The typical West Virginia homeowner pays $865 a year on a house worth $162,600, a share of 0.53 percent, according to Census Bureau figures. Across the 55 counties that share runs from 0.30 percent in Pocahontas County to 0.67 percent in Boone, McDowell, and Wetzel. This calculator takes the value you type, multiplies it by the share owners in your county actually pay, and sets the answer beside the local typical bill. Enter full market value, meaning a recent sale price or what the house would sell for today, not the 60 percent assessed figure printed on your tax ticket.
Class II: Why the House You Live In Pays Half What a Rental Does
The biggest factor in a Mountain State bill is the property’s class, not its county. Class II covers property owned, used, and occupied by the owner only as a residence, along with farms worked by their owners or tenants. Class III is everything else outside a municipality, and Class IV is everything else inside one. Class I, farm personal property, has been exempt since the 2008 tax year.
West Virginia Property Tax Calculator (2027)
Select one of the 55 counties and enter a market price; the tool returns an annual projection plus a monthly set-aside, scaled by the share Mountain State owners there really pay, drawn from Census ACS 2024 five-year medians for owner-occupied Class II homes.
Planning figure only. Your value is multiplied by the ratio of median real estate tax paid to median owner-occupied value for the county, Census ACS 2024 five-year data, which mainly reflects Class II homes lived in by their owners. A rental, camp, or second home is Class III outside a municipality or Class IV inside one and carries roughly double the levy rate. Levies differ inside a county by town limits and voter-approved excess levies, and the $20,000 assessed homestead exemption for owners 65 and older or totally disabled, the 2.5 percent early payment discount, and income tax credits are not modeled. Ask the county assessor about your appraisal and the county sheriff about the amount due.
By law, the levy rate on Class III and Class IV property is exactly double the Class II rate. The Tax Division’s 2024 report puts the average Class II rate at $1.19 per $100 of assessed value, against $2.16 for Class III and $2.93 for Class IV (Class IV also carries city levies). The same house costs its owner-occupant far less than a landlord or a family keeping it as a weekend camp. The Census shares in the calculator come from homes their owners live in, so for a rental or second home, roughly double the result.
Sixty Percent, Cents per $100, and Four Levying Bodies
Under W. Va. Code 11-3-1, the county assessor values every property as of July 1 at 60 percent of its true and actual value. Assessor staff must visit every parcel in repeating three-year cycles (W. Va. Code 11-1C-9).
Rates are quoted in cents per $100 of that assessed figure. Four bodies can levy on a Class II home, and each has a ceiling set by law: the state at 0.50 cents, the county commission at 28.60, the board of education at 45.90, and a city at 25.00. Voters can add to those. An excess levy approved by at least 60 percent can raise a county or city rate by up to 50 percent for as long as five years, and a school excess levy needs only a simple majority to raise the school rate by as much as 100 percent. Bond levies come on top.
At the 2024 averages, a $200,000 home is assessed at $120,000. As Class II at $1.19 per $100, the bill is $1,428. As a Class III rental outside town limits at $2.16 it becomes $2,592, and as Class IV inside a city at $2.93, $3,516. Schools claim the largest piece: 67.69 percent of all 2024 property taxes went to county school boards, 26.24 percent to county commissions, 5.64 percent to municipalities, and 0.43 percent to the state.
That $1,428 works out to 0.71 percent of market value, more than the 0.53 percent Census share. Part of the gap is the senior and disability exemption, part is that values on the rolls can trail sale prices, and part is that Census home values are what owners themselves report.
County Shares From Pocahontas (0.30%) to McDowell (0.67%)
Each county figure divides median real estate tax by median owner-occupied value, 2020 through 2024 survey years. The lightest share is Pocahontas at 0.30 percent, followed by Grant and Summers at 0.31 and Pendleton at 0.34. A $150,000 house in Pocahontas comes to about $450 a year.
At the top, Boone, McDowell, and Wetzel all round to 0.67 percent, with McDowell a hair ahead before rounding, followed by Ritchie at 0.66 and Kanawha at 0.65. McDowell also has the lowest median value in the state, $50,000, so a $60,000 house there works out to about $402. Jefferson, in the Eastern Panhandle, has the highest median value at $350,800; a $400,000 home there at 0.53 percent comes to $2,120, level with the statewide share. Nearby Berkeley, at 0.52, puts a $275,000 house at $1,430.
In the capital, a $200,000 house in Kanawha County at 0.65 percent comes to about $1,300 a year, or $108.33 a month, which is $336 more than the county’s $964 median bill. In Monongalia, home to Morgantown, a $300,000 house at 0.47 percent comes to $1,410, or $117.50 a month, $162 over the local median of $1,248. A $180,000 house in Cabell at 0.60 percent comes to $1,080. Thirty-three counties sit below the 0.53 percent statewide share, three match it (Brooke, Jackson, and Jefferson), and nineteen sit above. The statewide figure beats the 0.49 percent county midpoint because Kanawha, Cabell, Wood, Harrison, Marion, and Putnam, where many owners live, all sit above it.
The February Board of Equalization and Review
Homeowners get one short window each year. The county commission meets as the board of equalization and review no later than February 1, may adjourn after February 15, and must finish by the last day of February (W. Va. Code 11-3-24). If you think the appraisal is too high, you must apply for relief while the board is in session. The statute is blunt: a taxpayer who does not apply waives the right to a correction for that tax year.
Call the assessor’s office first about any error in square footage, condition, or class. Bring sales of similar homes near the July 1 valuation date or a recent appraisal. If the assessor intends to raise a particular property at the board, the owner is entitled to at least five days’ written notice. A taxpayer who disagrees with the board’s order can appeal to the Office of Tax Appeals, where the standard is a preponderance of the evidence.
The $20,000 Senior and Disability Exemption, Plus Three Credits
The homestead exemption in W. Va. Code 11-6B-3 removes the first $20,000 of assessed value, not market value, from the tax, for owners 65 or older and owners certified as permanently and totally disabled who lived in the state for the two consecutive calendar years before the tax year. Only one exemption applies per homestead. At the $1.19 average Class II rate, it saves about $238 a year; $20,000 of assessed value equals about $33,333 of market value.
Three refundable income tax credits add to it. The Senior Citizens’ Tax Credit (W. Va. Code 11-21-21) repays the tax on the first $20,000 of taxable assessed value still on the roll after the exemption for exemption holders whose income is at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty guideline. The Homestead Excess Property Tax Credit (W. Va. Code 11-21-23) refunds real property tax above 4 percent of household income, up to $1,000, for homeowners at or below 300 percent of the poverty guideline.
The newest is the Disabled Veteran Real Property Tax Credit, created by House Bill 2526, the Property Tax Adjustment Act, signed March 7, 2023. Veterans rated 90 to 100 percent permanently and totally disabled get back the full real property tax paid on their homestead, claimed with form DV-1 on the state income tax return. The Tax Division’s January 2026 guidance lets an unremarried widow or widower keep claiming it while the home is not sold or reclassified. It cannot be combined with the senior or excess credits, and both halves must be paid on time.
September and March Halves, the 2.5 Percent Discount, and Tax Lien Sales
The county sheriff collects the tax. Under W. Va. Code 11A-1-3, the first half is payable September 1 and turns delinquent October 1; the second half is payable March 1 and turns delinquent April 1. Pay by the payable date and you take a 2.5 percent discount, worth $35.70 on a $1,428 bill paid in full.
Late taxes draw 9 percent annual interest from the delinquency date. Unredeemed tax liens are certified to the State Auditor, who sells them at public auction (W. Va. Code 11A-3-2). An owner can redeem before certification, or afterward by paying the Auditor before the sale.
Next Levy Season and When These Shares Refresh
Rates are set each year and voters can approve new excess levies, so a bill can change even when your appraisal does not. The county shares here refresh with the next Census ACS five-year release, and the class averages when the Tax Division posts its next Classified Assessed Valuations report.
Sources: county shares from the 2024 American Community Survey five-year release, tables B25103 and B25077; West Virginia State Tax Division, Classified Assessed Valuations and Taxes Levied, 2024 tax year, maximum levy rates, and TSD 455 (January 2026); W. Va. Code 11-3-1, 11-1C-9, 11-3-24, 11-6B-3, 11-21-21, 11-21-23, 11-13MM-4, 11A-1-3, and 11A-3-2; House Bill 2526 (2023). For your appraisal, contact your county assessor; for the amount due, contact your county sheriff’s tax office.