Illinois · County property tax · ACS 2024
Clay County Property Taxes
The median homeowner in Clay County pays $1,392 a year, an effective rate of 1.43%, well below the U.S. average.
- $1,392
- Median tax / yr · Below-median bill
- 1.43%
- Effective rate · High rate
- -30%
- vs U.S. average
- #91 of 102
- rank in IL
The verdict
Homeowners in Clay County pay a median $1,392 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 1.43%, more affordable than 14% of U.S. counties (Census ACS 2024).
- $1,392
- Median annual tax bill, 2024
- 1.43%
- Effective rate on median home
- #2709 of 3135
- U.S. counties by tax burden
- -30%
- vs the national average bill
Effective rate is the median property tax bill divided by the median home value ($97,400). U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2024.
Tax affordability score · Clay County, IL
42/100
5 ACS dimensions · release 2024
Comparative score against U.S. county percentiles on Census ACS medians (effective rate, bill, income share, mortgage gap, home-value/income). Higher means more affordable on those published medians, not a recommendation to buy, sell, appeal, or move, and not your personal tax bill. Missing inputs drop out and redistribute weight. How it is calculated.
Median home value relative to Clay County's median income
Clay County's median annual property-tax bill vs U.S. counties
Median tax as a share of Clay County's median household income
Clay County's effective rate vs U.S. county percentiles (ACS 2024)
Mortgaged vs free-and-clear median bill gap in Clay County
Clay County affordability profile (scored ACS dimensions)
Read the chart values
- Housing pressure: 100/100 (A+) · 1.61×
- Bill size: 60/100 (C) · $1,392/yr
- Income room: 56/100 (C) · 2.3%
- Rate relief: 14/100 (F) · 1.43%
- Mortgage premium: 9/100 (F) · +$953
Track this county alongside up to five others. Saved figures refresh when the annual source data changes.
Census Bureau ACS property tax data for Illinois. Population: 13,052. Owner-occupied homes: 4,211.
The median annual property tax in Clay County is $1,392, which is 74% lower than the Illinois state average and 30% below the national average. The effective tax rate is 1.43% on a median home value of $97,400. Property taxes represent 2.3% of the median household income in this county.
What This Data Tells Us About Clay County
Primary signal
The bill sits well below the national median
Homeowners in Clay County pay a median annual property tax of $1,392, well below the national median and far below the Illinois state median. On a $97,400 median home, that works out to an effective rate of 1.43% once the local assessment base and millage are combined.
Decision signal 2
High among Illinois counties by effective rate
Clay County ranks #91 of 102 counties in Illinois by effective rate (11% of in-state counties pay a lower rate).
Decision signal 3
The effective rate sits near the national middle
Clay County's 1.43% effective rate sits near the middle of 3,135 tracked counties (more affordable than 14%).
Decision signal 4
Income and the tax bill sit in the middle band
Property taxes in Clay County run within the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 2.3% of the $60,417 median household income.
This page is for informational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or financial advice. Figures describe the median homeowner household in Clay County as reported to the Census Bureau, your own bill can differ based on your parcel's assessed value, exemptions, special districts, and municipal overlays. Always consult your county assessor, tax collector, or a qualified professional before making decisions that depend on these numbers.
A falling rate took the edge off
Clay County's effective rate fell 17.6% across the 4-year span while its median home value rose 15.4%, leaving the median bill 4.9% lower at $1,392. That rate move is larger than the one in 75% of counties, so a good deal of the market's rise never reached the bill.
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.
How to read this county's bill
This is one of the counties where the typical bill came down, from $1,463 in 2020 to $1,392 in 2024, a fall of 5%. The source reports the change but does not distinguish among rate, value, or household-composition effects.
The largest reported group here falls at the bottom of the national range: 1,356 of 4,211 owner-occupied homes (32.2%) report annual real-estate taxes under $800. This distribution describes reported owner-occupied homes, not an affordability judgment for any property.
A top-quartile rate meets below-median earnings here, and the median bill reaches 2.3% of median household income. A rate ranking places this county by the rate alone; the ratio above is the figure that accounts for what is earned here.
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.
The published bill went DOWN here
Between the 2020 and 2024 ACS releases the median annual property tax in Clay County fell from $1,463 to $1,392, a change of -4.9%. Fewer than three counties in a hundred recorded any decline over this period; nearly everywhere else the published figure rose. A fall can reflect reassessment, a shifting mix of the homes surveyed, or genuine rate relief, and these estimates cannot separate those causes.
What Clay County Homeowners Actually Pay
The single largest group of Clay County homeowners, 1,356 of 4,211 owner-occupied homes (32.2%), pays less than $800 a year. The median is one point in this spread, not a typical bill.
- Less than $800 32.2% (1,356)
- $800 to $1,499 17.1% (722)
- $1,500 to $1,999 11.5% (483)
- $2,000 to $2,999 15.6% (655)
- $3,000 or more 17.1% (722)
Census ACS 2024, table B25102. Bands and the no-tax share sum to 100%.
273 homes here (6.5%) report no real estate tax at all. Exemptions are set by state: how Illinois handles assessments and appeals.
With vs Without Mortgage
Mortgaged homeowners in Clay County pay more than double the bill of those without one (+114%), the widest kind of value gap this dataset tracks.
How Clay County compares
Effective property tax rate (median tax ÷ median home value), ACS 2024.
Clay County's effective rate is higher than 11% of the 102 counties in Illinois - ranking #91 of 102 for property tax burden.
Where Clay County sits among every U.S. county
Effective property tax rate (median tax ÷ median home value)
1.43% more affordable than 14% of 3,135 U.S. counties
Show national distribution
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more U.S. counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2024
Below Illinois on both measures
Clay County's effective rate runs 29% under the Illinois median and its bill 74% under. Both sitting on the same side means the gap is not a valuation artefact: a county can post a low rate purely because its homes are expensive, but then the bill rises to meet the state. Here it does not, so the $1,392 median bill reflects a genuinely lighter charge than the Illinois norm rather than a different denominator. Compare it against the state page before reading anything into the county rank.
Clay County vs Benchmarks
| Metric | Clay County | Illinois Avg | U.S. Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Annual Tax Below-median bill | |||
| Effective Tax Rate High rate | |||
| Median Home Value | |||
| Tax as % of income Below-median income burden | 2.3% | - | - |
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.
Think your Clay County property tax bill is too high?
On Clay County's published figures, a $97,400 median home carries a $1,392 median bill, so every 10% off an assessed value is worth about $139 a year at the same rate. Whether an appeal is worth filing depends on your own parcel. Use our free Appeal Savings Estimator to run your own numbers, then read our step-by-step appeal guide for the procedure in Illinois.
Property Tax History
| Year | Median Tax (vs prior release) | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $1,392 -8.6% | 1.43% |
| 2023 | $1,523 -6.5% | 1.62% |
| 2022 | $1,629 +3.6% | 1.57% |
| 2021 | $1,573 +7.5% | 1.68% |
| 2020 | $1,463 | 1.73% |
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.
Tax Burden
Tax Affordability Score
An effective rate far above the national average of 0.92% puts Clay County in the "Expensive" band for property tax burden.
How this score is calculated: a 1-10 scale derived mechanically from the ratio of this county's effective rate to the national average effective rate (0.92%) - a ratio at or below 0.5× scores 10, a ratio at or above 2.0× scores 1, with a linear scale between. It is a factual comparison of Census figures only, not a recommendation, quality rating, or endorsement of Clay County or any other county.
Counties with similar tax profiles
On effective rate, Clay County sits nearest Warren County (IA), Franklin County (MA), Hampshire County (MA).
On published median-tax change, the nearest matches are Bristol Bay Borough (AK), Calhoun County (MS), Lawrence County (MS).
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.
Similar effective rates
Similar published median-tax changes, 2020–2024
What tax filers report in Clay County
Of the 6,080 federal returns filed from Clay County in 2022, 90 (1.5% of filers) itemised and reported real estate taxes on Schedule A, averaging $3,567 each. The largest group was filers with adjusted gross income of $100-200k, who accounted for 44% of the county's reporting returns.
Two things this does not say. The amount is what filers reported, recorded before the $10,000 cap on combined state and local tax deductions applies, so it is not the amount deducted. And the share is of everyone who files a return, not of homeowners: most filers now take the standard deduction, so a minority itemise at all. Source: IRS Statistics of Income county data, tax year 2022.
Other Counties in Illinois
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Clay County property tax compare to the national average? ▼
What is the average property tax in Clay County, Illinois? ▼
What percentage of income goes to property taxes in Clay County? ▼
What is the tax affordability score for Clay County? ▼
Are property taxes increasing in Clay County? ▼
What to do with Clay County's numbers
- Clay County's $1,392 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 →
- Clay County ranks #91 of 102 Illinois counties by effective rate - on the lower-burden half of the state board. Illinois overview →
- If Clay County's assessment looks high versus the $97,400 typical home, check Illinois's filing window and evidence rules before the notice deadline passes. How to appeal →
Effective-rate definition
Effective rate is the county median tax divided by the county median home value ($97,400); your parcel's assessed value, exemptions, and local levies determine your actual bill. U.S. Census Bureau ACS · 2024.
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.
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Editorial standards and provenance
PlainPropertyTax is rendered directly from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on the Census ACS county-level record for Clay County. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-09.