Take one house, assessed at $475,000, and move it across the Richmond metro without changing a thing about it. The real estate tax bill on that identical house ranges from $2,517.50 a year to $5,700 a year depending only on which locality’s line you land on. That is $3,182.50 a year, about $265 a month, for the same square footage, the same roof, the same assessment.
Below is the arithmetic for six localities plus one service district, every multiplication shown, using each locality’s own published rate per $100 of assessed value. Then the two caveats that matter more than the rate itself.
The same $475,000 assessment, seven ways
Ordered by annual bill, highest to lowest. An assessment of $475,000 is 4,750 units of $100, so every bill below is the rate multiplied by 4,750.
| Locality | Rate per $100 | Annual bill | Per month | vs Goochland base |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Richmond | $1.20 | $5,700.00 | $475.00 | +$3,182.50 |
| Chesterfield County | $0.89 | $4,227.50 | $352.29 | +$1,710.00 |
| Goochland, Tuckahoe Creek Service District | $0.85 | $4,037.50 | $336.46 | +$1,520.00 |
| Henrico County | $0.83 | $3,942.50 | $328.54 | +$1,425.00 |
| Hanover County | $0.81 | $3,847.50 | $320.63 | +$1,330.00 |
| Powhatan County | $0.77 | $3,657.50 | $304.79 | +$1,140.00 |
| Goochland County, outside the district | $0.53 | $2,517.50 | $209.79 | baseline |
Working each bill, and where each rate applies
City of Richmond, $1.20
$1.20 x 4,750 = $5,700.00 per year, $475.00 per month
The highest rate in the metro, published by the city on its Department of Finance real estate page. It applies uniformly across the city, so the same rate hits The Fan, Church Hill, Scott’s Addition, Forest Hill, Manchester and every other city neighborhood identically. What you get for the premium is city services and the shortest commutes in the region. What you pay is $1,472.50 a year more than the same assessment in Chesterfield, which is $122.71 a month.
Chesterfield County, $0.89
$0.89 x 4,750 = $4,227.50 per year, $352.29 per month
Chesterfield is the only locality in this group whose page states the tax year explicitly, describing $0.89 as the 2026 rate on its real estate assessments page. It covers Midlothian, Bon Air, Hallsley, Woodlake, Harpers Mill, Hampton Park, Salisbury and Ettrick. Some Chesterfield sections also sit inside a service district carrying an additional levy, so the county rate is a floor in those areas rather than the whole bill.
Goochland inside the Tuckahoe Creek Service District, $0.53 + $0.32 = $0.85
$0.85 x 4,750 = $4,037.50 per year, $336.46 per month
This is the entry that surprises people. Goochland has the lowest base rate in the metro, but parcels inside the Tuckahoe Creek Service District carry an additional ad valorem levy of $0.32 per $100 on top of the county’s $0.53, both published on the Goochland County tax rates page. That district levy alone costs $1,520 a year, $126.67 a month, and it moves Goochland from the cheapest locality on this list to the third most expensive. The district covers a defined area in eastern Goochland, and district boundaries follow parcels, not subdivision marketing names, so confirm the specific parcel rather than the neighborhood. We explain how these districts work in Richmond area service districts and your tax bill.
Henrico County, $0.83
$0.83 x 4,750 = $3,942.50 per year, $328.54 per month
The current published rate on the county’s approved tax rates and schedule page. It applies county wide, so Short Pump, Glen Allen, Tuckahoe, Innsbrook, Lakeside, West Broad Village and Varina all pay the same rate on the same assessment. The rate is identical across the county. The assessments are not, which is the point of the next section.
Hanover County, $0.81
$0.81 x 4,750 = $3,847.50 per year, $320.63 per month
The current published rate on the Hanover County tax rates page, applying across Hanover and the rest of the county. Hanover also posted the metro’s second highest months of supply in July 2026 at 2.4, so it is a market where the carrying cost advantage over the city, $1,852.50 a year, arrives alongside more room to negotiate.
Powhatan County, $0.77
$0.77 x 4,750 = $3,657.50 per year, $304.79 per month
The current published rate on the Powhatan County real estate tax rate page, covering Powhatan. Second lowest in the metro, and paired with the highest months of supply in the July 2026 table at 3.1.
Goochland outside the district, $0.53
$0.53 x 4,750 = $2,517.50 per year, $209.79 per month
The lowest rate in the metro by a wide margin, on the same Goochland tax rates page, covering Goochland outside the service district. The catch is what it takes to get there: Goochland’s county level median sale price was $655,000 in July 2026, the highest in the metro table, so the low rate is frequently applied to a much larger assessment.
You now know the rates. You still do not know your assessment.
Every bill above starts from an assessed value, and the only way to judge whether your locality’s number is defensible is to see what comparable homes near you have actually sold for. That is not a rate lookup, it is a comparables problem.
We will run you a free home valuation built from recent comparable sales around your address, so you can hold your assessment notice next to real market evidence and see whether the two agree. If they do not, that gap is the basis of an appeal.
Request your free home valuation, or look through recently sold properties to see the kind of evidence it is built on.
Assessed value is not sale price, and the ratio can beat the rate
Everything above assumes one fixed $475,000 assessment. In reality each locality sets its own assessed values through its own reassessment cycle, and the relationship between assessed value and market value is not identical across the six. That relationship, the assessment ratio, decides your bill just as much as the rate does.
The arithmetic is easy to demonstrate. A house that sells for $500,000 and is assessed at $475,000 in Henrico pays $3,942.50 at $0.83. The same $500,000 house assessed at the full $500,000 in Powhatan pays $3,850 at $0.77, because $0.77 multiplied by 5,000 units is $3,850. Powhatan has the lower rate by six cents and still produces the smaller saving than the headline gap suggests, purely because the assessment is higher. Push the assessment differential a little further and the lower rate loses outright.
So the correct comparison is never rate against rate. It is your actual assessment multiplied by your actual rate, against the other locality’s actual assessment multiplied by its rate. Two practical consequences follow. First, when you are comparing a Chesterfield house to a Henrico house, get the current assessed value of each specific parcel from the locality rather than assuming the assessment equals the list price. Second, if your assessment looks high against recent nearby sales, that is an appealable position, and the process differs by locality. We walk it through in how to appeal a property assessment in Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico.
A note on what these pages actually say. Of the six localities, only Chesterfield’s page states the tax year, describing $0.89 as the 2026 rate. Richmond, Henrico, Hanover, Powhatan and Goochland publish their rates without printing a tax year alongside them. We have therefore called those five the current published rate throughout this post rather than asserting a 2026 rate the source page does not state. Verify the rate for your locality on its own page on the date you are relying on it. One older post on this site quotes Henrico at $0.85; the county’s own schedule says $0.83, and $0.83 is the figure used here.
What this does to your escrow and your qualifying
Real estate tax is usually collected monthly into escrow with your mortgage payment, so these differences are not an annual surprise, they are a permanent line in your monthly housing cost. On a $475,000 assessment the monthly tax line runs from $209.79 in Goochland outside the district to $475.00 in the City of Richmond.
That $265.21 monthly spread is real borrowing capacity. Lenders qualify you on the full monthly payment including taxes and insurance, so the same income supports a materially larger loan in Goochland or Powhatan than in the city, and a buyer who shops on purchase price alone will be surprised by what they are approved for. Run both versions through our mortgage calculator with the correct tax line in each, and have the assumptions checked by one of our preferred lenders before you set your search range.
Two further costs sit alongside the tax line and get missed just as often. Flood insurance, which is mandatory in a Special Flood Hazard Area on a federally backed loan and which we map area by area in Richmond area neighborhoods with the lowest flood risk. And the post completion reassessment on a new build, where the tax line at closing is not the tax line in year two, covered in new construction under $500,000 in the Richmond area. For the wider rate picture and the assessment mechanics, see our metro tax rates by locality and the Richmond property tax guide.
Sources and data.
- Tax rates, per $100 of assessed value, each read on the locality’s own page this month: City of Richmond $1.20, Chesterfield $0.89 (stated as the 2026 rate), Henrico $0.83, Hanover $0.81, Powhatan $0.77, Goochland $0.53 plus a $0.32 Tuckahoe Creek Service District ad valorem levy inside that district. Only Chesterfield’s page states a tax year.
- Market figures, July 2026, single family detached, county level: Richmond Metro median $460,000, up 2.2 percent, 1,049 closed sales, 19 days on market, 1.8 months supply. City of Richmond $450,000, down 3.4 percent, 218 sales. Chesterfield $440,000, down 3.3 percent, 407 sales. Henrico $475,000, up 11.8 percent, 287 sales. Hanover $525,000, up 1.0 percent, 137 sales, 2.4 months supply. Powhatan $486,250, down 3.4 percent, 46 sales, 3.1 months supply. Goochland $655,000, down 3.0 percent, 44 sales, 2.8 months supply. Source: Central Virginia Regional MLS, July 2026, via the Richmond Association of REALTORS Sortable Statistics, current as of 10 August 2026. August 2026 is not yet published.
- [DATA NEEDED: median price per square foot, July 2026, by area]
- [DATA NEEDED: published assessment to sale price ratio by locality, Richmond metro, current cycle]
All market figures are county, city or metro level. None is a neighborhood figure. The $475,000 assessment used throughout is a worked example, not a market median.
Check the rate, then check the assessment
The rate table tells you which locality is expensive. Only your assessment tells you what you will actually pay, and only comparable sales tell you whether that assessment is defensible. Ask us for the free home valuation and we will build it from recent sales around your address so you can set your assessment notice next to real evidence. Start with the valuation request, browse what is listed on our property search, and if the number comes back well above your assessment and you are thinking about timing, our sell with us page covers the other side of that decision.
Questions the rate table does not answer
Is there a Virginia state real estate tax on top of the local rate?
No. Real estate tax in Virginia is levied by localities, not by the Commonwealth, so the county or city rate is the whole real estate tax. That is why the spread between $0.53 and $1.20 shows up undiluted in your escrow rather than being flattened by a statewide layer.
At what point does Powhatan’s lower rate stop beating Henrico’s?
At an assessment of roughly $512,013. Henrico at $0.83 on a $475,000 assessment is $3,942.50. Powhatan at $0.77 matches that figure at about $512,013, which is 7.79 percent higher. Above that the lower rate costs more, which is the whole argument for comparing bills rather than rates.
If I buy in the middle of the year, who pays the tax?
Real estate taxes are customarily prorated between seller and buyer at settlement, with the seller covering the period up to closing. The contract governs how that is handled, so read the proration clause rather than assuming the local custom applies to your deal.
Do I pay the locality directly or through my mortgage escrow?
Most borrowers pay monthly into escrow and the servicer remits to the locality. Owners without a mortgage, and some borrowers who have waived escrow, pay the locality directly on its billing schedule. Either way the annual figures above are what actually leaves your account.
Does a lower assessment hurt me when I sell?
Generally no. An assessment is a mass appraisal for taxation, not a market appraisal, and buyers and lenders rely on comparable sales and a licensed appraisal instead. Plenty of homes sell well above their assessed value. The two numbers answer different questions.
Do these rates cover anything besides real estate?
No. These are real estate tax rates only. Virginia localities also levy personal property tax on vehicles and may charge separate utility, stormwater or refuse fees, none of which are in the bills calculated above. Budget for them separately.
What happens to my bill if I win an assessment appeal?
Your assessed value drops and every future bill is calculated on the lower number at the same rate. On a Chesterfield parcel at $0.89, a $25,000 reduction is $222.50 a year, because $0.89 multiplied by 250 units is $222.50. Small reductions compound over a long hold.
Is the Tuckahoe Creek levy an HOA fee?
No. It is a public ad valorem levy of $0.32 per $100 charged by the county on parcels inside the service district, and it appears on your county tax bill. An HOA fee is a private charge under a community’s declaration. A parcel can carry both.
