Property Tax in Skagit County, Washington

What the Skagit County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Skagit County homeowners pay more than $4,008 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 $486,200, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.82%. 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.

Skagit County by the numbers

*Estimate derived from Census medians (tax ÷ value), not an official rate.

Skagit County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Washington: #8 of 39 counties
• Median home value rank in Washington: #9 of 39
• Population rank in Washington: #11 of 39 (130,407 residents)
• Population density rank: #14 of 39 (75 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Washington: #21 of 39 (1,730 sq mi, 2.6% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $334; per $1,000 of home value: $0.82

How Skagit County compares

The median tax bill in Skagit County is about 8% lower than the state median ($4,361 for Washington) and about 35% higher than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #8 out of 39 Washington counties with published Census data — 7 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. Skagit County's derived rate of 0.82% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Skagit County: the median bill works out to about $334 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $824 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 130,407 people — the #11 most populous county in Washington, spread over 1,730 square miles, a density of about 75 people per square mile. Its median home value, $486,200, ranks #9 among the state's 39 counties with data.

Nationally, Skagit County's median bill of $4,008 ranks #227 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 7% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 1.7% of Washington's population, its median home value is about 6% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 8.24% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Skagit County to the most expensive county, King County ($6,785), is $2,777 a year.

Counties nearest Skagit County in the Washington ranking

Skagit County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Skagit 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, Skagit County's $4,008 bill is #4 of 9.

The closest population match is Tazewell County, Illinois (130,555 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $3,481 on a median home value of $164,500 — $527 more than Skagit County pays.

Staying within Washington, the counties nearest Skagit County by population are Whatcom County (228,432 residents, median tax $3,819 on a median value of $536,100); Benton County (210,224 residents, median tax $2,910 on a median value of $369,400); Cowlitz County (111,539 residents, median tax $2,988 on a median value of $367,400); Grant County (100,428 residents, median tax $2,268 on a median value of $275,700). 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 Skagit County's derived rate of 0.82%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $3,296 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 Skagit County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.82% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Skagit 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 Skagit 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 Skagit 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 Washington counties

• Cowlitz County, WA — $2,988
• Grant County, WA — $2,268
• Franklin County, WA — $2,638
• Island County, WA — $3,765
• Lewis County, WA — $2,433
• Chelan County, WA — $3,235

Frequently asked questions