Travis Bunn
Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 1, 2026
How Much Can Property Taxes Increase in Maryland? 2026 Complete Guide
Updated July 2026
Quick Answer
Maryland caps how fast your taxable assessment can grow, not your tax bill. The Homestead Tax Credit limits annual growth in taxable assessment to 10% for the state portion of your tax, and every county and municipality must set its own cap at or below 10%. Many are far lower: Anne Arundel County caps growth at 2%, the lowest in the state. The credit applies only to your principal residence and requires a one-time application to the state. Separately, all Maryland properties are reassessed every 3 years, with any increase phased in equally over the 3 years. There is no statewide cap on tax rates or levies.
Most homeowners never challenge their assessment, usually because nobody tells them they can or shows them how. That gap is the whole reason AppealDesk exists: see what your county has your home on record at, free, and if the number looks wrong we build the case for $49.
Is There a Limit on How Much Maryland Can Increase My Property Tax on Your Home Each Year?
Yes, but the limit works differently than most homeowners expect. Maryland does not cap your tax bill directly. Instead, the Homestead Tax Credit caps how much of your assessment growth can be taxed in any one year. If your home's assessed value jumps 20% at reassessment, the credit shields the growth above your jurisdiction's cap from taxation, and you receive that protection as a credit on your bill.
Two important caveats sit inside that answer. First, the cap protects only your principal residence, and only if you have filed the one-time homestead application with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT). Homeowners who never filed get no cap at all. Second, the cap limits taxable assessment growth, not tax rates. If your county raises its rate, your bill can climb even in a year when your capped assessment barely moves.
The 10% figure you see quoted is the ceiling, not the rule everywhere. It is the cap on the state portion of your tax and the maximum any county or municipality may use. Many jurisdictions have chosen something lower, which is why the county figures below matter more to your bill than the statewide number does.
How the Homestead Tax Credit Cap Works
The mechanics are straightforward once you separate the two numbers on your assessment notice. SDAT assigns your home a full market value at each reassessment. The homestead cap does not touch that number. What it limits is the taxable assessment, the base your rate is actually applied to. Each year, your taxable base can rise by no more than your jurisdiction's cap percentage over the prior year's base. Any assessment growth above the cap generates a credit that appears directly on your tax bill.
Run the arithmetic on a $400,000 home in a jurisdiction with a 10% cap. If the assessed value rises to $460,000, a 15% jump, the taxable base can only grow to $440,000 that year. The remaining $20,000 of growth is shielded by the credit. In a 2% jurisdiction like Anne Arundel County, the taxable base could only grow to $408,000, and $52,000 of the increase would be shielded. Same home, same market, very different tax outcome depending on where it sits.
Eligibility requires a one-time application to SDAT, and the property must be your principal residence. Once approved, the credit stays in effect for as long as you live there. If you are not sure whether you ever filed, contact SDAT at sdat.homestead@maryland.gov or 410-767-2165. When a home sells, the new owner starts over: the taxable base resets to the full assessment and the buyer must file their own application.
Homestead Cap by County: Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Prince George's, Montgomery
Every Maryland county and municipality sets its own homestead cap at or below the 10% state ceiling. For readers in the lower-cap jurisdictions, the generic "10%" answer is materially wrong. Here are the caps confirmed for the state's most-searched jurisdictions:
| Jurisdiction | Homestead Cap (annual taxable assessment growth) |
|---|---|
| Anne Arundel County | 2% (lowest in the state) |
| Prince George's County | 3% |
| Baltimore City | 4% |
| Montgomery County | 10% |
| State portion (all counties) | 10% |
SDAT publishes the full list of county and municipal caps, and your county finance office can confirm the current figure for your address. If you are searching for your county's tax rate rather than its cap, note that rates are a separate lever entirely. Montgomery County, for example, sets its own rate each year through its budget process, and the rate that lands on your bill combines the state rate, the county rate, and any municipal or special district rate. Check your county's current published rate before doing bill math, because rates are reset annually.
How Often Is My Property Reassessed in Maryland?
Every 3 years. SDAT divides the state into three groups and reassesses one group each year, so every property gets a fresh valuation on a 3-year cycle. When a reassessment raises your value, the increase is phased in equally over the 3 years of the cycle. A $60,000 increase arrives as three $20,000 steps, not one cliff.
This phase-in is a separate mechanism from the homestead cap, and conflating the two is the most common mistake in coverage of Maryland property taxes. The phase-in applies to all properties, rentals and second homes included, and it spreads the timing of an increase. The homestead cap applies only to owner-occupied principal residences with an application on file, and it limits the annual growth rate of the taxable base. In a rising market the two work together for homeowners: the phase-in slices the increase into thirds, and the cap limits how much of each slice can reach your taxable assessment in any single year.
The January 1, 2026 reassessment group continued the pattern of recent cycles, with SDAT reporting statewide growth in property values. If your notice arrived with a large increase, you are far from alone, which is exactly why the cap, the phase-in, and the appeal window below all matter.
Caps and rate limits only control how fast your bill can grow. Nothing in them checks whether the number underneath is right. Assessors in Maryland set values with mass-appraisal models that price thousands of homes at once, and nobody reviews yours unless you challenge it.
See what Maryland has your home on record at
The number your tax bill is figured from, pulled free in seconds. No account needed.
Does Maryland Limit Tax Rates or Levies?
Not statewide. Maryland has no statewide levy limit of the kind some other states use. The statewide mechanism on rates is the Constant Yield Tax Rate law, which is a transparency requirement rather than a hard cap. Each year the state calculates, for every taxing authority, the rate that would produce the same revenue as last year given the new assessment base. If a county or municipality wants to adopt a rate above that revenue-neutral rate, it must advertise the fact and hold a public hearing first. It can still do it. It just has to do it in the open.
A handful of charter counties have adopted their own local revenue or rate limits on top of that, but those are county-by-county choices rather than state law, so check your county charter if you want the specifics where you live. The practical takeaway is the same either way: your assessment cap does not protect you from rate increases. A county can hold your taxable assessment growth to its cap and still raise your bill by adopting a higher rate through the constant yield process. Watching your county's budget hearings is the only defense on that side of the equation.
Maryland Average Property Tax Rate in 2026
Your effective rate in Maryland is the sum of three pieces: the state real property rate, your county rate, and any municipal or special district rate. The state piece is small and set annually. The county piece does most of the work and varies widely, which is why average figures for "Maryland" can mislead. A Baltimore City homeowner and a rural Eastern Shore homeowner can face very different combined rates on identical values.
Rather than lean on a statewide average that may not resemble your county, pull the actual current rates. SDAT publishes the state rate and a county-by-county rate table each year, and your county finance office lists the municipal add-ons. Multiply your taxable assessment, meaning the figure after the homestead credit rather than the full market value, by the combined rate per $100 of assessment to estimate your bill. On a $400,000 taxable assessment, every $0.10 per $100 of combined rate works out to $400 per year, which is a useful rule of thumb when comparing jurisdictions or sanity-checking a bill.
Recent Changes to Maryland Property Tax Law
The core structure has been stable. No change was made from 2024 through 2026 to the 10% homestead ceiling or to the 3-year reassessment cycle. Two 2026 developments are still worth knowing. A package of property tax laws takes effect June 1, 2026, including a change that makes the income-based Homeowners' Property Tax Credit application available year-round starting with taxable year 2027, replacing the old limited filing window. That credit is separate from the homestead credit and is based on household income, so lower-income homeowners should check eligibility for both.
Separately, a 2026 bill, HB 1427, would prohibit the homestead credit for homeowners with federal adjusted gross income over $300,000, effective June 1, 2027, according to its General Assembly fiscal note. Confirm its final enactment status at mgaleg.maryland.gov before relying on it, but higher-income homeowners should be aware that the cap's availability may change.
What you can do about it
How to Appeal Your Maryland Assessment (45-Day Deadline, PTAAB, Tax Court)
The homestead cap limits how fast your taxable base grows, but it never checks whether the underlying value is right. That check is on you, and Maryland gives you a clear three-level path with hard deadlines.
The first level is the Supervisor's Level appeal with your local SDAT office. You have 45 days from the date on your assessment notice to file. Notices are mailed in late December, which puts the typical deadline in mid-February. In the 2025 cycle, for example, the deadline fell on February 13. Miss the window and you generally wait for the next notice, so the late-December mail pile deserves a careful look.
If the Supervisor's Level result does not satisfy you, you have 30 days from the final notice to appeal to your county's Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board, or PTAAB, a 3-member local board that hears the case fresh. If you disagree with PTAAB, you have 30 days from its decision to take the case to the Maryland Tax Court. Most homeowner appeals resolve at the first two levels, and the evidence that wins them is the same at every step: recent sales of comparable homes showing your assessment sits above market.
A real AppealDesk order, Montgomery County
In April 2026, a homeowner in Montgomery County ran the check. The county had their home on record at $644,300, while recorded sales of comparable homes supported about $567,131: an over-assessment of $77,169, worth roughly $904 per year if corrected. Their packet laid out the comparable sales, the forms, and the filing steps. Nobody at the county was ever going to run that check for them.
Growth limits only help if the number they grow from is fair. If your assessment jumped after a purchase, new construction, or a revaluation, that new number is the one nobody has reviewed. Checking it is free and takes about a minute.
Check the number your bill is figured from
Enter your address to pull your county record free. If it looks too high, your $49 packet gives you everything to challenge it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can my Maryland property taxes increase this year?
If the property is your principal residence and your homestead application is on file, your taxable assessment can grow by no more than your jurisdiction's cap: 10% for the state portion, and your county's own cap, anywhere from 2% to 10%, for the county portion. Your total bill can still rise faster than that if your county adopts a higher tax rate, adds special assessments, or if you lose an exemption.
Do property taxes go up every year in Maryland?
They can. Values are only reassessed every 3 years, but an increase from that reassessment is phased in across all 3 years, so a capped homeowner can see the taxable base rise in each of them. Rates are set annually and are not capped statewide, so a bill can also move in a year when your assessment does not.
Does the homestead cap reset when I buy a home?
Yes. In Maryland the taxable base resets to the full assessment when a home changes hands, and the new owner must file their own one-time homestead application with SDAT. You do not inherit the previous owner's credit, so filing promptly after you move in is one of the highest-value paperwork tasks a new Maryland homeowner has.
What if I never filed a homestead application?
Then no cap is protecting you, and your full assessment growth is taxable each year. The application is one-time. Contact SDAT at sdat.homestead@maryland.gov or 410-767-2165 to check your status or file, and the credit will apply going forward for as long as you live in the home.
Can I appeal my assessment even if I have the homestead credit?
Yes, and it is often worth doing both. The credit slows growth from whatever value SDAT assigned. An appeal challenges the value itself. Winning an appeal lowers the base that all future capped growth is measured from, so the two protections compound. The deadline is 45 days from your assessment notice date.
Related Resources
If your assessment looks high, start with our step-by-step guide to how to appeal property taxes in Maryland. If you are weighing whether the effort makes sense, read is it worth appealing property taxes, and when you are ready to build your case, see what evidence you need for an appeal.
This article provides general information about Maryland property tax laws as of July 2026. Tax laws change frequently, and county caps and rates vary. Consult SDAT, your county finance office, or a tax professional for advice specific to your situation.