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South Carolina · County property tax · ACS 2024

Bamberg County Property Taxes

The median homeowner in Bamberg County pays $811 a year, an effective rate of 0.83%, far below the U.S. average.

$811
Median tax / yr · Low bill
0.83%
Effective rate · Above-median rate
-59%
vs U.S. average
#2 of 46
rank in SC

The verdict

Homeowners in Bamberg County pay a median $811 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 0.83%, more affordable than 48% of U.S. counties (Census ACS 2024).

$811
Median annual tax bill, 2024
0.83%
Effective rate on median home
#1639 of 3135
U.S. counties by tax burden
-59%
vs the national average bill

Effective rate is the median property tax bill divided by the median home value ($97,800). U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2024.

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Census Bureau ACS property tax data for South Carolina. Population: 13,042. Owner-occupied homes: 3,269.

The median annual property tax in Bamberg County is $811, which is 35% lower than the South Carolina state average and 59% below the national average. The effective tax rate is 0.83% on a median home value of $97,800. Property taxes represent 1.8% of the median household income in this county.

Why Bamberg County's ACS bill runs light vs the U.S.

Primary signal

The bill sits well below the national median

Homeowners in Bamberg County pay a median annual property tax of $811, far below the national median and well below the South Carolina state median. On a $97,800 median home, that works out to an effective rate of 0.83% once the local assessment base and millage are combined.

Decision signal 2

Low among South Carolina counties by effective rate

Bamberg County ranks #2 of 46 counties in South Carolina by effective rate (96% of in-state counties pay a lower rate).

Decision signal 3

Income carries a light tax share

Property taxes in Bamberg County run a bit below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.8% of the $44,370 median household income.

Decision signal 4

The effective rate sits near the national middle

Bamberg County's 0.83% effective rate sits near the middle of 3,135 tracked counties (more affordable than 48%).

Informational notice

Figures describe the median homeowner household in Bamberg County as reported to the Census Bureau; your parcel can differ. Not tax, legal, or financial advice: check the county assessor or a qualified professional before decisions that depend on these numbers.

The rate held while the market moved

Bamberg County sits in the quarter of U.S. counties whose effective rate moved least over this span: 5.0% down, against a median home value that rose 24.0%.

A near-steady rate on a moving market passes that movement straight through: the median bill rose 17.7%, from $689 to $811.

Effective rate is the published median bill divided by the published median home value, so the two multiply back to the bill exactly; the rate's movement here is derived from those two figures rather than read from the rounded published rate. Both are ACS 5-year survey estimates for the median owner-occupied household, compared across non-overlapping releases. They describe what the Census published, not a local policy, assessment, or exemption change.

Median Annual Tax
$811
Low bill
-35% vs State -59% vs US
Median Home Value
$97,800
-62% vs State -57% vs US
Effective Tax Rate
0.83%
Above-median rate
+73% vs State -10% vs US

How to read this county's bill

Bills rose across 2020-2024, from $689 to $811, a gain of 18%. This is a comparison of published ACS medians, not an explanation of a particular property's assessment or tax bill.

The largest reported group here falls at the bottom of the national range: 1,381 of 3,269 owner-occupied homes (42.2%) report annual real-estate taxes under $800. This distribution describes reported owner-occupied homes, not an affordability judgment for any property.

This county earns in the bottom quarter of the country and taxes above the median rate, so the median bill absorbs 1.8% of median household income. The rate alone understates that; it is the pairing that matters.

The share above is the median annual bill divided by median household income, a ratio of two county-level medians rather than a household-by-household figure.

Bamberg County is an outlier inside South Carolina

Across the 46 South Carolina counties with a published rate, the average effective rate is 0.52%. Bamberg County is at 0.83%, which sits 2.5 standard deviations above that average. Fewer than one county in twenty nationally is this far from its own state's centre, so a state-level average is a poor guide to what is owed here.

Standard deviations are computed across every county in the state with a published effective rate for 2024; states with fewer than five such counties are not assessed.

What Bamberg County Homeowners Actually Pay

The single largest group of Bamberg County homeowners, 1,381 of 3,269 owner-occupied homes (42.2%), pays less than $800 a year. The median is one point in this spread, not a typical bill.

  • Less than $800 42.2% (1,381)
  • $800 to $1,499 26.7% (874)
  • $1,500 to $1,999 5.1% (168)
  • $2,000 to $2,999 4.4% (145)
  • $3,000 or more 7.7% (252)

Census ACS 2024, table B25102. Bands and the no-tax share sum to 100%.

449 homes here (13.7%) report no real estate tax at all, a sizeable minority for a county this size. Exemptions are set by state: how South Carolina handles assessments and appeals.

With vs Without Mortgage

With Mortgage
$961
$80/mo
Without Mortgage
$703
$59/mo

Mortgaged homeowners in Bamberg County pay a substantially higher bill, 37% more, pointing to a wide home-value gap between the two groups.

Bamberg County's bill vs state & U.S. medians

Median annual bill bars around Bamberg County's LIGHT ACS 2024 figure.

Bamberg County $811
South Carolina median $1,251
U.S. median $1,993

Bamberg County's median bill is 35% below the South Carolina median and 59% below the U.S. median.

A high rate, a smaller bill

Bamberg County taxes property at 0.83%, about 73% above the South Carolina average, yet its median bill of $811 lands roughly 35% below it. The effective rate is the bill divided by the home's value, so a county can only sit on opposite sides of the state average this way when its homes are worth materially less than the state norm. The rate is the policy; the bill is what the housing market does with it.

Bamberg County vs Benchmarks

Metric Bamberg County South Carolina Avg U.S. Avg
Median Annual Tax Low bill $811 $1,251 $1,993
Effective Tax Rate Above-median rate 0.83% 0.48% 0.92%
Median Home Value $97,800 $259,000 $227,791
Tax as % of income Below-median income burden 1.8% - -

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates. Tax-burden differences across rows reflect millage decisions, assessment-ratio practices, and the residential-vs-commercial mix of each tax base.

Bamberg County is UNDER · LIGHT on ACS medians, still verify your parcel card before quoting the county figure. Estimate appeal savings · South Carolina counties.

Bamberg County bill trail · LIGHT

$650$700$750$800$850 20202021202220232024 $811
Bamberg County ACS median tax 2020–2024: +18% ($689 → $811).
Year Median Tax (vs prior release) Effective Rate
2024 $811 +1.9% 0.83%
2023 $796 +0.1% 0.83%
2022 $795 +10.3% 0.82%
2021 $721 +4.6% 0.84%
2020 $689 0.87%

Each row is a separate ACS 5-year release, and consecutive releases share four of their five survey years. The percentage beside each bill is therefore movement in the published estimate against the previous release, not a single year's tax change. The two releases largely describe the same households. For change over time, compare releases that do not overlap.

Bamberg County: tax takes only 1.8% of income

Tax-to-Income Ratio
1.8%
of median household income
Median Income
$44,370
per year
Monthly Tax
$68
per month

Counties near Bamberg County's median bill

On effective rate, Bamberg County sits nearest Union County (OR), Pike County (OH), Adams County (OH).

On published median-tax change, the nearest matches are Angelina County (TX), Adams County (OH), Rock Island County (IL).

How peers are chosen

These are the nearest cross-state matches in the published Census data, not neighboring counties or recommendations. Peers are rebuilt with each data release; see the calculation method.

Bamberg County: only 3% of returns show Schedule A real-estate tax

Tax year 2022: 170 of 5,260 returns from Bamberg County reported real estate taxes, averaging $2,988 - 35% of those reporters sat in the $100-200k AGI band.

What this IRS county file does not say

Amounts are reported before the SALT cap, not deducted; the share is of filers, not homeowners. Source: IRS SOI county data, tax year 2022.

Other Counties in South Carolina

View all counties in South Carolina →

Bamberg County bill FAQs

How does Bamberg County property tax compare to the national average?
Property taxes in Bamberg County run far below the national median of $1,993, an effective rate of 0.83% versus 0.92% nationally.
What percentage of income goes to property taxes in Bamberg County?
Property taxes in Bamberg County run a bit below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.8% of the $44,370 median household income.
What is the average property tax in Bamberg County, South Carolina?
The median annual property tax in Bamberg County is $811, an effective rate of 0.83% on a $97,800 median home (Census ACS, 2024).
Are property taxes increasing in Bamberg County?
The ACS median property-tax bill for Bamberg County climbed 17.7% between the 2020 and 2024 5-year releases, from $689 to $811, a 4-year span. These are survey estimates covering five years each, so this compares the two releases furthest apart rather than consecutive ones, which overlap and would mostly measure the same households twice.
What is the tax affordability score for Bamberg County?
Bamberg County, South Carolina scores B- (66/100) on PlainPropertyTax's tax affordability composite across 5 Census ACS dimensions (effective rate, bill size, income share, mortgage gap, and home-value/income). Its strongest scored dimension here is bill size at A ($811/yr). The score compares published county medians to U.S. percentiles, it is not a personal bill and not advice to buy, sell, appeal, or relocate.

What to do with Bamberg County's LIGHT bill

Bamberg County's $811 median bill sits well below the U.S. median - still size a parcel estimate; local millage and exemptions move the real bill. Estimate your bill →

Income burden is light here: about 1.8% of Bamberg County's $44,370 median household income goes to the property-tax bill.

Nationwide peers by median bill (then rate)

Bill-first peers for Bamberg County's LIGHT median, then a disjoint out-of-state rate set, not the same-state geography lattice.

Similar effective rate

Nearest out-of-state counties by ACS effective rate. This county: 0.83%.

Similar median bill

Nearest out-of-state counties by ACS median annual tax. This county: $811/yr. Rate peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.

Read with Bamberg County

Nearest ABS(median_tax) ACS peers for Bamberg County (UNDER · LIGHT), replacing the old fixed Keep exploring strip.

UNDER LIGHT

Data vintage and method

Data as of 2024. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.

Property tax data reflects median amounts paid by homeowners. Effective rates are calculated as median tax divided by median home value.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, county median real-estate taxes · 2024 Bamberg County (UNDER · LIGHT) - ACS medians, not a parcel bill.