Westmoreland County Tax Assessment: Appeals, Relief, and Rebates

Westmoreland County property tax assessments are still tied to 1972 market values, one of the oldest base years in Pennsylvania. Your assessed value is not what your home would sell for today; it is what a comparable property would have been worth more than fifty years ago. The county Tax Assessment Office at 40 N. Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg maintains the records, and the figure it assigns to your parcel is what the county, your municipality, and your school district all use to calculate your bill.¹

Look Up Your Assessment

The fastest way to see your assessed value is the county’s online Real Property Search, which accepts a parcel number, owner name, or street address.² A separate View Property Cards portal shows more detailed parcel information and runs the same kinds of searches.³ Both tools are free and open around the clock.

What you’ll see includes the assessed value of your land and improvements, square footage, construction year, and land-use codes. Writing down your control number makes it easier to track the parcel across other county systems, including the GIS mapping site that overlays parcel boundaries on aerial imagery.⁴

If you’d rather go in person, the Tax Assessment Office is in Suite 440 at 40 N. Pennsylvania Avenue, Greensburg, and is open Monday through Friday. The phone number is (724) 830-3409 or toll-free (800) 442-6926.¹

What the 1972 Base Year Actually Means

Because the county has not run a countywide reassessment since 1972, a home with a current market value of $250,000 might carry an assessed value of only around $15,000. That looks strange on paper, but it works because the millage rates applied to those low numbers are correspondingly high.

To bridge 1972 values and modern prices, the State Tax Equalization Board publishes a Common Level Ratio for each Pennsylvania county every year. The CLR is the percentage that captures the relationship between assessed values and actual sale prices across the county, and STEB must certify it to the chief assessor before July 1 each year.⁵

The CLR matters most if you appeal. The Board applies the current CLR to your property’s fair market value to figure out what the 1972-equivalent assessment should be. If the CLR is 6% and your home is worth $200,000 today, the appropriate assessed value is $12,000. Anything higher gives you grounds to ask for a reduction.

How Your Bill Is Calculated

Three taxing authorities bill against the same assessed value: Westmoreland County, your municipality, and your school district. Each sets its own millage rate, where one mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. Multiply your assessed value by the millage rate and divide by 1,000 to get the tax from any single authority.

For the 2026 tax year, the county rate is 25.00 mills for general operations plus 3.48 mills for debt service, totaling 28.48 county mills. Municipal rates vary widely: Greensburg sits at 27.95 mills, Hempfield Township at 6.00, and Murrysville at 12.05.⁶ School district rates, usually the largest share of the bill, are published in July.

A property assessed at $10,000 in Hempfield Township would owe $284.80 in county tax ($10,000 × 28.48 / 1,000) and $60.00 in municipal tax ($10,000 × 6.00 / 1,000) before the school district adds its share. The three combine into your annual bill.

Pennsylvania tax bills generally run on a three-phase schedule: a discount period, a face-value period, and a penalty period. In Westmoreland County you typically have 60 days from the billing date to pay at a discount, another 60 days to pay the face amount, and after that a 10% penalty is added. The exact discount percentage is set locally, so check the bill itself.

Appealing an Assessment You Believe Is Too High

If your assessed value overstates what your property is really worth, you can file an annual appeal with the Westmoreland County Board of Assessment Appeals. The deadline is firm: the completed form must be received or postmarked by August 1, and anything arriving after 4:00 PM on that date is rejected as untimely.⁷

The appeal form is available on the county website.⁸ You’ll need your control number, your contact information, and a clear statement of why the assessment is wrong. File by mail or in person at Courthouse Square, 40 N. Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 440, Greensburg, PA 15601, between 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM on weekdays.⁷

What the Board Will and Won’t Hear

The only issue at the hearing is your property’s fair market value. Arguments that your bill is too high, that you can’t afford it, or that your assessment went up by too large a percentage are shut down immediately.⁷ You have to prove what the property is actually worth.

The strongest evidence is usually a written appraisal from a Pennsylvania-licensed certified appraiser. The Board requires it be dated within 12 months of filing, comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, and show the appraiser’s reasoning in enough detail for the Board to follow adjustments to comparable properties.⁷ A residential appraisal generally runs several hundred dollars, which can pay for itself quickly if you win.

If you bought the home recently, a signed Closing Disclosure showing the purchase price is strong evidence of market value. The older HUD-1 Settlement Statement serves the same purpose for closings before October 2015. Photographs documenting structural damage, flooding, or environmental problems can also help. For commercial properties, financial records showing net operating income and comparable rents support the income approach.

After the Hearing

The Board issues a written decision by mail. If you disagree, you have 30 days from the date the decision is mailed to appeal to the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas.⁹ That window is strict, and missing it forfeits judicial review for the year. Court of Common Pleas proceedings are more formal than the Board hearing, and most homeowners who take that step hire an attorney.

Programs That Reduce What You Pay

Several programs can lower your Westmoreland County property tax, but none apply automatically. You have to file for each one.

Homestead and Farmstead Exclusion

The homestead exclusion reduces your assessed value if the property is your primary residence. File the application with the county Assessor’s office by March 1.¹⁰ You can’t claim it if you claim another property as your primary residence or receive a homestead benefit in another county, and any business or rental use of the property has to be disclosed as a percentage.

Farmstead exclusions are available for properties with at least 10 contiguous acres of agricultural land. The exclusion applies to buildings used for commercial agricultural production, not the land itself, and the property must also be the owner’s primary residence.¹⁰

Property Tax/Rent Rebate

Pennsylvania’s Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program sends cash rebates to older adults 65 and over, widows and widowers 50 and over, and people with disabilities 18 and over. Household income has to be $48,110 or less per year, with half of Social Security excluded from the calculation.¹¹

Rebate amounts step down with income:

$0 to $8,550: up to $1,000
$8,551 to $16,040: up to $770
$16,041 to $19,240: up to $460
$19,241 to $48,110: up to $380

The deadline to file for the 2025 claim year is June 30, 2026.¹¹

Disabled Veteran Real Estate Tax Exemption

Veterans with a 100% permanent service-connected disability rating from the VA can qualify for a full real estate tax exemption on their primary residence. The property has to be owned solely by the veteran or jointly with a spouse. As of January 2025, the presumptive financial need level is $114,637 in annual income; applicants at or below that are presumed to qualify, and those above can still qualify by showing monthly expenses exceed monthly income.¹² Surviving spouses of qualifying veterans may also be eligible.

Clean and Green

Owners of agricultural, forest, or open-space land can apply for preferential assessment under Act 319, which values the land by its use rather than its development potential. The property must be at least 10 acres in agricultural use, agricultural reserve, or forest reserve. Smaller agricultural parcels can qualify if they generate at least $2,000 a year in farm income.¹³

The savings can be significant, but there’s a serious catch. If you change the land’s use or withdraw from the program, you owe seven years of rollback taxes (the difference between what you paid and what full assessment would have cost) plus 6% simple interest per year. To withdraw voluntarily, notify the county assessor by June 1 of the year before you want the removal to take effect.¹³

New Construction and Interim Assessments

Building a new home, adding a room, finishing a basement, putting in a pool, or doing a major remodel will trigger a supplemental tax bill once the improvement raises the improvement assessment by $1,000 or more. The bill goes out after the work is completed or the property is occupied, generally starting the month after an occupancy permit issues, though timing shifts with the assessment office’s workload.

Supplemental bills follow the same discount, face, and penalty schedule as regular bills. One point that catches new owners off guard: interim taxes are generally not included in closing costs and not escrowed by mortgage lenders, so you’ll receive the bill directly and need to pay it separately.

When Taxes Go Unpaid

Once taxes become delinquent and are turned over to the county, interest accrues at 9% per year under the Pennsylvania Real Estate Tax Sale Law, running from the month after the taxes are returned as unpaid.¹⁴ That interest compounds on top of any penalty already added, so the bill grows quickly.

The Westmoreland County Tax Claim Bureau conducts an Annual Upset Tax Sale for properties with outstanding delinquent taxes, tax judgments, or unpaid municipal claims. Once a property is sold at upset sale, the owner cannot redeem it. You can stop the sale by entering an installment agreement with the Tax Claim Bureau on or before the actual sale date, and if you receive notice that your property is listed, acting before that deadline is the only way to keep it.¹⁵

1
Westmoreland County. Tax Assessment
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Westmoreland County PA. Real Property Search
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Westmoreland County. View Property Cards
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Westmoreland County. GIS
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Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. State Tax Equalization Board (STEB)/Tax Equalization Division (TED)
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Westmoreland County. Millage Rates
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Westmoreland County. Board of Assessment Appeals Rules of Appeal Procedure
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Westmoreland County. Annual Tax Assessment Appeal Application
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Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 53 – Section 8854
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Westmoreland County. Application for Homestead and Farmstead Exclusions
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Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program
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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Real Estate Tax Exemption
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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Clean and Green
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Pennsylvania General Assembly. Real Estate Tax Sale Law
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Westmoreland County. Annual Upset Tax Sale