Property Tax in Outagamie County, Wisconsin

What the Outagamie County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Outagamie County pay more than $3,580, 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 1.47% for Outagamie 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.

Outagamie County by the numbers

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

Outagamie County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Wisconsin: #20 of 72 counties
• Median home value rank in Wisconsin: #16 of 72
• Population rank in Wisconsin: #6 of 72 (191,537 residents)
• Population density rank: #10 of 72 (300 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Wisconsin: #45 of 72 (637 sq mi, 1.2% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $298; per $1,000 of home value: $1.47

How Outagamie County compares

Set against its state, Outagamie County's median bill of $3,580 is about 4% lower than the Wisconsin median ($3,746). Against the country as a whole it is about 21% higher than the US median ($2,969). That places the county #20 of 72 Wisconsin counties ranked by median taxes paid.

Remember what drives the ranking: bills follow home values as much as rates. Outagamie County's median home, at $244,100, ranks #16 by value in Wisconsin, while its derived rate of 1.47% compares with a derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Outagamie County: the median bill works out to about $298 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,467 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 191,537 people — the #6 most populous county in Wisconsin, spread over 637 square miles, a density of about 300 people per square mile. Its median home value, $244,100, ranks #16 among the state's 72 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 294 record a higher median tax bill than Outagamie County — it sits in the top 9% nationally. The county holds roughly 3.3% of Wisconsin's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $244,100 versus $247,400), and a decade at the derived rate of 1.47% adds up to about 14.67% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Iron County, medians $1,777 — $1,803 less than Outagamie County per year.

Counties nearest Outagamie County in the Wisconsin ranking

Outagamie County and its population peers

For a like-for-like sense of scale, compare Outagamie County with its national population peers: the counties nearest to its 191,537 residents, listed in the table below with their own Census medians. Of the 9 counties in that group, Outagamie County's median bill of $3,580 is #2 of 9.

The closest population match is Iredell County, North Carolina (191,800 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $1,843 on a median home value of $292,300 — $1,737 more than Outagamie County pays.

Staying within Wisconsin, the counties nearest Outagamie County by population are Brown County (269,425 residents, median tax $3,593 on a median value of $245,900); Racine County (196,888 residents, median tax $4,071 on a median value of $239,400); Winnebago County (171,357 residents, median tax $3,573 on a median value of $208,600); Kenosha County (168,413 residents, median tax $4,180 on a median value of $247,800). 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

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Outagamie County's derived rate of 1.47%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $5,868 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 Outagamie County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.47% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Outagamie County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.51% 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 Outagamie County

Most successful appeals are won on facts, not arguments. Start with the property record card held by the Outagamie County assessor: wrong square footage, an extra room, or a missing homestead exemption are common and fixable. Next, line your assessed value up against recent sales of genuinely similar homes nearby. Many disputes end at an informal conversation with the assessor's office; if yours does not, file the formal appeal with the review board named on your notice before its deadline, evidence attached, and keep paying the bill in the meantime so penalties do not build up.

More Wisconsin counties

• Racine County, WI — $4,071
• Winnebago County, WI — $3,573
• Kenosha County, WI — $4,180
• Rock County, WI — $3,652
• Marathon County, WI — $3,108
• Washington County, WI — $3,795

Frequently asked questions