Tennessee · County property tax · ACS 2024
Lake County Property Taxes
The median homeowner in Lake County pays $653 a year, an effective rate of 0.67%, far below the U.S. average.
- $653
- Median tax / yr · Very low bill
- 0.67%
- Effective rate · Below-median rate
- -67%
- vs U.S. average
- #2 of 95
- rank in TN
The verdict
Homeowners in Lake County pay a median $653 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 0.67%, more affordable than 63% of U.S. counties (Census ACS 2024).
- $653
- Median annual tax bill, 2024
- 0.67%
- Effective rate on median home
- #1158 of 3135
- U.S. counties by tax burden
- -67%
- vs the national average bill
Effective rate is the median property tax bill divided by the median home value ($97,900). U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2024.
Census Bureau ACS property tax data for Tennessee. Population: 6,579. Owner-occupied homes: 987.
The median annual property tax in Lake County is $653, which is 55% lower than the Tennessee state average and 67% below the national average. The effective tax rate is 0.67% on a median home value of $97,900. Property taxes represent 2.3% of the median household income in this county.
Why Lake County's ACS bill runs light vs the U.S.
Primary signal
The bill sits well below the national median
Homeowners in Lake County pay a median annual property tax of $653, far below the national median and far below the Tennessee state median. On a $97,900 median home, that works out to an effective rate of 0.67% once the local assessment base and millage are combined.
Decision signal 2
Low among Tennessee counties by effective rate
Lake County ranks #2 of 95 counties in Tennessee by effective rate (98% of in-state counties pay a lower rate).
Decision signal 3
Income and the tax bill sit in the middle band
Property taxes in Lake County run within the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 2.3% of the $28,814 median household income.
Decision signal 4
The effective rate sits near the national middle
Lake County's 0.67% effective rate sits near the middle of 3,135 tracked counties (more affordable than 63%).
Informational notice
Figures describe the median homeowner household in Lake 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.
A falling rate took the edge off
Lake County's effective rate fell 16.2% across the 4-year span while its median home value rose 6.6%, leaving the median bill 10.7% lower at $653. That rate move is larger than the one in 70% 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 $731 in 2020 to $653 in 2024, a fall of 11%. 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: 626 of 987 owner-occupied homes (63.4%) report annual real-estate taxes under $800. This distribution describes reported owner-occupied homes, not an affordability judgment for any property.
Incomes here are in the lowest quarter nationally while the rate sits just below the middle, and the median bill lands at 2.3% of median household income. The rate reads as unremarkable in a national ranking; the earnings behind it are not, and the ratio above is where the two meet.
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 Lake County fell from $731 to $653, a change of -10.7%. 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 Lake County Homeowners Actually Pay
The single largest group of Lake County homeowners, 626 of 987 owner-occupied homes (63.4%), pays less than $800 a year. The median is one point in this spread, not a typical bill.
- Less than $800 63.4% (626)
- $800 to $1,499 20.9% (206)
- $1,500 to $1,999 5.1% (50)
- $2,000 to $2,999 3.3% (33)
- $3,000 or more 3.9% (38)
Census ACS 2024, table B25102. Bands and the no-tax share sum to 100%.
34 homes here (3.4%) report no real estate tax at all. Exemptions are set by state: how Tennessee handles assessments and appeals.
With vs Without Mortgage
Mortgaged and non-mortgaged homeowners in Lake County pay about the same bill, a 7% gap.
Lake County's bill vs state & U.S. medians
Median annual bill bars around Lake County's LIGHT ACS 2024 figure.
Lake County's median bill is 55% below the Tennessee median and 67% below the U.S. median.
A high rate, a smaller bill
Lake County taxes property at 0.67%, about 34% above the Tennessee average, yet its median bill of $653 lands roughly 55% 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.
Lake County vs Benchmarks
| Metric | Lake County | Tennessee Avg | U.S. Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Annual Tax Very low bill | |||
| Effective Tax Rate Below-median 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.
Lake County is QUIET · LIGHT on ACS medians, still verify your parcel card before quoting the county figure. Estimate appeal savings · Tennessee counties.
Lake County bill trail · LIGHT
| Year | Median Tax (vs prior release) | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $653 -13.9% | 0.67% |
| 2023 | $758 +7.2% | 0.71% |
| 2022 | $707 -6.4% | 0.63% |
| 2021 | $755 +3.3% | 0.77% |
| 2020 | $731 | 0.80% |
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.
Lake County: tax-to-income at 2.3%
Counties near Lake County's median bill
On effective rate, Lake County sits nearest Richland County (SC), Newberry County (SC), Pawnee County (OK).
On published median-tax change, the nearest matches are Childress County (TX), Chase County (KS), Sumter County (GA).
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
IRS county file: no disclosed Lake County Schedule A rows
The IRS county file records no returns reporting real estate taxes on Schedule A for Lake County. That is a limit of the published data rather than a finding about the county: county-level figures are withheld where the counts are too small to disclose safely, which is common in places with few filers. Roughly one county in sixteen is in this position, so the filer view available elsewhere on this site is simply not available here. Source: IRS Statistics of Income county data.
Other Counties in Tennessee
Lake County bill FAQs
- How does Lake County property tax compare to the national average?
- Property taxes in Lake County run far below the national median of $1,993, an effective rate of 0.67% versus 0.92% nationally.
- What is the average property tax in Lake County, Tennessee?
- The median annual property tax in Lake County is $653, an effective rate of 0.67% on a $97,900 median home (Census ACS, 2024).
- What percentage of income goes to property taxes in Lake County?
- Property taxes in Lake County run within the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 2.3% of the $28,814 median household income.
- Are property taxes increasing in Lake County?
- The ACS median property-tax bill for Lake County declined 10.7% between the 2020 and 2024 5-year releases, from $731 to $653, 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 Lake County?
- Lake County, Tennessee scores B- (68/100) 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+ ($653/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 Lake County's LIGHT bill
Lake County's $653 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 →
Lake County ranks #2 of 95 Tennessee counties by effective rate - on the higher-burden half of the state ACS set. Tennessee overview →
Nationwide peers by median bill (then rate)
Bill-first peers for Lake 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: 0.67%.
Similar median bill
Nearest out-of-state counties by ACS median annual tax. This county: $653/yr. Rate peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Read with Lake County
Nearest ABS(median_tax) ACS peers for Lake County (QUIET · LIGHT), replacing the old fixed Keep exploring strip.
QUIET LIGHT
Calhoun County, AL
ABS(median_tax) peer · tied with Lake County at $653/yr; rate 0.42% vs Lake County 0.67%.
Darlington County, SC
ABS(median_tax) peer · $652/yr (near-tied bill ABS $1); rate 0.41% vs Lake County 0.67%.
Johnston County, OK
ABS(median_tax) peer · $650/yr (near-tied bill ABS $3); rate 0.56% vs Lake County 0.67%.
Mercer County, WV
ABS(median_tax) peer · $656/yr (near-tied bill ABS $3); rate 0.54% vs Lake County 0.67%.
Letcher County (rate-lane contrast)
Near Lake County on ACS median bill yet stamps a different effective-rate lane (0.96% vs 0.67%).
Tennessee county set
State ACS overview for every published Tennessee county rate and median bill.
Assessment cycle basics
Lake County stamps QUIET · LIGHT - how assessed value and millage become the ACS median bill.
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 Lake County (QUIET · LIGHT) - ACS medians, not a parcel bill.