Mississippi · County property tax · ACS 2024
Wayne County Property Taxes
The median homeowner in Wayne County pays $578 a year, an effective rate of 0.63%, far below the U.S. average.
- $578
- Median tax / yr · Very low bill
- 0.63%
- Effective rate · Below-median rate
- -71%
- vs U.S. average
- #60 of 81
- rank in MS
The verdict
Homeowners in Wayne County pay a median $578 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 0.63%, more affordable than 68% of U.S. counties (Census ACS 2024).
- $578
- Median annual tax bill, 2024
- 0.63%
- Effective rate on median home
- #1004 of 3135
- U.S. counties by tax burden
- -71%
- vs the national average bill
Effective rate is the median property tax bill divided by the median home value ($91,100). U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2024.
Census Bureau ACS property tax data for Mississippi. Population: 19,718. Owner-occupied homes: 6,553.
The median annual property tax in Wayne County is $578, which is 52% lower than the Mississippi state average and 71% below the national average. The effective tax rate is 0.63% on a median home value of $91,100. Property taxes represent 1.5% of the median household income in this county.
Why Wayne County's ACS bill runs light vs the U.S.
Primary signal
The bill sits well below the national median
Homeowners in Wayne County pay a median annual property tax of $578, far below the national median and far below the Mississippi state median. On a $91,100 median home, that works out to an effective rate of 0.63% once the local assessment base and millage are combined.
Decision signal 2
Income carries a light tax share
Property taxes in Wayne County run a bit below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.5% of the $37,619 median household income.
Decision signal 3
High among Mississippi counties by effective rate
Wayne County ranks #60 of 81 counties in Mississippi by effective rate (26% of in-state counties pay a lower rate).
Decision signal 4
The effective rate sits near the national middle
Wayne County's 0.63% effective rate sits near the middle of 3,135 tracked counties (more affordable than 68%).
Informational notice
Figures describe the median homeowner household in Wayne 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 gave way faster than almost anywhere
Between the 2020 and 2024 releases the median home value in Wayne County rose 16.3%, from $78,300 to $91,100. The effective rate fell 17.9% over the same span, a steeper move than in 76% of U.S. counties.
The median bill still fell 4.5%, to $578. Where the rate drops this far and the bill rises anyway, what changed is the value the rate is applied to.
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 $605 in 2020 to $578 in 2024, a fall of 4%. 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: 2,892 of 6,553 owner-occupied homes (44.1%) 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 1.5% 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 Wayne County fell from $605 to $578, a change of -4.5%. 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.
Paying off the mortgage changes the picture here
36.1% of Wayne County homes owned free and clear (1,606 of 4,454) report no property tax at all, against 11.0% 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.
What Wayne County Homeowners Actually Pay
The single largest group of Wayne County homeowners, 2,892 of 6,553 owner-occupied homes (44.1%), pays less than $800 a year. The median is one point in this spread, not a typical bill.
- Less than $800 44.1% (2,892)
- $800 to $1,499 14.5% (952)
- $1,500 to $1,999 4.6% (304)
- $2,000 to $2,999 5.0% (328)
- $3,000 or more 3.7% (240)
Census ACS 2024, table B25102. Bands and the no-tax share sum to 100%.
1,837 homes here (28.0%) report no real estate tax at all, an unusually large share, high enough that the median bill above describes a minority of Wayne County homeowners. Exemptions are set by state: how Mississippi handles assessments and appeals.
With vs Without Mortgage
Mortgaged homeowners in Wayne County pay more than double the bill of those without one (+93%), the widest kind of value gap this dataset tracks.
Wayne County's bill vs state & U.S. medians
Median annual bill bars around Wayne County's LIGHT ACS 2024 figure.
Wayne County's median bill is 52% below the Mississippi median and 71% below the U.S. median.
Wayne County vs Benchmarks
| Metric | Wayne County | Mississippi Avg | U.S. Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Annual Tax Very low bill | |||
| Effective Tax Rate Below-median rate | |||
| Median Home Value | |||
| Tax as % of income Light income burden | 1.5% | - | - |
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.
Wayne County is QUIET · LIGHT on ACS medians, still verify your parcel card before quoting the county figure. Estimate appeal savings · Mississippi counties.
Wayne County bill trail · LIGHT
| Year | Median Tax (vs prior release) | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $578 -15.7% | 0.63% |
| 2023 | $686 -0.3% | 0.78% |
| 2022 | $688 +10.8% | 0.77% |
| 2021 | $621 +2.6% | 0.78% |
| 2020 | $605 | 0.77% |
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.
Wayne County: tax takes only 1.5% of income
Counties near Wayne County's median bill
On effective rate, Wayne County sits nearest West Feliciana Parish (LA), Pulaski County (KY), Lyon County (KY).
On published median-tax change, the nearest matches are Hickman County (KY), Mathews County (VA), Thomas County (NE).
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
Wayne County: only 3% of returns show Schedule A real-estate tax
Tax year 2022: 240 of 8,240 returns from Wayne County reported real estate taxes, averaging $2,371 - 29% 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 Mississippi
Wayne County bill FAQs
- How does Wayne County property tax compare to the national average?
- Property taxes in Wayne County run far below the national median of $1,993, an effective rate of 0.63% versus 0.92% nationally.
- What percentage of income goes to property taxes in Wayne County?
- Property taxes in Wayne County run a bit below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.5% of the $37,619 median household income.
- What is the tax affordability score for Wayne County?
- Wayne County, Mississippi scores B (74/100) 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+ ($578/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 is the average property tax in Wayne County, Mississippi?
- The median annual property tax in Wayne County is $578, an effective rate of 0.63% on a $91,100 median home (Census ACS, 2024).
- Are property taxes increasing in Wayne County?
- The ACS median property-tax bill for Wayne County eased 4.5% between the 2020 and 2024 5-year releases, from $605 to $578, 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 to do with Wayne County's LIGHT bill
Wayne County's $578 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 1.5% of Wayne County's $37,619 median household income goes to the property-tax bill.
Nationwide peers by median bill (then rate)
Bill-first peers for Wayne 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: 0.63%.
Similar median bill
Nearest out-of-state counties by ACS median annual tax. This county: $578/yr. Rate peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Read with Wayne County
Nearest ABS(median_tax) ACS peers for Wayne County (QUIET · LIGHT), replacing the old fixed Keep exploring strip.
QUIET LIGHT
Lunenburg County, VA
ABS(median_tax) peer · tied with Wayne County at $578/yr; rate 0.39% vs Wayne County 0.63%.
Carroll County, MS
ABS(median_tax) peer · $577/yr (near-tied bill ABS $1); rate 0.53% vs Wayne County 0.63%.
Union County, SC
ABS(median_tax) peer · $579/yr (near-tied bill ABS $1); rate 0.56% vs Wayne County 0.63%.
Beauregard Parish, LA
ABS(median_tax) peer · $576/yr (near-tied bill ABS $2); rate 0.36% vs Wayne County 0.63%.
Mississippi county set
State ACS overview for every published Mississippi county rate and median bill.
Assessment cycle basics
Wayne 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 Wayne County (QUIET · LIGHT) - ACS medians, not a parcel bill.