Property Tax in Wood County, Wisconsin

What the Wood County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Wood County homeowners pay more than $2,629 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 $168,100, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 1.56%. 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 Wood County

For context, the Wisconsin medians are $3,746 of tax on $247,400 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Wood County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Wisconsin: #50 of 72 counties
• Median home value rank in Wisconsin: #63 of 72
• Population rank in Wisconsin: #22 of 72 (74,039 residents)
• Population density rank: #22 of 72 (93 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Wisconsin: #31 of 72 (793 sq mi, 1.5% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $219; per $1,000 of home value: $1.56

How Wood County compares

Of the 72 Wisconsin counties with published data, 49 have a higher median property tax bill than Wood County's $2,629, putting the county at #50 in the state. Its bill is about 30% lower than the state median of $3,746 and about 11% lower 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 1.56%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #63 within Wisconsin.

Some extra context for Wood County: the median bill works out to about $219 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,564 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 74,039 people — the #22 most populous county in Wisconsin, spread over 793 square miles, a density of about 93 people per square mile. Its median home value, $168,100, ranks #63 among the state's 72 counties with data.

Nationally, Wood County's median bill of $2,629 ranks #617 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 20% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 1.3% of Wisconsin's population, its median home value is about 32% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 15.64% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Wood County to the most expensive county, Dane County ($6,276), is $3,647 a year.

Counties nearest Wood County in the Wisconsin ranking

Wood County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Wood 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, Wood County's $2,629 bill is #2 of 9.

The closest population match is Fauquier County, Virginia (73,935 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $4,185 on a median home value of $543,700 — $1,556 less than Wood County pays.

Wood County's nearest population neighbours within Wisconsin are Jefferson County (85,867 residents, median tax $3,988 on a median value of $253,800); Manitowoc County (81,314 residents, median tax $2,660 on a median value of $172,900); Portage County (70,375 residents, median tax $3,396 on a median value of $230,400); Chippewa County (66,558 residents, median tax $2,754 on a median value of $237,700). Comparing them is a reminder that even inside one state's rules, the bill follows local home values and local district rates more than anything decided at the state level.

How the tax is worked out

Think of the final bill as three ingredients: the assessed value of the property, the exemptions subtracted from it, and the combined rate of every district the property sits in. Wood County's medians imply a derived rate of 1.56%; applied illustratively, a $400,000 home would owe about $6,256 a year, or around $521 a month spread evenly. Individual properties depart from the illustration in both directions.

Illustrative bills in Wood County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.56% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Wood 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 Wood 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 Wood 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 Wisconsin counties

• Portage County, WI — $3,396
• Manitowoc County, WI — $2,660
• Chippewa County, WI — $2,754
• Sauk County, WI — $3,646
• Jefferson County, WI — $3,988
• Dodge County, WI — $3,395

Frequently asked questions