Property Tax Iowa: County Rates, the Rollback, and the New Homestead Exemption

A typical Iowa homeowner pays $2,897 a year in property tax on a house worth $208,000, a ratio of 1.39 percent according to the Census Bureau. Across the 99 counties that ratio stretches from 0.87 percent in Lyon County, in the far northwest corner, to 1.80 percent in Union County. This Iowa property tax calculator multiplies the value you enter by the ratio between what owners in your county typically pay and what their homes are worth, then shows the result next to the median bill local owners report. Enter the full assessed value from your assessor (or a realistic sale price), not the smaller taxable value that appears after the state rollback.

The Rollback: Why Iowa Taxes Less Than Half of Your Assessed Value

Iowa’s defining feature is the assessment limitation, which everyone in the state calls the rollback. Your assessor sets an assessed value near market value, and then the Iowa Department of Revenue certifies a percentage that decides how much of that value can be taxed. Since 2013 the law has held the growth of statewide residential taxable value from revaluation to 3 percent a year, and residential growth is also tied to farmland, so a weak year for agricultural values can hold homes to less.

The residential rollback was 56.4919 percent for 2022 values, then fell to 46.3428 percent for 2023, rose to 47.4316 percent for 2024, and dropped to 44.5345 percent for 2025. A house assessed at $250,000 in 2025 therefore has a taxable value of $111,336. Because Iowa reassesses in odd-numbered years, the rollback tends to bounce between odd and even years. A higher assessment does not automatically mean a higher bill; a falling rollback can absorb much of it.

From Taxable Value to a Consolidated Levy per $1,000

Iowa quotes rates in dollars per $1,000 of taxable value. Your parcel sits in a taxing district, and every body that levies there (the county, your city or township, the K-12 school district, the community college, the assessor, hospitals, and agricultural extension) adds its rate. The sum is the consolidated levy on your statement. The Legislative Services Agency’s sample residential example uses $30.0427 per $1,000; at that rate, the $250,000 home above would owe about $3,344.84 before exemptions and credits.

Bills run well behind the assessment. Values set on January 1, 2025 carry the fiscal 2027 levy, paid in halves in September 2026 and March 2027.

County Ratios, From Lyon at 0.87% to Union at 1.80%

On the Census Bureau’s 2024 five year estimates, Union County has the highest ratio at 1.80 percent, followed by Polk (Des Moines) at 1.68, Linn (Cedar Rapids) at 1.66, Montgomery at 1.65, and Decatur at 1.61. The lowest ratios cluster in the northwest: Lyon at 0.87, Dickinson at 0.92, O’Brien at 0.98, Cherokee at 0.99, and Kossuth at 1.00. The middle county sits at 1.32 percent, and 69 of the 99 counties fall under the 1.39 percent statewide figure. One naming trap: Des Moines County is the Burlington area in southeast Iowa, while the capital city sits in Polk County.

The biggest median bills follow home prices more than ratios. Dallas County, west of the capital, leads at $5,001 on a $355,600 median home, then Johnson (Iowa City) at $4,681 and Polk at $4,396. Pocahontas County has both the lowest median value, $98,100, and the smallest median bill, $1,111.

Two examples run through the calculator:

• Polk County, $300,000 home: 1.68 percent of $300,000 is $5,040 a year, or $420 a month, which is $644 more than the county’s $4,396 median bill.
• Woodbury County (Sioux City), $200,000 home: 1.45 percent gives $2,900 a year, or $241.67 a month, $244 above the $2,656 median.

Place the same $250,000 house at each end of the range and the gap is wide: $4,500 a year at Union’s ratio against $2,175 at Lyon’s.

These ratios come from owner-occupied homes, so the rollback and the homestead relief most owners hold are already inside them. A rental house or a second home with no homestead filing will usually pay more than its county ratio suggests.

SF 2472 and the New 10 Percent Homestead Exemption

The biggest recent change is Senate File 2472, which Governor Kim Reynolds signed on May 18, 2026. Starting with assessment year 2026, it replaces the old homestead credit (worth the tax on $4,850 of value) with an exemption equal to 10 percent of the home’s taxable value, never less than $5,500 and never more than $20,000. The Department of Revenue indexes the $20,000 ceiling to inflation starting with 2027 values. The new exemption first reaches the bills due in September 2027 and March 2028.

The Department’s May 20, 2026 guidance sets the order: rollback first, then the 10 percent exemption, then the $6,500 exemption for owners 65 or older, then the military exemption, and credits last. Using the 2025 rollback for illustration, the $250,000 home’s $111,336 taxable value would lose $11,134 to the exemption, saving about $334 at the sample levy. The $5,500 floor helps homes under roughly $123,500 of assessed value, and the $20,000 cap binds above about $449,100.

If you already had the homestead credit or exemption before July 1, 2026, the Department says you get the new exemption automatically. New owners file form 54-028 with the assessor by July 1 and must live in the home at least six months a year.

Relief for Seniors, Veterans, and Low-Income Owners

• Age 65 and older: an extra $6,500 of taxable value exempt on the homestead, in place since 2024 values under HF 718 (2023).
• Military service exemption: $4,000 of taxable value for eligible honorably discharged veterans on 2023 and later values, up from $1,852. File by July 1.
• Disabled veteran credit: 100 percent of the tax on the homestead for a veteran with a permanent 100 percent service-connected rating. New applications on or after July 1, 2026 cover the dwelling and up to half an acre.
• Credit for senior and disabled citizens: an income-tested credit for owners 65 or older or totally disabled with low household income. The claim, form 54-001, is due by June 1.

Odd Year Reassessment and the April 30 Board of Review Deadline

Assessors value property as of January 1 and revalue real estate every odd-numbered year, so 2027 is a reassessment year. Notices go out by April 1. From April 2 through April 25 you can ask the assessor for an informal review. The formal route is a written protest to the local board of review, filed from April 2 through April 30, 2027. If the board says no, the next steps are the Property Assessment Appeal Board or district court.

SF 2472 tilts the 2027 round toward owners. For assessment years from January 1, 2027, if a home’s assessed value rose 10 percent or more against either of the two prior years and the jump did not come from new construction or improvements, the assessor must explain the increase in writing and carries the burden of proof in a protest.

September and March Halves, 1.5 Percent Interest, and the June Sale

County treasurers collect the tax in two halves. The first is due September 1 and turns delinquent October 1; the second is due March 1 and turns delinquent April 1. Late halves draw interest of 1.5 percent per month, with each partial month counted as a full one. Parcels still delinquent go to the annual tax sale on the third Monday in June, which falls on June 21, 2027. The owner can redeem by repaying the certificate amount plus 2 percent a month and fees; after one year and nine months, the buyer can start the 90 day notice that leads to a tax deed.

Levy Caps Ahead, and When These Ratios Refresh

SF 2472 also caps what local governments can collect. For fiscal years starting July 1, 2027, city and county general levies may bring in no more than 102 percent of the prior year’s certified dollars, before adding new valuation, and many other rate-limited levies face the same 2 percent ceiling. The school foundation levy of $5.40 per $1,000 falls to $5.10 for the budget year starting July 1, 2028, and to $4.90 a year later. Our county ratios come from the ACS 2024 five year file (surveys from 2020 through 2024) and will update when the Census Bureau releases the next file in December.

Sources: 2024 five-year American Community Survey from the US Census Bureau (tables B25077 and B25103); Iowa Legislative Services Agency, “Assessment Limitations: Property Value Rollbacks” (January 7, 2026) and rollback history table; Iowa Department of Revenue property tax overview, homestead exemption pages, and May 20, 2026 memo on SF 2472; 2026 Iowa Acts, Senate File 2472; Iowa Code 425.1A, 426A.11, 441.37, 445.39, 446.7, and 447.9; Iowa State County Treasurers Association. Questions about value or exemptions go to your county or city assessor; questions about the bill go to the county treasurer.