Kentucky · County property tax · ACS 2024
Wolfe County Property Taxes
The median homeowner in Wolfe County pays $414 a year, an effective rate of 0.55%, far below the U.S. average.
- $414
- Median tax / yr · Very low bill
- 0.55%
- Effective rate · Low rate
- -79%
- vs U.S. average
- #112 of 120
- rank in KY
The verdict
Homeowners in Wolfe County pay a median $414 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 0.55%, more affordable than 78% of U.S. counties (Census ACS 2024).
- $414
- Median annual tax bill, 2024
- 0.55%
- Effective rate on median home
- #694 of 3135
- U.S. counties by tax burden
- -79%
- vs the national average bill
Effective rate is the median property tax bill divided by the median home value ($75,800). U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2024.
Census Bureau ACS property tax data for Kentucky. Population: 6,443. Owner-occupied homes: 1,966.
The median annual property tax in Wolfe County is $414, which is 73% lower than the Kentucky state average and 79% below the national average. The effective tax rate is 0.55% on a median home value of $75,800. Property taxes represent 1.4% of the median household income in this county.
Why Wolfe County's ACS bill runs light vs the U.S.
Primary signal
The bill sits well below the national median
Homeowners in Wolfe County pay a median annual property tax of $414, far below the national median and far below the Kentucky state median. On a $75,800 median home, that works out to an effective rate of 0.55% once the local assessment base and millage are combined.
Decision signal 2
High among Kentucky counties by effective rate
Wolfe County ranks #112 of 120 counties in Kentucky by effective rate (7% of in-state counties pay a lower rate).
Decision signal 3
Income carries a light tax share
Property taxes in Wolfe County run well below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.4% of the $30,417 median household income.
Decision signal 4
The effective rate sits near the national middle
Wolfe County's 0.55% effective rate sits near the middle of 3,135 tracked counties (more affordable than 78%).
Informational notice
Figures describe the median homeowner household in Wolfe 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
Wolfe County's effective rate fell 15.0% across the 4-year span while its median home value rose 14.3%, leaving the median bill 2.8% lower at $414. That rate move is larger than the one in 64% 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 $426 in 2020 to $414 in 2024, a fall of 3%. 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: 956 of 1,966 owner-occupied homes (48.6%) report annual real-estate taxes under $800. This distribution describes reported owner-occupied homes, not an affordability judgment for any property.
Both sides of this comparison sit low: household income here is in the bottom quarter of US counties, and so is the effective tax rate. The median bill works out at 1.4% of median household income, which is the arithmetic of a modest levy on modest earnings rather than of any deliberate relief.
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 Wolfe County fell from $426 to $414, a change of -2.8%. 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
30.8% of Wolfe County homes owned free and clear (432 of 1,402) report no property tax at all, against 21.5% 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.
What Wolfe County Homeowners Actually Pay
The single largest group of Wolfe County homeowners, 956 of 1,966 owner-occupied homes (48.6%), pays less than $800 a year. The median is one point in this spread, not a typical bill.
- Less than $800 48.6% (956)
- $800 to $1,499 15.2% (299)
- $1,500 to $1,999 0.4% (7)
- $2,000 to $2,999 7.7% (151)
- $3,000 or more 0.0% (0)
Census ACS 2024, table B25102. Bands and the no-tax share sum to 100%.
553 homes here (28.1%) report no real estate tax at all, an unusually large share, high enough that the median bill above describes a minority of Wolfe County homeowners. Exemptions are set by state: how Kentucky handles assessments and appeals.
With vs Without Mortgage
Mortgaged homeowners in Wolfe County pay more than double the bill of those without one (+178%), the widest kind of value gap this dataset tracks.
Wolfe County's bill vs state & U.S. medians
Median annual bill bars around Wolfe County's LIGHT ACS 2024 figure.
Wolfe County's median bill is 73% below the Kentucky median and 79% below the U.S. median.
Below Kentucky on both measures
Wolfe County's effective rate runs 27% under the Kentucky median and its bill 73% 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 $414 median bill reflects a genuinely lighter charge than the Kentucky norm rather than a different denominator. Compare it against the state page before reading anything into the county rank.
Wolfe County vs Benchmarks
| Metric | Wolfe County | Kentucky Avg | U.S. Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Annual Tax Very low bill | |||
| Effective Tax Rate Low rate | |||
| Median Home Value | |||
| Tax as % of income Light income burden | 1.4% | - | - |
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.
Wolfe County is QUIET · LIGHT on ACS medians, still verify your parcel card before quoting the county figure. Estimate appeal savings · Kentucky counties.
Wolfe County bill trail · LIGHT
| Year | Median Tax (vs prior release) | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $414 +5.9% | 0.55% |
| 2023 | $391 +9.5% | 0.59% |
| 2022 | $357 -6.5% | 0.57% |
| 2021 | $382 -10.3% | 0.63% |
| 2020 | $426 | 0.64% |
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.
Wolfe County: tax takes only 1.4% of income
Counties near Wolfe County's median bill
On effective rate, Wolfe County sits nearest LaGrange County (IN), Lafayette County (FL), Bradford County (FL).
On published median-tax change, the nearest matches are Gilmer County (WV), Bailey County (TX), Bradley 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
IRS county file: no disclosed Wolfe County Schedule A rows
The IRS county file records no returns reporting real estate taxes on Schedule A for Wolfe 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 Kentucky
Wolfe County bill FAQs
- How does Wolfe County property tax compare to the national average?
- Property taxes in Wolfe County run far below the national median of $1,993, an effective rate of 0.55% versus 0.92% nationally.
- What percentage of income goes to property taxes in Wolfe County?
- Property taxes in Wolfe County run well below the commonly cited 2%-4% national benchmark, at about 1.4% of the $30,417 median household income.
- What is the average property tax in Wolfe County, Kentucky?
- The median annual property tax in Wolfe County is $414, an effective rate of 0.55% on a $75,800 median home (Census ACS, 2024).
- What is the tax affordability score for Wolfe County?
- Wolfe County, Kentucky scores B+ (76/100) 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+ ($414/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.
- Are property taxes increasing in Wolfe County?
- The ACS median property-tax bill for Wolfe County eased 2.8% between the 2020 and 2024 5-year releases, from $426 to $414, 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 Wolfe County's LIGHT bill
Wolfe County's $414 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 1.4% of Wolfe County's $30,417 median household income goes to the property-tax bill.
Nationwide peers by median bill (then rate)
Bill-first peers for Wolfe 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: 0.55%.
Similar median bill
Nearest out-of-state counties by ACS median annual tax. This county: $414/yr. Rate peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Read with Wolfe County
Nearest ABS(median_tax) ACS peers for Wolfe County (QUIET · LIGHT), replacing the old fixed Keep exploring strip.
QUIET LIGHT
Buchanan County, VA
ABS(median_tax) peer · $413/yr (near-tied bill ABS $1); rate 0.44% vs Wolfe County 0.55%.
Caldwell Parish, LA
ABS(median_tax) peer · $415/yr (near-tied bill ABS $1); rate 0.44% vs Wolfe County 0.55%.
Crockett County, TX
ABS(median_tax) peer · $416/yr (near-tied bill ABS $2); rate n/a vs Wolfe County 0.55%.
Jackson County, CO
ABS(median_tax) peer · $416/yr (near-tied bill ABS $2); rate 0.17% vs Wolfe County 0.55%.
Kentucky county set
State ACS overview for every published Kentucky county rate and median bill.
Assessment cycle basics
Wolfe 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 Wolfe County (QUIET · LIGHT) - ACS medians, not a parcel bill.