virginia ranking

Rockingham County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Rockingham 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, Rockingham County's $1,532 bill is the lowest.

The closest population match is Cascade County, Montana (84,601 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $2,236 on a median home value of $243,300 — $704 less than Rockingham County pays.

Staying within Virginia, the counties nearest Rockingham County by population are Suffolk city (96,638 residents, median tax $3,073 on a median value of $329,600); Frederick County (93,355 residents, median tax $1,807 on a median value of $355,000); Bedford County (80,254 residents, median tax $1,265 on a median value of $276,600); James City County (80,046 residents, median tax $2,786 on a median value of $419,200). 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 0.53%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $532 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $2,128. 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 Rockingham County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.53% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Rockingham 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 Rockingham 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 Rockingham 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

• Bedford County, VA — $1,265
• James City County, VA — $2,786
• Lynchburg city, VA — $1,778
• Augusta County, VA — $1,379
• Frederick County, VA — $1,807
• Fauquier County, VA — $4,185

Frequently asked questions