New Rates for Real Estate Taxes

Last November I posted about the tax reassessments which had everyone's emotions running high. After the dust had settled it turns out that overall tax assessments across Warren County increased by 93%. Of course, individual assessments will be higher or lower than that.

Warren County, and the town of Front Royal, have now approved their fiscal budgets for 2007, and the revised tax rates that go with them. The result is that the 2007 rate for real estate taxes in the county will be $0.45 per $100 (previously $0.82) and for the town, an additional $0.07 per $100 (previously $0.13).

Taking into account the 93% increase in assessments, this equates to average increases of 5.91% for the county, and 3.92% for the town. Of course, individual cases will vary depending on the specific change in their own tax assessment.

Real estate taxes remain very low in Warren County, Virginia. For example, a home worth around $250,000 (the median sale price of homes in the county so far this year) may have a typical tax assessment of say $220,000, and therefore real estate taxes this year of just $990 (or $1,144 if it is within the town of Front Royal) - that's less than $100 per month on the owner's escrow payment to his mortgage company. I always find that people relocating from out of state - and from many other parts of Virginia - are pleasantly surprised at the low taxes. That applies whether they are coming from an area of higher property values like New Jersey, or cheaper areas such as Ohio.