Property Tax in Chelan County, Washington

What the Chelan County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Chelan County homeowners pay more than $3,235 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 $454,900, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.71%. 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 Chelan County

For context, the Washington medians are $4,361 of tax on $519,800 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Chelan County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Washington: #15 of 39 counties
• Median home value rank in Washington: #13 of 39
• Population rank in Washington: #17 of 39 (79,518 residents)
• Population density rank: #23 of 39 (27 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Washington: #3 of 39 (2,921 sq mi, 4.4% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $270; per $1,000 of home value: $0.71

How Chelan County compares

Of the 39 Washington counties with published data, 14 have a higher median property tax bill than Chelan County's $3,235, putting the county at #15 in the state. Its bill is about 26% lower than the state median of $4,361 and about 9% higher 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 0.71%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #13 within Washington.

Some extra context for Chelan County: the median bill works out to about $270 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $711 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 79,518 people — the #17 most populous county in Washington, spread over 2,921 square miles, a density of about 27 people per square mile. Its median home value, $454,900, ranks #13 among the state's 39 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 386 record a higher median tax bill than Chelan County — it sits in the top 12% nationally. The county holds roughly 1.0% of Washington's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $454,900 versus $519,800), and a decade at the derived rate of 0.71% adds up to about 7.11% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Garfield County, medians $1,306 — $1,929 less than Chelan County per year.

Counties nearest Chelan County in the Washington ranking

Chelan County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Chelan County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 79,518 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Chelan County's median bill of $3,235 is #3 of 9.

The closest population match is Oconee County, South Carolina (79,566 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $856 on a median home value of $217,200 — $2,379 more than Chelan County pays.

Inside Washington itself, the counties closest to Chelan County in population are Island County (86,747 residents, median tax $3,765 on a median value of $535,300); Lewis County (83,925 residents, median tax $2,433 on a median value of $341,500); Clallam County (77,593 residents, median tax $2,860 on a median value of $385,600); Grays Harbor County (76,397 residents, median tax $2,441 on a median value of $279,500). Same state, same broad tax framework — yet the median bills still differ, because assessed values and the mix of county, municipal and school-district rates are set locally.

How the tax is worked out

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Chelan County's derived rate of 0.71%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $2,844 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 Chelan County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.71% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Chelan County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.84% 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 Chelan 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 Chelan 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 Washington counties

• Clallam County, WA — $2,860
• Grays Harbor County, WA — $2,441
• Lewis County, WA — $2,433
• Island County, WA — $3,765
• Mason County, WA — $2,833
• Walla Walla County, WA — $3,386

Frequently asked questions