Louisiana Property Tax Calculator (Assessed Value & Millage Rates)

At an average effective rate of 0.53%, Louisiana ranks #38 among the 50 states, putting it in the lower third of effective property tax rates in the country. That's noticeably below the national average of roughly 1.0%. Within the South, where the average effective rate runs near 0.79%, Louisiana sits well below the regional norm too.

As in most of the South, property tax revenue in Louisiana funds local school districts, county services, and municipal budgets rather than flowing through a state-level general fund, so the rate is effectively set locally even though the average is reported statewide.

For anyone underwriting a purchase in Louisiana, this effective rate is the starting point for modeling PITI escrow and cash-on-cash returns. The worked example below walks through the full calculation on a sample home price so the math is transparent from assessed value to monthly payment.

Louisiana's homestead exemption is unusually generous in structure: the first $75,000 of fair market value on an owner-occupied home is exempt from parish taxes, and residential property is assessed at just 10% of value to begin with. A modest home in most parishes can end up owing nothing at all outside the municipal levy.

None of that detail is asked for here. This calculator works one level up, applying Louisiana's average effective property tax rate of 0.53% to the value you enter. That rate is the ratio of property taxes actually paid to home value across the state, so the assessment ratios, caps, and exemptions described above are already baked into it.

Steps 1 and 2 are parish practice rather than engine behaviour: no 10% assessment ratio and no separate parish and municipal millage exist in this code. Steps 3 to 5 are what runs.

1. Start from fair market value. Parish assessors revalue on a four-year cycle.
2. Take off the homestead exemption. It removes $7,500 of assessed value, equal to $75,000 of market value, from parish millages but not from city millages.
3. Multiply by the effective rate. At 0.53%, a $400,000 home in Louisiana comes to $2,120 a year before any exemption you enter above.
4. Divide by twelve for escrow. That same home works out to $176.67 a month set aside in a mortgage escrow account.
5. Compare it against your own bill. Orleans Parish and the municipalities levy separately from the parish, so the exemption does not zero out every line on the bill. Your county's number is the one that governs; this figure tells you whether it is roughly where a Louisiana home of that value ought to land.

Using this calculator's baseline inputs: a $400,000 home in Louisiana, taxed at the state's 0.53% average effective rate (rank #38 of 50 states).

1. Start with the assessed value. The home is assessed at its full $400,000.00 market value, with no homestead exemption applied in this baseline scenario.
2. Apply the effective rate. $400,000.00 × 0.53% = $2,120.00 in annual property tax, Louisiana's statewide average effective rate.
3. Convert to a monthly escrow. Lenders typically collect property tax in twelve equal installments alongside principal and interest: $2,120.00 ÷ 12 = $176.67 per month.
4. Project a five-year hold. At a flat rate, five years of ownership totals $2,120.00 × 5 = $10,600.00, before any reassessment, exemption change, or millage increase.

At 0.53%, Louisiana carries a comparatively light property tax burden nationally, ranking #38 of 50 states, though actual bills still vary by county and municipality.

Louisiana's homestead exemption is the biggest in this batch, and the table ignores it. Enter $75,000 against the $400,000 default and the headline falls from $2,120.00 to $1,722.50. The twelve-row table's $400,000 row still reads $2,120.00. That is by construction: compute subtracts the exemption from the headline value and then builds all twelve rows from the value you typed. Push the exemption to $200,000 and the headline drops to $1,060.00 while the table stays exactly where it was.

And the exemption in the code is not the exemption in the statute. Louisiana's homestead exemption removes $7,500 of assessed value, equal to $75,000 of market value, from parish millages but not from municipal ones. This calculator has no parish and no city: it subtracts whatever you enter from the value and multiplies the remainder by one statewide rate. For a house inside a municipality the real relief is smaller than the $397.50 saving shown above.

The sweep. Value runs $66,666.67 to $800,000.00 and annual tax runs $353.33 to $4,240.00, through $2,120.00 at the $400,000 row, with monthly escrow from $29.44 to $353.33. Every row is 0.53% of its value; there is no rate step, no cap and no reassessment trigger in the code, and the four-year parish revaluation cycle has no representation here at all.

Marginal cost of the next unit. Each additional $10,000 of fair market value costs $53.00 a year, and each $100,000 costs $530.00. Moving the entry from $400,000 to $410,000 lifts the bill from $2,120.00 to $2,173.00.

The reverse question, where Louisiana wins outright. A $250 monthly escrow line supports a home worth $566,038 in Louisiana, confirmed by the calculator at $3,000.00 a year and $250.00 a month. In Illinois the same $250 carries $156,250. That 3.6-to-1 ratio is the widest spread between any two states in this batch and it is the single most useful number this page produces.

The output that does not respond. The effective-rate figure holds at 0.53% no matter what exemption you enter, because it reports the statewide average rather than your own ratio. On a $400,000 house with the $75,000 exemption applied the true ratio is 0.43%, which the calculator does not show.

• Specific hyper-local county and municipal millage district variations within Louisiana.
• Levee and drainage district taxes. Parishes in the greater New Orleans area and along the Mississippi River layer separate levee board and drainage district millages onto the base parish and school rate to fund flood protection infrastructure, on top of any subdivision-specific improvement district assessment.
• Commercial vs residential assessment classification differentials.
• Property tax appeal reductions or localized board of equalization adjustments.

• Confusing Market Fair Value with Assessed Basis: Some jurisdictions assess property at fractional ratios rather than 100% of market value.
• Failing to File Homestead Paperwork: Homestead exemptions are rarely automatic; homeowners must file timely paperwork with the county appraisal district.
• Underestimating Post-Sale Supplemental Assessments: Purchasing a newly constructed or reassessed property often triggers catch-up supplemental tax bills.
• Ignoring Property Tax Appeal Windows: Missing the annual 30-to-60 day statutory protest window forfeits the right to challenge over-assessed property values for that tax year.

• U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey (ACS) Real Estate Assessment Benchmark Data. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs

Also consulted: Louisiana Tax Commission: Property Tax Assessment Guidance.