What is the property tax rate in Ohio?
Ohio property tax averages 1.36% of market value for owner-occupied homes (Tax Foundation 2026, using the 2024 American Community Survey). That places Ohio among the higher-tax states, above Michigan at 1.19% and well above Indiana at 0.76%.
Ohio bills are built from mills, not percentages. One mill is $1 of tax for each $1,000 of taxable value, and taxable value in Ohio is 35% of the county auditor’s estimate of market value, which Ohio calls true value. A building in a district with an effective rate of 80 mills on taxable value pays 2.8% of true value, before any credits.
How Ohio sets the value of an apartment building
Your county auditor estimates true value and multiplies it by 35% to get taxable value. Each county does a full reappraisal every six years and an update in the third year after each reappraisal, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation, so values move in steps rather than every year.
Every parcel is classed by its principal current use under ORC 5713.041, either residential/agricultural (Class I) or everything else (Class II). The class matters because voted levies are adjusted separately for each class, so the two classes carry different effective rates in the same tax district. Check how the auditor has classed your building on its parcel record, since that decides which rate applies.
Gross rates, effective rates and reduction factors
The gross rate on your bill is the total of all levies, but you pay the lower effective rate. Tax reduction factors, created by House Bill 920 in 1976 and found in ORC 319.301, cut voted levies on existing property so they raise no more money when values rise in a reappraisal. They do not apply to inside millage, the unvoted mills within Ohio’s 10-mill limit.
In Cincinnati, for example, the 2025 gross rate is 106.52 mills, while the effective rate on commercial and industrial property is 82.84 mills. Homeowners get two more credits that apartment buildings do not. The 10% rollback excludes property used mainly in a business, and the 2.5% rollback is limited to owner-occupied homesteads.
Does a sale trigger reassessment in Ohio?
Not automatically, but a sale price can become your new value. ORC 5713.03 lets the auditor treat the price of a recent arm’s-length sale as true value, and many auditors pick up sale prices at the next reappraisal or update.
A sale can also prompt a complaint. School boards and other local bodies used to file complaints to raise values after almost any large sale. ORC 5715.19 now limits them, under rules House Bill 126 added in 2022 that remain in the current version, which took effect March 20, 2026 after an amendment by House Bill 186. A school board, city or township can file an original complaint on property it doesn’t own only if the sale happened within two years before the tax lien date, the price beats the tax-list value by both 10% and a dollar threshold, and the body first passes a resolution at a public meeting after notice to the owner. The threshold was $500,000 for tax year 2022 and is adjusted each year for inflation.
A school board can still file a counter-complaint when the owner files first, if the owner’s complaint seeks a change of at least $17,500 in taxable value. That is worth weighing before you appeal a value that is already below your purchase price.
Ohio property tax rates for commercial property in major cities
Commercial-class effective rates in Ohio’s larger cities run from about 65 to 85 mills on taxable value. The Department of Taxation’s statewide county tables were not available in a readable form for this page, so the table uses each county auditor’s own 2025 rate sheet for the main city district, plus the highest and lowest commercial rates in that county.
To turn a rate into a share of market value, multiply by 0.35 and divide by 1,000. Toledo’s 84.87 mills works out to about 2.97% of true value. The spread inside a single county is wide, so use your own tax district, not the county figure.
| County and district | Class II effective rate, 2025 (mills) | Share of true value |
|---|---|---|
| Lucas: Ottawa Hills (county high) | 139.96 | 4.90% |
| Hamilton: Lincoln Heights (county high) | 122.04 | 4.27% |
| Lucas: Toledo, Toledo City Schools | 84.87 | 2.97% |
| Mahoning: Boardman Twp, Poland Village (county high) | 84.47 | 2.96% |
| Hamilton: Cincinnati, Cincinnati City Schools | 82.84 | 2.90% |
| Mahoning: Youngstown, Youngstown City Schools | 65.25 | 2.28% |
| Lucas: Harding Twp, Evergreen LSD (county low) | 55.25 | 1.93% |
| Hamilton: Indian Hill (county low) | 47.56 | 1.66% |
| Mahoning: Fairfield Twp, Columbiana (county low) | 45.81 | 1.60% |
Ohio property tax changes in 2025 and 2026
Ohio passed a package of property tax bills in late 2025 aimed at slowing increases. According to the Ohio House’s November 19, 2025 summary, House Bill 335 caps growth in inside millage collections at inflation, and House Bill 186 creates an inflation cap credit on school district taxes, phases out the nonbusiness credit except for farmland and expands the owner-occupancy credit. House Bills 129 and 309 change how levies count toward the 20-mill floor and give county budget commissions more room to trim rates.
How much each change helps an apartment building depends on how the credits are applied to Class II property and to your school district, which the summaries don’t settle. Ask your auditor how the new credits show up on your next bill before you build them into a sale price.
How to appeal property taxes in Ohio
File a complaint with your county board of revision by March 31 of the year after the tax year you are contesting, or by the close of the first-half collection period if that is later. A mailed complaint counts as filed on its U.S. Postal Service postmark, under ORC 5715.19(A)(1).
Ohio generally allows one complaint per parcel in each interim period between valuation updates. You can file again in the same period only if something changed after the prior lien date that wasn’t considered: an arm’s-length sale, a casualty loss, a substantial improvement, or an occupancy change of at least 15% with a real economic effect.
- March 31 (or end of first-half collection if later): complaint deadline for the prior tax year.
- Bring a rent roll, operating statements and any recent appraisal to support the value you are asking for.
Worked example: property tax on a $2M Ohio apartment building
Take a 24-unit building in Cincinnati that the auditor currently values at $1,300,000. Taxable value is 35%, or $455,000. At the 2025 Class II effective rate of 82.840948 mills, the yearly tax is about $37,693.
Now a buyer pays $2,000,000. If the auditor’s true value moves to the sale price, through the next reappraisal or update or through a qualifying complaint, taxable value becomes $700,000 and the tax rises to about $57,989, an increase of $20,296 a year. At an illustrative 7% cap rate, that much lost NOI is worth about $289,943 of value to the buyer.
The same $2,000,000 value in Toledo at 84.870896 mills would carry about $59,410 a year, and in Youngstown at 65.248394 mills about $45,674. The Tax Foundation’s 1.36% homeowner average would suggest only $27,200, which is why an apartment buyer underwrites from the actual Class II rate.
| Scenario | Taxable value | Yearly tax |
|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati, current $1.3M auditor value | $455,000 | $37,693 |
| Cincinnati, value reset to $2M sale price | $700,000 | $57,989 |
| Toledo at $2M | $700,000 | $59,410 |
| Youngstown at $2M | $700,000 | $45,674 |
| 1.36% statewide homeowner average at $2M | n/a | $27,200 |
Ohio property tax compared with neighboring states
Ohio’s 1.36% effective rate is the eighth highest of the 47 states this site covers, using the Tax Foundation’s 2026 figures. Among its neighbors, only Pennsylvania comes close, and Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia are roughly half Ohio’s rate or less.
Those are homeowner averages, so they understate what an apartment building pays in every one of these states. They are still a fair guide to how property tax weighs on value from one state to the next, and an Ohio owner who exchanges into Indiana or Kentucky can see the tax line on the replacement fall as a share of price. Check the actual rate for the replacement parcel, since each of these states also sets commercial values its own way.
| State | Effective rate (Tax Foundation 2026) |
|---|---|
| Ohio | 1.36% |
| Pennsylvania | 1.26% |
| Michigan | 1.19% |
| Indiana | 0.76% |
| Kentucky | 0.74% |
| West Virginia | 0.51% |
How property tax affects your sale price
A buyer prices an Ohio apartment building on NOI after a realistic tax bill, and that usually means the tax that follows the sale price. If your current value is well below what a buyer will pay, expect the buyer to model the higher bill and pay accordingly.
You can narrow the gap with good records. Give buyers the last three tax bills, the auditor’s current value, any pending board of revision case and the timing of the next reappraisal or update in your county. A building that was just revalued close to market carries less tax risk for a buyer than one that is due for a large step up.
Selling an apartment building in Ohio
Skyline buys apartment buildings with five or more units in Ohio, in high-rate districts as well as low ones. We buy directly, close on your timeline, and can work inside 1031 deadlines. We underwrite from your actual tax bill and the value a sale is likely to bring, so there are no surprises late in the deal.
For the tax on the sale itself, see our page on Ohio capital gains tax on real estate, and for tenant rules, Ohio landlord-tenant law for apartment owners.
