The typical Missouri homeowner pays $1,948 a year in real estate tax on a home worth $230,300, which is 0.85 percent of market value by Census Bureau estimates. Among the 114 counties and the independent City of St. Louis, that share ranges from 0.37 percent in Reynolds County to 1.20 percent in St. Louis County. This Missouri property tax calculator multiplies the value you enter by your jurisdiction’s ratio of median tax paid to median home value, then shows the result next to the bill local owners actually report. Type the full market value, not the smaller assessed value printed on an assessor’s notice.
St. Louis City and St. Louis County Are Two Different Bills
The most common mistake people make with Missouri numbers is treating St. Louis as one place. The City of St. Louis is an independent city that belongs to no county. It has its own assessor, its own Board of Equalization, and its own Collector of Revenue, and the Census reports it as a separate county equivalent. St. Louis County, which surrounds it on three sides, levies separately.
Missouri Property Tax Calculator (2027)
Estimate a yearly real estate bill for any of the 114 counties or the independent City of St. Louis. Enter what the home would sell for; the estimator multiplies it by the local share owners actually pay, taken from Census Bureau ACS 2024 five-year medians, and sets the result beside the local and statewide typical bill.
A planning figure only: the value you type multiplied by the local ratio of median real estate taxes paid to median owner-occupied value (Census ACS 2024 five-year), so it does not rebuild a statement district by district. A Missouri bill applies each school, county, city, and special district levy per $100 to 19 percent of the assessor's true value, and a senior freeze credit or a later appeal can change it. Personal property tax on vehicles is billed separately and is left out. Missouri has no general homestead exemption; owners 65 or older or fully disabled may qualify for the state Property Tax Credit, up to $1,550 for owners beginning with 2026. Check your value with the county assessor and your amount due with the county collector (in St. Louis City, the Collector of Revenue).
The two do not tax homes the same way. In St. Louis County, owners report a median bill of $3,335 on a median value of $276,800, a ratio of 1.20 percent and the highest in Missouri. In the city, the median is $2,033 on a $197,500 home, or 1.03 percent. Put a $250,000 house in each: the county estimate is $3,000 a year ($250.00 a month), the city estimate $2,575 ($214.58 a month). Choose carefully in the calculator, because a Clayton or Kirkwood address and a south city address sit on opposite sides of that line.
Kansas City has a similar wrinkle. Most of it lies in Jackson County, where the ratio is 1.12 percent and a $250,000 home works out to $2,800, but large parts sit in Clay and Platte counties, each with its own assessor and ratio.
Nineteen Percent of True Value, Then a Levy per $100
The assessor finds each home’s “true value in money,” and RSMo 137.115 assesses residential real estate at 19 percent of it. Farmland is assessed at 12 percent and commercial property at 32 percent. Cars, boats, and other personal property are assessed at 33 1/3 percent on a separate bill, which this calculator leaves out.
Every taxing district then sets a levy in dollars per $100 of assessed valuation. A $250,000 house is assessed at $47,500, or 475 units of $100. In St. Louis County, the $3,000 estimate above implies a combined levy near $6.32 per $100 across the school district, county, city, fire, library, and other districts. The state’s only levy is 3 cents per $100 for the blind pension fund (RSMo 209.130), just $14.25 on that house, so nearly all of the bill stays local.
Odd-Year Reassessment and the Hancock Rollback
Assessors set new values in odd-numbered years, and those values carry into the next even year apart from new construction and improvements. The last general reassessment was 2025; the next is 2027. Before raising a home’s assessed value more than 15 percent, the assessor must physically inspect it and give the owner at least 30 days to request an interior look. That triggers an inspection; it does not cap the increase. In charter counties, notice of any increase must be mailed by June 15 with projected levies from each district.
Higher values do not automatically mean an equally higher bill. Under the Hancock Amendment (Article X, Section 22 of the Missouri Constitution) and RSMo 137.073, each district must roll its levy back in a reassessment year so existing property yields substantially the same revenue as before, plus growth no greater than inflation or 5 percent, whichever is lower. New construction counts outside that limit, and going higher takes voter approval of a new tax rate ceiling. Your own bill can still climb faster when your neighborhood’s values outrun the rest of the district.
County Ratios From Reynolds (0.37%) to St. Louis County (1.20%)
Missouri’s heaviest ratios cluster in the two metros. After St. Louis County come Jackson at 1.12 percent, St. Charles at 1.08, Clay at 1.07, Platte at 1.05, and St. Louis City at 1.03. The rural exception is Atchison County in the far northwest at 1.16 percent, where a $106,800 median home carries a $1,241 median bill.
The lightest ratios are in the Ozarks: Reynolds at 0.37 percent, Dallas and Wright at 0.40, Hickory at 0.41, and Carter at 0.42. A $150,000 home in Reynolds County comes to $555 a year, or $46.25 a month. Camden County, on the Lake of the Ozarks, pairs a $305,400 median value with a ratio of just 0.47 percent. Springfield’s Greene County sits at 0.71 percent, so $250,000 there means about $1,775. Boone County, around Columbia, matches the statewide 0.85 percent exactly.
Of the 115 jurisdictions, 98 fall below the statewide ratio and 16 above it; the statewide figure beats the 0.70 percent county midpoint because the metro counties hold so many homes. Each ratio divides one Census median (tax paid) by another (home value) for owner-occupied homes, so local levies, rollbacks, and typical credits are already inside it. The survey years run 2020 through 2024, before the 2025 reassessment.
No Homestead Exemption: The Senior Freeze and a Larger 2026 Credit
Missouri has no general homestead exemption that trims every owner-occupied home. Relief targets older and disabled owners in two ways.
The first is the senior freeze under RSMo 137.1050, created by Senate Bill 190 in 2023 and amended in 2024 and 2025. A county adopts it by ordinance, or voters force a ballot question with a petition signed by 5 percent of registered voters. Once adopted, an owner 62 or older receives a credit for any rise in tax on the primary residence above the first qualifying year. It is a local option, so ask your county. The City of St. Louis adopted it in 2023, but its version freezes only city levies (not school or library taxes), covers homes worth up to $528,392, and takes applications March 1 through June 30.
The second is the state Property Tax Credit, a circuit breaker claimed on Form MO-PTC by owners 65 or older or 100 percent disabled. For years the cap was $1,100 for owners and $750 for renters. House Bills 594 and 508, passed in 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, lifted it to $1,550 for owners and $1,055 for renters, raised the owner income ceiling to $42,200 single or $48,000 married, and index the figures to inflation from 2027. Many guides still quote the old amounts.
Appealing: Board of Equalization by the Second Monday in July
If your value looks wrong, talk with the assessor first, then appeal to the county Board of Equalization. RSMo 137.385 requires the appeal to be lodged with the county clerk before the second Monday in July (July 12 in 2027). In St. Louis City, informal hearings run May 1 through June 23, and board appeals go to the Assessor’s Office by that same July date.
Next comes the State Tax Commission: file by September 30 of the assessment year or within 30 days of the board’s decision, whichever is later. Homes held in an LLC, corporation, trust, or estate need an attorney there. Bring comparable sales or a recent appraisal. If an appeal is still open at year end, pay the full bill by December 31 marked paid under protest and file a written statement with the collector giving your grounds and claimed market value.
December 31, Then the August Tax Sale
Missouri collects real estate tax once a year, due to the county collector by December 31 (the Collector of Revenue in St. Louis City). Owners with a mortgage often pay through escrow, hence the monthly figure in the calculator. From January 1, unpaid tax picks up penalties under RSMo 139.100, and land on the back tax book is charged 18 percent of each year’s delinquency, capped at 2 percent per month when redeemed before a sale. Delinquent parcels can be offered at the collector’s annual sale on the fourth Monday in August (RSMo 140.150).
What 2027 Brings, and When These Ratios Refresh
2027 is a reassessment year, so expect new values, notices of increase where values rose, and a rollback by each district before fall levies are set. Qualifying owners claim the $1,550 credit cap for the first time on 2026 returns filed in 2027, and the first inflation adjustment arrives January 1, 2027. These county ratios will be refreshed from the Census Bureau’s next five-year release, expected around December.
Sources: county and St. Louis City ratios from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2024 five-year estimates, tables B25103 and B25077; Revised Statutes of Missouri sections 137.073, 137.115, 137.180, 137.385, 137.1050, 135.030, 139.100, 140.100, 140.150, and 209.130; Missouri State Tax Commission; Missouri Department of Revenue; City of St. Louis Assessor. Confirm your value with the county assessor and your amount due with the county collector.