A typical Tennessee homeowner reports paying $1,442 a year in real estate tax on a house worth $286,700, a ratio of 0.50 percent, according to Census Bureau survey responses collected from 2020 through 2024. Across the 95 counties that ratio runs from 0.28 percent in Sevier County to 0.98 percent in Shelby County. The calculator below takes your county’s median owner bill, divides it by the county’s median home value, and applies that share to the number you type. Enter the full appraised value from your assessor’s change notice or a fair sale price, never the assessed value, which in Tennessee is only a quarter of appraisal for a home.
Two sample runs show what the tool returns. A $400,000 house in Davidson County, home to Nashville, at 0.60 percent comes out at $2,400 a year, or $200 a month, which is $106 under the Davidson median bill of $2,506. A $400,000 house in Rutherford County, around Murfreesboro and Smyrna, at 0.48 percent lands at $1,920 a year and $160 a month, $81 over the county’s $1,839 median. Each result also shows the county’s own 2025 levy per $100 of assessed value and the year its values were last reset, both from the state Comptroller.
Tennessee Property Tax Calculator (2027)
Choose any of the 95 counties, type the appraised value of your residence, and the tool returns yearly and monthly estimates derived from Census medians for owner-occupied homes in that county (ACS 2024 five-year). Each result also shows that county's own 2025 levy per $100 and its reappraisal years, drawn from the state Comptroller.
A planning figure, not a bill. It multiplies the value you enter by your county's Census ratio (median real estate levy paid divided by median owner-occupied value, ACS 2024 five-year), which blends owners inside and outside city limits. A house inside a city with its own levy, such as Memphis or Knoxville, can owe far more than the county ratio suggests, and one in unincorporated territory less. Tennessee has no general homestead exemption, so nothing is subtracted; state Tax Relief payments for low-income owners 65 or older, disabled owners, and disabled veterans, and local tax freezes, are not modeled. Many counties have reappraised since the survey years; the certified tax rate law makes each reappraisal revenue neutral for the government as a whole, not for each house. Appraisals come from your county assessor of property; the county trustee (and, inside cities that bill separately, the city collecting official) sends and collects the bill.
Why a Reappraisal Does Not Automatically Raise Your Bill
Tennessee’s most misunderstood rule sits in Tenn. Code 67-5-1701, the certified tax rate law. Counties revalue all real estate on a four, five, or six year cycle (some now use two or three year cycles or index values in between). When a reappraisal lifts total values, each county and city must compute a certified rate that brings in the same property tax revenue it levied the year before, after setting aside new construction. A government that wants more has to advertise its intent to exceed the certified rate, hold a public hearing, and pass a resolution under 67-5-1702.
That makes a reappraisal revenue neutral for the government, not for your house. If your value climbed faster than the county average, your share rises; if it climbed slower, your bill can fall even though your appraisal jumped.
Twenty-eight counties reappraised for 2026, including Knox, Rutherford, Sevier, Blount, Wilson, and Maury. Davidson, Shelby, Hamilton, and Williamson reset values in 2025.
Twenty-Five Percent, Then Dollars per $100
The county assessor of property appraises each parcel at market value, then applies the statutory ratio for its class: 25 percent for residential and farm property, 40 percent for commercial and industrial, 55 percent for public utilities. Rates are quoted in dollars per $100 of that assessed value. The Comptroller’s own example is a $400,000 house assessed at $100,000 under a $2.50 rate, which comes to $2,500.
There is no state property tax. The county commission sets a countywide rate, cities levy their own on top, and a few counties add special school districts or fire districts. A Nashville house in the Urban Services District paid $2.814 per $100 for 2025 (the $2.782 General Services rate plus 3.2 cents), so a $400,000 appraisal meant $2,814. That is above the $2,400 Census figure because Davidson’s 2025 reappraisal came after the survey years.
Sevier to Shelby: County Ratios From the Census
Sixty-one counties fall below the 0.50 percent statewide ratio, 32 sit above it, and Polk and Tipton match it; the middle county is 0.47 percent. The lightest ratios cluster in the tourist and retirement east: Sevier at 0.28, Cumberland at 0.29, Fentress at 0.32, and Fayette and Loudon at 0.33. The heaviest are in West Tennessee: Shelby at 0.98, Lake at 0.67, Gibson at 0.66, and Dyer and Hardeman at 0.63.
On a $300,000 house that spread is $840 a year in Sevier against $2,940 in Shelby. Williamson, at 0.40, posts both the highest median value, $751,900, and the largest median bill, $3,004. Knox sits at 0.43, Hamilton at 0.62, Montgomery at 0.61, Davidson at 0.60, and Sumner at 0.51. Lake has the lowest median value at $97,900, and Fentress the smallest median bill at $535.
Inside Memphis Versus the Rest of Shelby County
Shelby’s 0.98 ratio is an average across very different addresses, and a single county figure hides the city line. For 2025 the Shelby County rate was $2.69 per $100 of assessed value and the City of Memphis added $2.58081, a combined $5.27081. A $250,000 Memphis house, assessed at $62,500, therefore carried about $3,294.26 in county and city levies. The same house in unincorporated Shelby owed $1,681.25, and in Germantown or Collierville the suburb’s own rate falls between the two.
The calculator’s $2,450 estimate for that house lands between those poles because Census respondents live on both sides of the line. If you know your city, multiply 25 percent of your appraisal by the combined rate on the Comptroller’s table.
No Homestead Exemption: Tax Relief and the Senior Freeze
Tennessee exempts no slice of value for ordinary owner-occupants. Help comes through two programs instead.
The state Property Tax Relief program, Tenn. Code 67-5-701 through 67-5-704, pays part of the bill for qualifying owners. For tax year 2026, homeowners 65 or older by December 31, 2026, and totally and permanently disabled owners, qualify with 2025 household income of $38,470 or less; the payment covers the tax on the first $33,600 of market value. For a Memphis owner that is $8,400 of assessed value, worth about $442.75 at the combined 2025 rate. Veterans with a qualifying service-connected permanent and total disability, and eligible surviving spouses, face no income test and are reimbursed on up to $175,000 of value, about $2,305.98 in Memphis. Apply with the county trustee or city collecting official; the deadline is 35 days after the delinquency date, which makes it April 5, 2027 for 2026 bills.
The Property Tax Freeze Act, 67-5-705, lets a county or city lock the tax on a 65-plus owner’s residence at the amount due in the first qualifying year. Twenty-eight counties had adopted it on the Comptroller’s 2026 list, among them Davidson, Shelby, Knox, Rutherford, Williamson, and Sumner, plus cities such as Chattanooga and Clarksville. The recent change is the income ceiling: Public Chapter 271 of 2023 let local governments adopt a $60,000 limit, indexed to $63,470 for 2026 in places such as Davidson, Shelby, Knox, and Rutherford. Other participants use a county figure, from $38,470 up to $69,150 in Williamson. You reapply every year.
Change Notices, the County Board, and the State Board
Assessors mail change notices by May 20 when a value or classification changes; start with an informal review at their office. The county board of equalization convenes June 1 (May 1 in Shelby County) and sits only for a limited number of days, from 6 to 30 depending on the county’s population, so an appeal filed after it adjourns is usually lost for that year. Appeal the value, not the tax amount.
From there, appeal to the State Board of Equalization by August 1 or within 45 days of the county board’s notice, whichever is later. An owner who missed the county board can ask the State Board for a reasonable cause hearing until March 1 of the following year. Its final orders go to chancery court within 60 days.
October Bills, the End of February, and Unpaid Taxes
County taxes become due on the first Monday in October and can be paid without interest through the last day of February. On March 1 they turn delinquent and 1.5 percent interest is added, then another 1.5 percent on the first of each month, under 67-5-2010. On the $2,400 Davidson example that is $36 a month. Cities that collect their own taxes send a separate notice, so look for both.
After that, the delinquent tax attorney files suit in chancery or circuit court, and a 10 percent penalty for the cost of the suit is added. Property can then be sold. The owner generally has one year after the sale is confirmed to redeem, shortened to 180 days after more than five years of delinquency, 90 days after eight or more years, and 30 days for vacant or abandoned property.
Twenty Counties Reappraise in 2027: What to Watch
The Comptroller’s schedule puts 20 counties on a 2027 reappraisal, among them Madison, Sullivan, and Cumberland. Watch for change notices in spring 2027 and the certified rates adopted that summer. We will swap in the Bureau’s next five-year release, which normally lands in December, as soon as it posts.
Data: Census Bureau ACS, 2024 five-year release, B25103 for what owners say they pay in real estate taxes and B25077 for what their homes are worth; Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, Division of Property Assessments: Assessment vs Taxation, Assessment Schedule, Property Tax Rates 2025, Reappraisal Schedule, 2026 Tax Relief brochure, 2026 Tax Freeze jurisdictions and income limits, and Appeals Handbook; Nashville Property Assessor 2025 rates; UT County Technical Assistance Service; Tenn. Code 67-5-701 through 67-5-705, 67-5-801, 67-5-1412, 67-5-1701, 67-5-1702, 67-5-2010, 67-5-2410, and 67-5-2701. Values and appeals: your county assessor of property. Bills, Tax Relief, and freeze applications: the county trustee or city collecting official.