Today on “GoStGeorgeTV,” I’ll discuss how to estimate your property taxes in Washington County.

If your property is in Washington County, how can you figure out how much you’ll pay in property taxes? Let me walk you through it. To follow along with the video above, visit the Washington County Assessor’s webpage and click the “Tax Estimator” button.

The question that inspired today’s topic came from a client who asked how much she would pay in property taxes on a $100,000 home.

Washington County works on what is called a “mill rate,” which refers to the Latin wording meaning ‘thousand.’ Essentially, it means that they base property taxes on a rate per each $1,000 of estimated value.

Let’s say that the client’s property is located in St. George City. If the property value is $100,000, the tax area rate, or mill rate, is 1.0046% per each $1,000. When you plug in these values into the property tax estimator on the Washington County Assessor’s page, it will generate two figures: your estimated non-primary-residential property tax, and your estimated property tax with the primary residential exemption.

‘Non-primary residence’ refers to a home that isn’t your primary residence, such as in the case of having a second home, investment property, or vacation rental property. A ‘primary residence’ is defined as the home you live in most of the time. The tax rate for a non-primary occupant is 45% higher than that of a primary occupant. The reason for this disparity, by the way, is that the owner of a non-primary residence isn’t here all the time, so they aren’t contributing resources to the community, so they’re charged at a higher tax rate. Primary residents who live in the community are plugging their income into the community, and so are charged at a lower rate.

So in the case of my client’s $100,000 home, if it was her primary residence, she would pay $552.53. If it wasn’t her primary residence, she would pay $1,004.60.

The key in all this is the property’s assessed value. If we change the property’s value on the tax estimator to $300,000, Washington County’s current average sales price, a primary resident would pay $1,657.59 annually, and a non-primary resident would pay $3,013.80 annually. Compared to a place like New York City, where property taxes could be $20,000 or $30,000, Washington County’s property taxes are very low.

“The tax rate for a non-primary occupant is 45% higher than that of a primary occupant.”

Now, how do you determine your property’s assessed value?

Well, on the Washington County Assessor’s homepage, go to the left side, click “Assessor Record Search,” and plug in the address of your property. Find and click on your property, and you’ll then be sent to a page with the property’s account summary. Click “View Property Record,” and on the right side of the page, you’ll see the property’s assessed value, as well as its tax rate, which you can then go back and plug into the site’s tax estimator.

Hopefully this guide was helpful to you! If you have any questions about buying, selling, or investing in real estate in St. George, don’t hesitate to reach out. Here at the Larkin Group, we know this town!  435-215-4533 | sales@gostgeorge.com