Property Tax Pennsylvania: County Ratios, Base-Year Assessments, and Relief Programs

The typical Pennsylvania homeowner pays $3,311 a year on a house worth $254,500, a ratio of 1.30 percent, per the 2024 five year American Community Survey from the Census Bureau. By county the spread runs from 0.81 percent in Bedford, along the Maryland line, to 1.84 percent in Delaware County, just west of Philadelphia. Choose a county below and this Pennsylvania property tax calculator applies that county’s ratio of taxes paid to home value, then sets your result beside what local owners typically pay. Type in current market value, meaning a realistic sale price, and ignore the assessed figure on your bill, which in most counties reflects an old base year.

Base-Year Assessments: Why the Number on Your Bill Looks So Small

Pennsylvania is one of the few states with no required reassessment schedule. Each county picks when to revalue, and many have not done so in decades, so parcels are still assessed at base-year prices (sometimes times a predetermined ratio) while millage climbs to meet budgets. The assessed value can bear little resemblance to what the home would fetch today.

To measure how far each county has drifted, the State Tax Equalization Board (STEB) compares assessments with actual sale prices and publishes a common level ratio. The calendar year 2024 ratios, used in assessment appeals from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, show the gap plainly: Bucks County assessments averaged just 5.86 percent of sale prices, Westmoreland 8.88 percent, and Centre 17.10 percent, while Philadelphia, which revalues regularly, sat at 90.70 percent. A new set takes over each July. Divide your assessment by your county’s ratio for a rough market value. The Census ratio sidesteps this distortion entirely, since it compares what owners actually paid with what they say the home is worth.

Three Layers of Levy: County, Municipality, and School District

The Commonwealth levies nothing on homes. Three local bodies set rates in mills ($1 per $1,000 of assessed value): the county, your city, borough, or township, and your school district, usually the largest share. Outside Philadelphia, an elected local tax collector usually mails the county and municipal bill in spring and the school bill in summer, when most districts start their July fiscal year.

School boards cannot raise rates freely: under the Taxpayer Relief Act, Special Session Act 1 of 2006, an increase above the yearly index the Department of Education publishes needs a listed exception or voter approval.

County Ratios From Bedford at 0.81% to Delaware County at 1.84%

Twenty-nine counties sit above the statewide 1.30 percent and Chester and Pike match it exactly. The top mixes Philadelphia suburbs with older industrial and resort counties: Delaware at 1.84, Monroe in the Poconos at 1.66, Berks at 1.65, York at 1.61, Erie at 1.60, Cameron and McKean at 1.59, Lehigh at 1.55, and Allegheny and Northampton at 1.52. The low end is mostly rural: Bedford at 0.81, Huntingdon at 0.94, Clarion at 0.97, Somerset at 0.98, and Forest and Juniata at 0.99. The middle county lands at 1.27 percent.

Dollar amounts track prices. Chester County has both the highest median home value, $485,600, and the largest typical payment, $6,308. Delaware County follows at $6,124, then Montgomery at $5,875 and Bucks at $5,826. Forest County owners pay the least, a median of $1,145, and Cameron has the lowest median value, $88,900.

Two calculator runs:

• Allegheny County, $250,000 home: 1.52 percent comes to $3,800 a year, or $316.67 a month, which is $349 more than the county’s $3,451 median payment.
• Lancaster County, $350,000 home: 1.32 percent comes to $4,620 a year, or $385.00 a month, $645 above the $3,975 median.

The same $300,000 house owes about $2,430 in Bedford and $5,520 in Delaware County.

Philadelphia: One Rate, One Bill, and a $100,000 Homestead Exemption

Philadelphia is a city and county in one, with the school levy on the same bill. The posted rate is 1.3998 percent of assessed value, made up of 0.6159 percent for the city and 0.7839 percent for the School District of Philadelphia. The Office of Property Assessment values homes close to market, and owners who live in the house can cut $100,000 off that assessment through the Homestead Exemption, worth up to $1,399 a year since 2025. The application deadline is December 1.

That exemption is why Philadelphia’s Census ratio is only 0.82 percent, second lowest in the state. As a hand check, a $300,000 home with the exemption owes 1.3998 percent of $200,000, or $2,799.60, while the calculator’s ratio gives $2,460 because it blends in many lower valued exempted homes. New buyers who have not filed should expect more.

Homestead Exclusion, Rent Rebate, and the Disabled Veterans Exemption

Everywhere else, the main break is the homestead and farmstead exclusion funded by state gaming revenue under Act 1 of 2006. Each school district splits its state allocation equally among approved homesteads, so every qualifying owner in a district gets the same cut in taxable assessed value. For 2026-27 the Budget Secretary certified $1,025,000,000 in state-funded local relief. Apply once with the county assessment office by March 1 to count for the school year starting that July.

The Property Tax/Rent Rebate program, run by the Department of Revenue, pays cash back to homeowners and renters who are 65 or older, widows and widowers 50 or older, or people with disabilities 18 or older. Act 7 of 2023 raised the top rebate from $650 to $1,000 and lifted the income limit. For claims filed in 2026 the limit is $48,110, and only half of Social Security counts toward it. Standard rebates run $1,000 for incomes up to $8,550, $770 up to $16,040, $460 up to $19,240, and $380 up to $48,110. Supplements of $190 to $500 go to homeowners with incomes up to $32,070 whose taxes top 15 percent of income, or who live in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Scranton. The deadline for 2026 claims was extended to December 31, 2026.

Wartime veterans rated 100 percent permanently disabled from service (or individually unemployable, blind, paraplegic, or missing two or more limbs) who show financial need pay nothing on their principal home. Need is presumed when household income is below $114,637, the level in effect since January 1, 2025. Surviving spouses may qualify; apply through the county veterans affairs director.

Appealing: County Boards and the Common Level Ratio

Under the Consolidated County Assessment Law, 53 Pa.C.S. 8844, each board of assessment appeals sets an annual filing deadline no earlier than August 1, and September 1 applies when commissioners pick nothing else. If the county changes your assessment, you have 40 days from the notice to appeal. Philadelphia owners file with the Board of Revision of Taxes instead; the deadline to appeal 2027 values is October 5, 2026. Board rulings can go to the court of common pleas.

Appeals turn on the common level ratio: the board estimates market value, then multiplies by the ratio to find a fair assessment. School districts may appeal too, often after a sale well above the equalized value.

Discount, Face, and Penalty Periods Before the Tax Claim Bureau

The Local Tax Collection Law gives most Pennsylvania bills three windows. Pay within two months of the notice for a discount of at least 2 percent, in the next two months at face, and after that with a penalty of up to 10 percent. Many school districts also offer installments. Unpaid amounts go to the county tax claim bureau early the next year under the Real Estate Tax Sale Law, and a home left delinquent about two years can be offered at the bureau’s upset sale.

Philadelphia runs on a single March 31 due date. From April 1, interest and penalties build at 1.5 percent a month to a 15 percent maximum, and the account becomes delinquent on January 1. Income-qualified owners can spread current-year taxes over up to twelve monthly installments.

Reassessments, Rebate Indexing, and the Next Census Refresh

Three things can move 2027 figures. A county that finishes a reassessment resets every base-year value at once, and its taxing bodies must roll millage back so the revaluation alone yields no windfall. The rebate income limit rises again with the Social Security cost of living adjustment. And each December the Census Bureau publishes a new five year survey, which replaces the ratios behind this calculator. For an exact figure, apply your combined millage to the assessment on your notice, less any homestead exclusion.

Sources: Census Bureau American Community Survey, 2024 five year estimates (table B25103 for real estate taxes paid, B25077 for owner home values); State Tax Equalization Board, 2024 Common Level Ratio (Pennsylvania Bulletin); 53 Pa.C.S. 8844; Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Property Tax/Rent Rebate program; Department of Education, Property Tax Relief; Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Real Estate Tax Exemption; City of Philadelphia Department of Revenue and Board of Revision of Taxes; Local Government Commission, Legislator’s Municipal Deskbook. Assessment questions go to your county assessment office; payment questions go to your local tax collector or, in Philadelphia, the Department of Revenue.