Property Tax & Income in Clarke County, Georgia
Clarke County has an effective property tax rate of 0.87%. On the median home value of $298,900, that's roughly $2,610 per year. Median household income is $53,625.
What you'll pay, at a glance
Property taxes are the largest local tax most homeowners pay. The effective rate measures the real tax bill as a share of home value — a more useful number than the nominal “mill rate,” because assessment practices vary county to county.
| Metric | Clarke County | Georgia (state context) |
|---|---|---|
| Effective property tax rate1 | 0.87% | 0.86% |
| Median home value1 | $298,900 | — |
| State income tax3 | top rate 5.19% | top rate 5.19% |
| State sales tax3 | 7.56% combined | 7.56% combined |
How this is calculated
The effective property tax rate is the median real-estate tax bill divided by the median home value — both for owner-occupied homes, from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-year estimates)1. Median income is also from the ACS1. Federal and state income-tax figures use IRS2 and Tax Foundation3 data.
About Clarke County, GA
Clarke County’s effective property tax rate of 0.873% edges past Georgia’s statewide median of 0.859%, placing it slightly above the middle of the pack — 69th among the state’s 158 counties. Nationally, the gap widens: the U.S. median sits at 0.794%, so homeowners in and around Athens, the county’s largest city, face a rate roughly a tenth higher than the country as a whole. That difference shows up in dollar terms, with the median annual real-estate tax bill reaching $2,610 against a median home value of $298,900. With median household income at $53,625 and per-capita income of $32,642, property taxes here claim a meaningful share of local earnings, a signal that this is a moderately taxed market rather than a bargain one.