Pennsylvania Property Tax Rates: County Averages, Relief, and Appeals

Pennsylvania property tax rates average about 1.26% of a home’s market value, producing a median annual bill near $3,200. The Commonwealth itself charges no state property tax. Your bill comes from three local taxing bodies—county, municipality, and school district—each setting its own rate, which is why the statewide average hides enormous variation from one address to the next.

The Statewide Picture

Tax Foundation data compiled from Census Bureau figures puts Pennsylvania’s effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing at roughly 1.26%, calculated by dividing taxes paid by estimated market value.¹ That puts Pennsylvania above the national median and above most neighboring states, though New Jersey and New York remain considerably more expensive.

A different measure from Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office looks at property taxes as a share of household income rather than home value, and puts the statewide burden at 2.57%.² Both figures point to the same practical reality: property taxes are a substantial household expense here.

Who Actually Sets Your Rate

Three independent local bodies each impose their own property tax, and your annual bill is the sum of all three. Counties tax to fund courts, jails, human services, and administration. Municipalities tax for police, fire, roads, and local services. School districts tax to fund public education, and school taxes almost always make up the biggest slice of the total.

Each body adopts its own millage rate through a public budget process, and none is bound by the others. The Pennsylvania Constitution does require taxes to be “uniform, upon the same class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax.”³ That means a single school district applies one millage rate to every property inside it, but the district next door can set an entirely different rate.

How the Bill Is Calculated

Pennsylvania taxes property using millage rates. One mill equals $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. If your combined millage from county, municipality, and school district totals 30 mills and your assessed value is $100,000, your annual tax is $3,000.

Assessed value rarely matches market value. Each county sets a predetermined ratio meant to represent a uniform fraction of market value. A county might assess every property at 50% of market value, for example, and set millage rates accordingly. The Consolidated County Assessment Law, codified at 53 Pa.C.S. Chapter 88, governs this process for most counties.

The Common Level Ratio

Because many counties haven’t reassessed in decades, the ratio between assessed and actual market values drifts over time. The State Tax Equalization Board publishes a Common Level Ratio for each county every year, reflecting the actual relationship between assessed values and recent sale prices.⁴ The CLR mostly comes into play during assessment appeals, where a court uses it to translate a property’s current market value into an assessed value consistent with how other properties in the county are treated.⁵

A Worked Example

Suppose your home has a market value of $250,000. Your county uses a predetermined assessment ratio of 40%, so your assessed value is $100,000. Your combined millage across all three taxing bodies totals 35 mills. Your annual tax: $100,000 × 0.035 = $3,500. If the county’s CLR has drifted to 30% because home prices have climbed since the last reassessment, that figure matters if you appeal, but your current bill is still based on whatever assessment is on the books.

Why Rates Vary So Much by County

Pennsylvania has 67 counties, and the property tax experience in each one is shaped most by how recently the county reassessed. Franklin County last performed a countywide reassessment in 1961. Twenty-seven counties were still using assessment data from 1999 or earlier as of early 2026. York County’s last reassessment was in 2006. When decades pass without a reassessment, assessed values fall further below actual market prices, and millage rates rise to compensate. A county with a 60-mill rate and assessments frozen since 1985 can produce a lower bill on the same home than a county with a 20-mill rate and fresh assessments.

Measured against income, the spread is wide. The Independent Fiscal Office puts Monroe County, in the Poconos, at the top with a burden of 4.73% of resident income. Snyder County, in central Pennsylvania, is lowest at 1.51%.² Suburban counties around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh tend to carry both higher home values and larger school budgets, pushing effective rates up. Rural counties generally come in lower, though stale valuations can make the math deceptive.

Discounts for Paying Early, Penalties for Paying Late

Under 72 P.S. § 5511.10, your local taxing district must offer a discount of at least 2% if you pay the full bill within two months of the tax notice date. Wait more than four months past that date and a penalty of up to 10% is added to the unpaid balance.⁶ The exact percentages are set by your taxing district within those statutory limits.

Most counties and municipalities mail notices in early spring. The typical schedule runs through a discount window in the first two months, a face-value period after that, and a penalty period by midsummer or fall. Some jurisdictions allow installment plans for qualifying seniors or low-income residents, with terms that vary locally.

Programs That Lower What You Owe

Several Pennsylvania programs can meaningfully reduce your tax bill. Eligibility turns on factors like age, income, disability, and how the property is used.

Homestead and Farmstead Exclusions

The Taxpayer Relief Act (Act 1 of 2006) channels state gaming revenue into school property tax reductions for primary residences. Each school district calculates a homestead exclusion that reduces the assessed value of qualifying homes before the school tax rate is applied.⁷ The dollar amount varies by district because it depends on how much gaming revenue is allocated. Farmstead exclusions work the same way for qualifying farm buildings. You must occupy the property as your primary residence and file an application with your county.

Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program

This program pays direct cash rebates ranging from $380 to $1,000 a year based on income, with supplemental rebates up to $500 for homeowners whose property taxes exceed 15% of their income. After an expansion under Act 7 of 2023, household income up to $48,110 now qualifies.⁸ Eligible applicants include homeowners and renters who are 65 or older, widows and widowers 50 or older, and people with disabilities 18 or older. The income tiers:

$0 to $8,550: up to $1,000 standard rebate (up to $1,500 with supplement)
$8,551 to $16,040: up to $770 standard (up to $1,155 with supplement)
$16,041 to $19,240: up to $460 standard (up to $690 with supplement)
$19,241 to $48,110: up to $380 standard (up to $570 with supplement for income under $32,070)

Supplemental rebates are calculated automatically for qualifying applicants, including those in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton.⁸

Clean and Green

Landowners with at least 10 acres in agricultural, forest reserve, or open space use can enroll in Clean and Green (Act 319), which taxes the land based on its use value rather than market value. Agricultural parcels under 10 acres can still qualify if they generate at least $2,000 in annual farm income. The application deadline is June 1 each year for the following tax year.⁹

Savings can be substantial because use value is a fraction of development-potential market value. The trade-off is a serious penalty for changing the land’s use: seven years of rollback taxes, equal to the difference between what you paid and what you would have paid without the program, plus 6% interest a year.⁹

Appealing Your Assessment

If your property is assessed above its actual market value, you can appeal. This is where most homeowners have real leverage over their tax bills, and it’s underused. Every county has a Board of Assessment Appeals that hears challenges. Deadlines vary by county, so check with your county assessment office; in many counties the window opens after assessment notices are mailed and closes within 30 to 90 days.

The burden of proof is on you. The strongest evidence is recent comparable sales showing that similar homes in your area sold for less than your assessed value implies. A recent independent appraisal helps too, though it isn’t required. If the board rules against you, you can appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. At that stage the court determines your property’s market value as of the date you filed with the board and applies either the county’s predetermined ratio or the Common Level Ratio, whichever better reflects current conditions; specifically, the court uses the CLR if it differs from the predetermined ratio by more than 15%.⁵

Board-level filing fees are generally modest. A court appeal involves legal costs that may or may not pencil out depending on how far off your assessment is. For high-value properties or clearly inflated assessments, the annual savings can justify hiring an attorney or appraiser.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay

Pennsylvania’s Real Estate Tax Sale Law lays out a structured process that eventually ends in loss of the property. After taxes go unpaid, the local tax collector returns the delinquent account to the county’s Tax Claim Bureau. The bureau enters a claim against the property by June 30 and sends notice by July 31.¹⁰ If the taxes are still unpaid by the following January 1, the claim becomes absolute.

The first public sale, called an upset sale, can be scheduled no earlier than the second Monday of September and must occur before year-end. The starting bid equals all unpaid taxes, interest, and fees. The bureau must give at least 30 days’ notice by certified mail and publish notice in two newspapers. If the property doesn’t sell at the upset sale, the bureau petitions for a judicial sale within the following 12 months.¹⁰

Once a property is actually sold at either kind of sale, there is no redemption period. Title passes to the buyer. You can stop the process by paying the full delinquent amount before the sale, and paying at least 25% of what’s owed may qualify you for an installment plan. After the gavel falls, though, the property is gone. That makes Pennsylvania’s tax sale process less forgiving than states that offer a post-sale redemption window.

1
Tax Foundation. Property Taxes by State and County, 2026
2
Independent Fiscal Office. Property Tax Burden by County
3
50 Constitutions. Pennsylvania Constitution Article VIII – Taxation and Finance – Section 1 Uniformity of Taxation
4
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. State Tax Equalization Board (STEB)
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 53 Chapter 88 Section 8854 – Appeals to Court
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Statutes Title 72 PS Taxation and Fiscal Affairs Section 5511-10
7
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act
8
Department of Revenue. Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program
9
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Clean and Green
10
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Real Estate Tax Sale Law