Property tax in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

By Brent Chudoba, editor Updated September 23, 2026

In Lancaster County, the property tax bill comes from the Lancaster County Treasurer for most municipalities, or your township or borough's own tax collector in the rest. Every due date for the 2026 bill has passed, and the county had not posted the next cycle's dates when we checked. You can look up and pay the bill on the county's own payment page. Taken from Lancaster County's own pages, checked September 23, 2026.

The median property tax bill in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is $3,975 a year, which is about 1.32% of the county's median home value of $301,100. That effective rate is higher than the typical Pennsylvania county (1.27%) and higher than the national median (0.81%). These are American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024); your own bill depends on your home's assessed value and any exemptions.

Who sends the property tax bill in Lancaster County, and how do you pay it?

The bill comes from the Lancaster County Treasurer for most municipalities, or your township or borough's own tax collector in the rest. The value it is based on is set by a separate office, the Lancaster County Property Assessment Office, which is who to ask if the value looks wrong. For how to look up and pay the bill, go to the county's own payment information.

The county's 2027 reassessment puts every property at current market value starting with the 2027 county and municipal bills; by law each taxing body must lower its rate so it does not collect more in total because of the reassessment, though it may still raise the rate separately. The county sets its 2027 rate toward the end of December 2026, and the reassessment does not change the 2026-27 school bill. Your school district tax is billed separately. You can pay the county and municipal bill to the Treasurer online, by mail, at the Treasurer's office in the Government Center, or at any Fulton Bank branch in the county with a copy of your bill; online payments carry a processing fee. Taxes from earlier years are paid to the Tax Claim Bureau.

When are property taxes due in Lancaster County?

Every due date for the 2026 bill has passed, and Lancaster County had not posted the next cycle's dates when we checked on September 23, 2026. If that bill is still unpaid, the late-payment rules below apply to it. Counties usually repeat the schedule, but confirm the new dates on your next bill. For the 2026 bill, Lancaster County has one due date: June 30, 2026. These are the Treasurer's dates: payments received by April 30 get a 2% discount, and the full amount must be paid by June 30 to count as on time. If a deadline falls on a weekend day or holiday, the due date moves to the next business day, and mailed payments to the Treasurer must be postmarked on or before the due date. The county lists these dates without a year, and a township or borough that uses its own tax collector may set different dates, so the dates on your own bill are the ones that count. The 2026 dates have passed; the 2027 county and municipal bill is the first based on the new assessments. A penalty of 10% of the bill is added to payments made after June 30. Bills not paid by December 31 become delinquent and move to the Lancaster County Tax Claim Bureau, where interest is added on the first day of each month; the Bureau does not accept a postmark, so a payment must arrive before the new month begins.

From Lancaster County's published schedule, checked September 23, 2026. The county had not posted a calendar labeled for this cycle when we checked, so these dates come from state law and the county's standing schedule; the date on your bill is the one that binds you.

Estimate the property tax on a home in Lancaster County

Enter a home's market value for a ballpark at Lancaster County's average effective rate of 1.32% (Census). The real bill depends on the home's assessed value, the millage where it sits and any exemptions.

Home market value

Estimated property tax: $3,975 / year

Property tax in Lancaster County at a glance

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania property tax (Census ACS, reviewed September 23, 2026)
Measure	Value
Median annual property tax	$3,975
Median home value	$301,100
Effective tax rate	1.32%
Typical Pennsylvania county rate	1.27%
National median county rate	0.81%

Effective rate = median real estate taxes paid divided by median home value. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

How does Lancaster County compare in Pennsylvania?

Among Pennsylvania's 67 counties, Lancaster County has the 25th highest effective property-tax rate: 24 rank higher and 42 rank lower. That is on the higher side for Pennsylvania. Nationally, it ranks 570th of 3135 US counties by effective rate. See every Pennsylvania county ranked.

How much do homeowners in Lancaster County actually pay?

The median is only the middle bill. Across Lancaster County's 148,550 owner-occupied homes, 69% pay $3,000 or more a year in property tax, 81.1% pay at least $2,000, and 6.3% pay under $800. Another 2% report paying no property tax at all, which usually means an exemption covers the whole bill.

Annual property tax paid by Lancaster County homeowners (Census ACS 2020-2024)
Annual bill	Homes	Share
Under $800	9,418	6.3%
$800 to $1,499	9,741	6.6%
$1,500 to $1,999	5,860	3.9%
$2,000 to $2,999	18,034	12.1%
$3,000 or more	102,504	69%
No property tax paid	2,993	2%

Owners with a mortgage pay a median of $4,039 and owners without one pay $3,875. That is within 10% either way, so in Lancaster County paying off the house does not go with a noticeably different bill. Census table B25103.

How does the Lancaster County property tax bill compare with local incomes?

The median property tax bill of $3,975 is about 3.9% of the median income of Lancaster County homeowner households, $102,620 a year. That compares two middles, so a retiree in a long-held home can pay a far larger share. 69.8% of Lancaster County's occupied homes are lived in by their owners; renters pay property tax too, just folded into rent.

Have property taxes gone up in Lancaster County?

Yes. The median bill went from $3,495 in 2015-2019 to $3,975 in 2020-2024, a 13.7% rise. Over the same span the median home value moved 43.8%, from $209,400 to $301,100. Bills rose more slowly than values, which is what assessment caps and falling millage rates do: the county is taxing a smaller share of each home's worth.

Two Census ACS 5-year periods with no survey years in common, in each period's own dollars. A change counts only if it exceeds the combined 90% margin of error.

Property tax in counties next to Lancaster County

Lancaster County borders 7 counties, 2 of them across the state line.

Lancaster County and its neighbors, highest effective rate first (Census ACS 2020-2024)
County	Effective rate	Median bill	Median home value
Berks County, PA	1.65%	$4,239	$257,300
York County, PA	1.61%	$4,006	$248,600
Lebanon County, PA	1.37%	$3,310	$242,000
Dauphin County, PA	1.35%	$3,198	$236,400
Lancaster County, PA (this county)	1.32%	$3,975	$301,100
Chester County, PA	1.3%	$6,308	$485,600
Cecil County, MD	0.89%	$3,068	$343,400
Harford County, MD	0.89%	$3,448	$386,400

How is a home assessed in Lancaster County?

Pennsylvania sets the assessment rules and Lancaster County applies them. How Pennsylvania assesses and reappraises homes.

Is there a homestead exemption in Lancaster County?

Yes, but the amount varies. Pennsylvania's Homestead and Farmstead Exclusion lowers a home's assessed value for school tax, and each school district sets its own exclusion each year. That is the Pennsylvania rule, and it applies in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania's exemptions and relief programs in full.

On top of the Pennsylvania programs, Lancaster County runs its own:

Active Volunteer Real Estate Tax Credit: Under a 2023 county ordinance, an active volunteer firefighter or EMS member who lives in the county, owns the home as their primary residence, has been an active member for a full year, and logged at least 15 service calls or hours (or a combination) in the year can get a $150 credit on county real estate tax paid, issued by the County Controller by June 30. The application goes through the volunteer's fire company or EMS agency, which must list them on a notarized eligibility list. Apply by Your fire company or EMS agency must send your application to the county by March 30 each year for the previous year's service (the county set March 31 for 2026), so give it to your chief before then..

How to appeal your Lancaster County property assessment

In Lancaster County you appeal to the Lancaster County Board of Assessment Appeals. The deadline: In a normal year, annual appeals must be filed by 5:00 p.m. on August 1 and apply to the next tax year, and a mailed appeal counts as filed on its postmark date. August 1, 2027 is a Sunday; in 2026 the county moved a weekend August 1 deadline to the next business day, but it has not said so for 2027, so to be safe file by Friday, July 30, 2027. If you receive a notice changing your assessment, you have 40 days from the date of that notice, and that appeal has no fee. The annual appeal fee for a home with one to four units or a vacant building lot is $25 per parcel, paid to the Lancaster County Treasurer and not refunded. The county has reassessed every property for the 2027 tax year: notices were mailed June 15, 2026, the reassessment appeal deadline was August 3, 2026, and reassessment appeals carried no fee. How to file. Checked September 23, 2026 against the official appeal rules.

How Pennsylvania's appeal process works, including the next level if the first one turns you down.

Pennsylvania rules from primary state sources, reviewed September 7, 2026; sources on the Pennsylvania page.

Work out your own numbers

Sources

Median real estate taxes paid and median home value for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2020-2024), tables B25103, B25077, B25102, B25119 and B25003; the five-year comparison uses the 2015-2019 estimates. Neighboring counties: Census county adjacency file.