District of Columbia Tax Estimator

How District of Columbia compares with the rest of the country

District of Columbia is cheap by national standards. Its median county charges 0.58% against a national median of 0.84% — well under, and in the case of its lowest counties, a fraction of what a typical American county charges.

For scale, US effective rates run from about 0.08% to 3.64% across the 3,132 counties with published data — more than twenty to one on the same property, decided almost entirely by which side of a line it stands on.

A more useful measure than the rate is what it takes out of a local income. Across District of Columbia counties the median bill averages about 3.9% of median household income.

The District of Columbia rules that decide your bill

Start with what is actually taxed. The District assesses all real property at 100% of market value and does it ANNUALLY, which is unusually frequent — most jurisdictions work on a three-to-eight-year cycle. Owner-occupied homes are Class 1, which carries the lowest rate of the four classes. That matters when you compare District of Columbia against a state that taxes a fraction of value — a lower rate elsewhere can still produce a higher bill.

The District’s homestead deduction takes $89,850 off assessed value before the tax is worked out — a large figure, and one of the reasons DC bills are lower than its house prices suggest. In most counties it is not applied automatically — you have to claim it, and an owner who never filed goes on paying the unrelieved amount indefinitely with nothing on the bill to tell them.

A homestead property’s tax is capped at 110% of the previous year’s tax. For senior and disabled owners the assessment increase cap is tighter still: it fell to 2% from tax year 2023. Capping the bill rather than the valuation is the stronger of the two protections, and only a handful of states do it.

Owners 65 or over, and permanently and totally disabled owners, get a straight 50% reduction in their annual District property tax.

These are District of Columbia rules and they apply in every county in the state. What varies locally is the rate, not the relief — so if you qualify and have not claimed it, your county assessor is where that gets fixed, not the state.

Property tax and income tax in District of Columbia, together

District of Columbia taxes income as well as property, at graduated rates up to 10.75%. The two are set by different authorities — income by the state, property by your county — and they answer different questions, so it is worth adding them rather than comparing them.

States trade one off against the other. A low income tax is often paired with heavier property tax and the reverse, which is why a comparison built on a single tax so frequently gives the opposite of the right answer. Our income tax calculator covers the District of Columbia side of that.

What a house actually costs in District of Columbia, at four prices

At the median county rate of 0.58%, a $250,000 home carries about $1,442 a year, a $400,000 home $2,308, a $600,000 home $3,461, and a $900,000 home $5,192. Property tax is close to linear in value, which income tax is not — doubling the house roughly doubles the bill.

But the median is the wrong number to plan with, because you do not buy in the median county. That same $600,000 house costs $3,461 a year in District of Columbia and $3,461 in District of Columbia — a difference of $0 every year, on identical property, under identical state law.

Over a ten-year hold that gap compounds to $0 before any rate increase. It is larger than most buyers' entire closing-cost budget, and it is decided by which side of a line on a map the house sits on. That is the case for looking up the county rather than the state.

One caution on all four figures: they apply the effective rate to the full purchase price. Where the state assesses at a fraction of market value, or caps how fast the assessed value can climb, your first-year bill and your fifth-year bill will differ from this — the sections below say exactly how, for District of Columbia.

Market value, assessed value and the number on your bill

The District assesses all real property at 100% of market value and does it ANNUALLY, which is unusually frequent — most jurisdictions work on a three-to-eight-year cycle. Owner-occupied homes are Class 1, which carries the lowest rate of the four classes.

In practice: a $724,600 house in District of Columbia is taxed on roughly $724,600 of assessed value, not on $724,600. The published millage is applied to that smaller figure, which is why a headline rate that looks alarming next to another state often is not — the two are being applied to different bases.

This is exactly why every rate on this site is an EFFECTIVE rate: tax actually paid divided by the home's market value. It is the only figure that survives comparison across state lines, because it has the assessment ratio, the exemptions and the millage already folded into it. A nominal millage does not.

It also explains a common shock. Assessment ratios and reassessment cycles differ, so a state can reassess every year, every three years, or on sale only. Where reassessment is infrequent, the correction when it finally arrives is not a rate increase — it is several years of market movement landing at once, and appealing the rate rather than the value is arguing the wrong point.

The District of Columbia homestead exemption, in dollars

The District’s homestead deduction takes $89,850 off assessed value before the tax is worked out — a large figure, and one of the reasons DC bills are lower than its house prices suggest.

Put in money at the median county rate of 0.58%, $89,850 off the taxable value is worth about $518 a year — $5,183 over a decade you stay in the house. On the state's median home value of $724,600 it removes roughly 12.40% of the taxable base.

The part that costs people real money: in most states this is not automatic. It attaches to your primary residence and generally must be claimed once, after you take ownership — and a buyer who never files simply pays the higher figure indefinitely, with no notice that anything is missing. If you bought in the last two years, check your assessment notice for the exemption line before assuming it is there.

It also lapses. Convert the house to a rental, move out and keep it, or inherit it without re-filing, and the exemption comes off — sometimes with the county reclaiming prior years. Where a state ties an assessment cap to homestead status, losing the status also releases the cap, and the bill can jump by far more than the exemption was ever worth.

What the 10% District of Columbia cap does — and what it does not

A homestead property’s tax is capped at 110% of the previous year’s tax. For senior and disabled owners the assessment increase cap is tighter still: it fell to 2% from tax year 2023.

This one caps the BILL, not the value. Your assessment can climb as fast as the market does — what is limited is how much more you can be charged than last year. That is stronger protection than a value cap for a homeowner staying put, and it is why comparing "cap percentages" between states without checking what each one limits is meaningless.

The practical consequence is that two identical houses on the same street can carry very different bills, and the difference is not an error. It reflects when each owner bought and what has happened to their assessment since. When you compare a listing's advertised tax figure against what you would pay, you are usually looking at the seller's history, not your future.

Whatever the cap limits, note when it resets. Caps of this kind commonly release on transfer, on a change of use, or when improvements are added — the mechanics for District of Columbia are in the section on selling below.

Appealing a District of Columbia assessment: what it is worth

You cannot appeal the tax rate — that is set by budget votes you have no standing to challenge individually. What you can appeal is the assessor's opinion of your property's value, and that is a factual claim you can be right or wrong about.

The arithmetic decides whether it is worth your afternoon. On the state's median home of $724,600, the bill runs about $4,180 a year. A 10% reduction in assessed value is worth roughly $418 a year, and because the corrected value carries forward it is nearer $2,090 across five years. Under $60 a year, the paperwork rarely pays; over $400, it usually does.

What wins is comparable sales, not hardship. Three to five recent arm's-length sales of genuinely similar properties — same neighbourhood, similar size, age and condition — near your valuation date. What loses is what the bill does to your budget, what the previous owner paid, or that the rate went up. Assessors decide value; none of those speak to value.

Also check the record itself before arguing valuation, because errors are commoner than contested opinions: square footage that includes an unfinished basement, a bathroom that does not exist, a garage counted twice, land area from a survey predating a lot split. A factual correction is usually granted without a hearing.

Deadlines are set locally here and are short — often thirty to forty-five days from the date the assessment notice was mailed, not from when you read it. Check the notice itself for the date, because missing the window generally forfeits the year regardless of how strong the case was.

Relief for older owners in District of Columbia

Owners 65 or over, and permanently and totally disabled owners, get a straight 50% reduction in their annual District property tax.

This matters more than the headline rate for anyone retiring in place. Property tax is the one major tax that does not fall when your income does — the house is worth what it is worth whether you are earning $120,000 or drawing $38,000 from a pension, and a bill that was 3% of income while working can be 9% of it afterwards.

Relief of this kind almost always has to be applied for, is usually income-tested, and in several states takes the form of a deferral rather than a discount: the tax is postponed and becomes a lien recovered when the property is sold or transferred. A deferral solves a cash-flow problem and reduces what heirs receive. Both can be the right choice; they are not the same choice, and the paperwork rarely spells out which one you are signing.

Check it against the income-tax side too. A state that treats retirement income generously and property harshly, or the reverse, can come out very differently once both are counted — which is what the comparison further down this page is for.

How the bill is paid, and what happens if it is not

Most owners with a mortgage never pay this directly. The servicer collects roughly $348 a month alongside principal and interest on the state's median bill, holds it in escrow, and pays the county when it falls due. The consequence is that a rise reaches you as a change in your monthly payment months after the fact, with no obvious connection to the assessment notice that caused it.

Read the annual escrow analysis when it arrives. It shows the bill actually paid, and it is the cheapest way to catch an assessment you would have appealed had you noticed — by the time the payment changes, the appeal window for that year has usually closed.

Owners without a mortgage pay the county directly, generally in two instalments. Late payment carries interest set by statute rather than by the county, and it is not small — rates in the region of 1% a month are common, which is above most credit card debt on an annualised basis.

Unpaid property tax is also secured against the house itself, which is what separates it from every other tax. States permit a tax lien, and eventually a tax sale, at the end of a statutory redemption period. It is slow and heavily noticed, so it is nearly always avoidable — but the mechanism means an unpaid property tax bill can never simply be written off the way an unpaid income tax debt sometimes is.

Five ways a District of Columbia property tax estimate goes wrong

Using the state average. District of Columbia has 1 counties with published rates and they do not resemble one another. The state figure is an average of things that are not alike, and applying it to a house in District of Columbia understates the bill by $0 a year.

Applying the millage to the market price. Where assessed value is a fraction of market value, multiplying the published rate by the purchase price overstates the result — sometimes by half. Use an effective rate, which already accounts for the base.

Assuming exemptions are automatic. District of Columbia's homestead exemption generally has to be claimed after purchase, and nothing on the bill announces that it is missing. Buyers who never file pay the unexempted figure for as long as they own.

Comparing property tax in isolation. District of Columbia also taxes income, so a property-only comparison against a no-income-tax state reaches the wrong conclusion in one direction — and against a high-income-tax state, the wrong conclusion in the other. Both taxes or neither.

Trusting the listing's tax line. It is the seller's bill, carrying their tenure and their exemptions. Where a sale triggers reassessment it is not a forecast of yours, and it is the single most common reason a first full-year bill arrives higher than budgeted.

How a District of Columbia property tax bill is put together

Your bill is not one rate. It is the sum of every authority that reaches your parcel — the county, the school district, the city or township, and often a fire, library or water district — each setting its rate separately and all of them added together. That is why two houses of identical value on opposite sides of a district line inside the same county owe different amounts, and both figures are correct.

The effective rates on this site are a different and more comparable thing: the median tax actually paid in a county divided by its median home value, from US Census data. That number can be compared across state lines. A millage rate cannot, because assessment practice differs from state to state — and District of Columbia is a good example of why.

Use the county figure to compare places and to sanity-check an escrow estimate. Use your assessor's roll to find out what you owe.

District of Columbia property tax questions

What is the average property tax rate in District of Columbia?

The median District of Columbia county has an effective rate of 0.58%, but the state average hides a lot: rates run from 0.58% in District of Columbia to 0.58% in District of Columbia. Use your own county's figure rather than the state one.

Which District of Columbia county has the lowest property tax?

District of Columbia, at 0.58%. The highest is District of Columbia at 0.58% — a difference of about 1.0 to one on the same house.

How much is property tax on a $400,000 home in District of Columbia?

At the median county rate of 0.58%, roughly $2,308 a year, or about $192 a month once it is in escrow. In District of Columbia it would be nearer $2,308 and in District of Columbia nearer $2,308.

Is there a homestead exemption in District of Columbia?

Yes, and it is set statewide. The District’s homestead deduction takes $89,850 off assessed value before the tax is worked out — a large figure, and one of the reasons DC bills are lower than its house prices suggest. You have to claim it in most counties.

Can my District of Columbia assessment rise without limit?

Your assessment can, but the bill is limited: District of Columbia caps the annual increase in the tax itself at 10%. A homestead property’s tax is capped at 110% of the previous year’s tax. For senior and disabled owners the assessment increase cap is tighter still: it fell to 2% from tax year 2023.

Does District of Columbia have an income tax too?

Yes — graduated rates up to 10.75%, on top of the property tax on this page. Worth adding both before comparing District of Columbia against another state.

Do I need a parcel number to estimate District of Columbia property tax?

No. Your county assessor's own estimator generally asks for one, which is fine if you already own the property and useless if you are deciding whether to buy it. This works from the home value instead — though for the binding figure, the assessor remains the authority.