The middle Virginia homeowner pays $2,790 a year in real estate tax on a house worth $383,700, a 0.73 percent ratio in Census Bureau figures. Among the 95 counties and 38 independent cities, that ratio runs from 0.38 percent in Amelia County to 1.17 percent in Manassas Park City. This Virginia property tax calculator multiplies your value by the share local owner-occupants actually pay, sets the result beside the typical local bill, and shows the rate per $100 your county or city posted for tax year 2025. Because every locality assesses at 100 percent of fair market value, you can enter the total from your assessment notice or a realistic sale price.
Cities Stand Apart From Counties Here
Most states nest cities inside counties. Virginia does not. Its 38 independent cities belong to no county at all; each one levies its own real estate tax, and the neighboring county cannot tax parcels inside city limits. That is why the calculator lists Fairfax City and Fairfax County as different places, and the same goes for Richmond, Roanoke, and Franklin, each of which exists as both a city and a county. James City County and Charles City County, despite their names, are counties.
Virginia Property Tax Calculator (2027)
Choose any of Virginia's 95 counties or 38 independent cities, type the home's value, and get a yearly and monthly real estate bill estimate from the share of value local owner-occupants pay, per Census Bureau ACS 2024 five-year medians, shown beside the locality's posted tax year 2025 rate per $100.
This is an estimate, not a bill. It multiplies your value by the locality's ratio of median real estate taxes paid to median owner-occupied value from Census ACS 2024 five-year data (surveys from 2020 through 2024), so elderly and disability relief, veteran exemptions, and rate changes over those years are already blended in, and owner-estimated values often run above assessments. Posted rates shown are tax year 2025 county or city levies only; town levies, service districts, and personal property (car) tax are not included. Virginia has no general homestead exemption, and relief for owners 65 or older or disabled is set by each locality. Check your assessment with the local assessor or commissioner of the revenue and the amount due with your treasurer or director of finance.
Towns work the other way. Vienna, Herndon, Leesburg, Blacksburg, and the rest of the 189 towns in Virginia Tax’s 2025 town rate table sit inside a county, so a town homeowner pays the full county rate plus a town levy. In tax year 2025 Vienna added $0.195 per $100 on top of Fairfax County’s rate and Leesburg $0.177 on top of Loudoun’s.
The split shows in the data. The median Census ratio across the 37 cities with published figures is 0.81 percent; across the 95 counties it is 0.56 percent. Posted rates point the same way: a median $1.01 per $100 for cities versus $0.614 for counties.
Rates per $100 on Full Market Value
State law requires every general reassessment to be made at 100 percent of fair market value. There is no assessment ratio, no classification percentage, and no statewide levy on homes. Each board of supervisors or city council adopts one general rate per $100 of assessed value, so a posted $0.97 rate works out to 0.97 percent of what the house is worth.
Posted rates for tax year 2025, reported to the Virginia Department of Taxation, range from $0.33 in Lunenburg County to $1.405 in Manassas Park City, with Petersburg at $1.27 and Norfolk and Portsmouth at $1.23. Service district levies, such as Fairfax County’s $0.0325 stormwater charge, and town rates come on top.
Under Code of Virginia 58.1-3321, when a reassessment would lift total levies by 1 percent or more, the rate must drop to one yielding no more than 101 percent of last year’s levy, unless the locality advertises a “Notice of Proposed Real Property Tax Increase” and holds its own hearing.
Census Ratios From Amelia County to Manassas Park City
On a $300,000 house, Amelia County’s 0.38 percent ratio comes to $1,140 a year, while Manassas Park City’s 1.17 percent comes to $3,510. At the top, Manassas City sits at 1.09 percent, Portsmouth City at 1.04 percent, and Fairfax County and Newport News City at 1.01 percent. Forty of the 132 localities with published medians sit above the statewide 0.73 percent.
Arlington County owners report the largest published median payment, $8,153 on an $895,000 home; Buchanan County’s is $413. Falls Church City is the one estimate in the tool: the Census gives its median bill only as “$10,000 or more,” so its 1.15 percent ratio is modeled from Census aggregate figures, or about $11,500 on a $1,000,000 home.
Two Estimates Checked Against Posted Rates
Take a $700,000 home in Fairfax County. The 1.01 percent Census ratio gives $7,070 a year, or $589.17 a month, which is $298 below the county’s $7,368 middle bill. The county’s own arithmetic for 2025 is higher: $700,000 divided by 100 and multiplied by the $1.1225 base rate is $7,857.50, and the stormwater district brings it to $8,085. The same $700,000 in Fairfax City yields $6,300 at the city’s 0.90 percent ratio, $215 under its $6,515 middle bill, against $7,385 at the city’s posted $1.055.
In Virginia Beach, a $400,000 home comes to $3,200 a year, $266.67 a month, which is $139 more than the city’s $3,061 middle bill. At the posted $0.97 rate the same assessment would carry $3,880.
Why the gap? In 102 of the 133 localities the Census ratio sits below the posted rate; the median ratio of the two is 0.87. Census values are owners’ own estimates, which often run above assessments; the survey years, 2020 through 2024, span rate cuts; and relief programs lower some bills. With a current assessment notice in hand, the posted rate in the calculator’s note row is the sharper tool.
Reassessment Cycles and the Board of Equalization
Cities must reassess every two years, though a city of 30,000 people or fewer may stretch that to four. Counties reassess every four years, or every three by board vote, and a county of 50,000 or fewer may choose five or six. Any county or city may switch to annual assessment by ordinance instead. A changed value must be mailed to you at least 15 days before the hearing on objections.
Start with the assessor’s office, which must let you inspect your appraisal card and give a written explanation of an increase on request. If that fails, apply to the local Board of Equalization by the deadline your county or city sets. The board presumes the assessment is correct, so you must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the value exceeds fair market value or is not uniform with similar homes. After that, a circuit court petition is open within three years of the end of the tax year or one year from the assessment, whichever is later.
Veterans, Surviving Spouses, and Local Relief for Seniors
Virginia has no general homestead exemption. What it does have starts with veterans. A veteran rated 100 percent service connected, permanent and total, pays no real estate tax on the home and up to one acre, and a surviving spouse keeps the exemption without remarrying, even after moving.
The surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty owes nothing on a home assessed at or below the locality’s average single family value, and pays only on the excess above it. That rule changed recently: voters approved a constitutional amendment on November 5, 2024, with about 93 percent in favor, replacing “killed in action” with “died in the line of duty,” effective January 1, 2025. A Virginia Tax study of what these mandatory exemptions cost localities is due November 15, 2026.
Relief for owners 65 or older, or permanently and totally disabled, is a local choice. Each county, city, or town may offer an exemption, a deferral, or both, and sets its own income and net worth limits by ordinance, so the rules change when you cross a county or city line. Ask the commissioner of the revenue or finance office where you live.
Treasurer’s Due Dates, Penalties, and the Tax Sale
The default due date in state law is December 5, with a 5 percent penalty. Any locality may set its own schedule by ordinance, either one payment or two equal installments; Fairfax County, for example, bills halves due July 28 and December 5. Penalties may not exceed 10 percent of the late tax or $10, whichever is greater. Interest can reach 10 percent a year for the first year and, after that, the greater of 10 percent or the federal underpayment rate. Deployed service members get an automatic extension to 90 days after deployment ends.
When taxes remain unpaid on December 31 after the second anniversary of the due date, the locality may take the parcel to a court-supervised sale. The treasurer must send notice at least 30 days before filing and offer a payment agreement of up to 72 months.
Split Rates, 2026 Laws, and the Next Refresh
A 2026 law, HB 282, lets Charlottesville, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, and Newport News tax buildings at a lower rate than land starting July 1, 2026, Starting January 1, 2027, settlement agents who know a parcel is in a land-use program must give the buyer written notice of possible roll-back taxes before closing.
The Census ratios will update when the next ACS five-year release arrives each December, and the posted rates will update once Virginia Tax publishes its tax year 2026 survey; Fairfax County has already adopted $1.12 for 2026.
Sources: American Community Survey 2024 five-year estimates from the Census Bureau (B25103 median real estate taxes, B25077 median owner value); Virginia Department of Taxation, Tax Rates for County, City, Town, and Districts, TY 2025, and 2026 Legislative Summary; Code of Virginia Title 58.1, Chapters 32 and 39. Verify your assessment with your local assessor or commissioner of the revenue and the amount due with your treasurer.