Kentucky · County property tax · ACS 2024
Letcher County Property Taxes
The median homeowner in Letcher County pays $648 a year, an effective rate of 0.96%, far below the U.S. average.
- $648
- Median tax / yr · Very low bill
- 0.96%
- Effective rate · Above-median rate
- -67%
- vs U.S. average
- #4 of 120
- rank in KY
The verdict
Homeowners in Letcher County pay a median $648 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 0.96%, more affordable than 39% of U.S. counties (Census ACS 2024).
- $648
- Median annual tax bill, 2024
- 0.96%
- Effective rate on median home
- #1923 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 ($67,400). U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2024.
Census Bureau ACS property tax data for Kentucky. Population: 20,808. Owner-occupied homes: 6,274.
The median annual property tax in Letcher County is $648, which is 58% lower than the Kentucky state average and 67% below the national average. The effective tax rate is 0.96% on a median home value of $67,400. Property taxes represent 1.6% of the median household income in this county.
Why Letcher County's ACS bill runs light vs the U.S.
Primary signal
The bill sits well below the national median
Homeowners in Letcher County pay a median annual property tax of $648, far below the national median and far below the Kentucky state median. On a $67,400 median home, that works out to an effective rate of 0.96% once the local assessment base and millage are combined.
Decision signal 2
Low among Kentucky counties by effective rate
Letcher County ranks #4 of 120 counties in Kentucky by effective rate (97% of in-state counties pay a lower rate).
Decision signal 3
Income carries a light tax share
Property taxes in Letcher County run a bit below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.6% of the $41,793 median household income.
Decision signal 4
The effective rate sits near the national middle
Letcher County's 0.96% effective rate sits near the middle of 3,135 tracked counties (more affordable than 39%).
Informational notice
Figures describe the median homeowner household in Letcher 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
Letcher County sits in the quarter of U.S. counties whose effective rate moved least over this span: 7.5% up, against a median home value that rose 23.2%.
A near-steady rate on a moving market passes that movement straight through: the median bill rose 32.5%, from $489 to $648.
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
The bill here climbed steeply over 2020-2024, up 33% from $489 to $648. These ACS medians describe the reported change; they do not identify whether a levy, assessment, home value, or change in the responding households caused it.
The largest reported group here falls at the bottom of the national range: 2,651 of 6,274 owner-occupied homes (42.3%) 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 1.6% 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.
Paying off the mortgage changes the picture here
38.6% of Letcher County homes owned free and clear (1,726 of 4,473) report no property tax at all, against 13.5% of homes still carrying a mortgage. A reported zero is not proof of an exemption: it can equally mean a bill paid by another party, or a reporting artefact. But a gap this size is where age- and disability-based relief usually shows up, because those programmes reach owners who have finished paying.
Letcher County is an outlier inside Kentucky
Across the 120 Kentucky counties with a published rate, the average effective rate is 0.70%. Letcher County is at 0.96%, which sits 2.3 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 Letcher County Homeowners Actually Pay
The single largest group of Letcher County homeowners, 2,651 of 6,274 owner-occupied homes (42.3%), pays less than $800 a year. The median is one point in this spread, not a typical bill.
- Less than $800 42.3% (2,651)
- $800 to $1,499 17.9% (1,121)
- $1,500 to $1,999 2.2% (139)
- $2,000 to $2,999 4.5% (282)
- $3,000 or more 1.8% (111)
Census ACS 2024, table B25102. Bands and the no-tax share sum to 100%.
1,970 homes here (31.4%) report no real estate tax at all, an unusually large share, high enough that the median bill above describes a minority of Letcher County homeowners. Exemptions are set by state: how Kentucky handles assessments and appeals.
With vs Without Mortgage
Mortgaged homeowners in Letcher County pay a substantially higher bill, 54% more, pointing to a wide home-value gap between the two groups.
Letcher County's bill vs state & U.S. medians
Median annual bill bars around Letcher County's LIGHT ACS 2024 figure.
Letcher County's median bill is 58% below the Kentucky median and 67% below the U.S. median.
A high rate, a smaller bill
Letcher County taxes property at 0.96%, about 28% above the Kentucky average, yet its median bill of $648 lands roughly 58% 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.
Letcher County vs Benchmarks
| Metric | Letcher County | Kentucky Avg | U.S. Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Annual Tax Very low bill | |||
| Effective Tax Rate Above-median rate | |||
| Median Home Value | |||
| Tax as % of income Light income burden | 1.6% | - | - |
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.
Letcher County is UNDER · LIGHT on ACS medians, still verify your parcel card before quoting the county figure. Estimate appeal savings · Kentucky counties.
Letcher County bill trail · LIGHT
| Year | Median Tax (vs prior release) | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $648 -1.4% | 0.96% |
| 2023 | $657 +11.7% | 0.93% |
| 2022 | $588 +14.0% | 0.89% |
| 2021 | $516 +5.5% | 0.84% |
| 2020 | $489 | 0.89% |
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.
Letcher County: tax takes only 1.6% of income
Counties near Letcher County's median bill
On effective rate, Letcher County sits nearest Nemaha County (KS), Hardin County (IL), Ware County (GA).
On published median-tax change, the nearest matches are Hubbard County (MN), Ben Hill County (GA), Phillips County (AR).
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
Letcher County: only 1% of returns show Schedule A real-estate tax
Tax year 2022: 70 of 6,930 returns from Letcher County reported real estate taxes, averaging $2,300 - 43% of those reporters sat in the $75-100k 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 Kentucky
Letcher County bill FAQs
- How does Letcher County property tax compare to the national average?
- Property taxes in Letcher County run far below the national median of $1,993, an effective rate of 0.96% versus 0.92% nationally.
- Are property taxes increasing in Letcher County?
- The ACS median property-tax bill for Letcher County jumped 32.5% between the 2020 and 2024 5-year releases, from $489 to $648, 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 percentage of income goes to property taxes in Letcher County?
- Property taxes in Letcher County run a bit below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.6% of the $41,793 median household income.
- What is the average property tax in Letcher County, Kentucky?
- The median annual property tax in Letcher County is $648, an effective rate of 0.96% on a $67,400 median home (Census ACS, 2024).
- What is the tax affordability score for Letcher County?
- Letcher County, Kentucky scores B- (69/100) 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 housing pressure at A+ (1.61×). 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 Letcher County's LIGHT bill
Letcher County's $648 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 1.6% of Letcher County's $41,793 median household income goes to the property-tax bill.
Nationwide peers by median bill (then rate)
Bill-first peers for Letcher 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: 0.96%.
Similar median bill
Nearest out-of-state counties by ACS median annual tax. This county: $648/yr. Rate peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Read with Letcher County
Nearest ABS(median_tax) ACS peers for Letcher County (UNDER · LIGHT), replacing the old fixed Keep exploring strip.
UNDER LIGHT
Carter County, KY
ABS(median_tax) peer · $649/yr (near-tied bill ABS $1); rate 0.49% vs Letcher County 0.96%.
Newton County, AR
ABS(median_tax) peer · $649/yr (near-tied bill ABS $1); rate 0.38% vs Letcher County 0.96%.
Johnston County, OK
ABS(median_tax) peer · $650/yr (near-tied bill ABS $2); rate 0.56% vs Letcher County 0.96%.
Butler County, KY
ABS(median_tax) peer · $645/yr (near-tied bill ABS $3); rate 0.58% vs Letcher County 0.96%.
Kentucky county set
State ACS overview for every published Kentucky county rate and median bill.
Assessment cycle basics
Letcher County stamps UNDER · 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 Letcher County (UNDER · LIGHT) - ACS medians, not a parcel bill.