Travis Bunn
Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 1, 2026
How Much Can Property Taxes Increase in Oregon? 2026 Complete Guide
Updated July 2026
Quick Answer
Oregon caps the growth of your taxable value, not your market value. Under Measure 50, every property carries a Maximum Assessed Value (MAV) that can rise at most 3% per year, and you are taxed on the lesser of that MAV or your Real Market Value (RMV). Measure 5 separately caps tax rates at $15 per $1,000 of RMV, made up of $10 for general government plus $5 for education. The cap does not reset when a home sells. Your actual bill can still climb faster than 3% in specific situations, and the cap never checks whether the value underneath it is accurate in the first place.
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.
How Much Can Property Taxes Go Up in a Year?
For most Oregon homeowners in a typical year, the answer is about 3%. Measure 50, passed by voters in 1997, gave every property a Maximum Assessed Value and limited its growth to 3% per year. The original baseline rolled 1997-98 taxable values back to 90% of each property's 1995-96 value, and MAV has compounded from there ever since. Because most Oregon homes have a market value well above their MAV, that 3% MAV increase is what actually drives the bill each fall.
To put arithmetic on it: a home with an assessed value of $300,000 this year can be assessed at no more than $309,000 next year under the ordinary operation of the cap. If your district rates hold steady, that is roughly a 3% bill increase, which is the experience most Oregon homeowners have year after year.
The word "typical" is doing real work in that answer, though. There are specific, legal situations where an Oregon bill rises faster than 3%, and they are covered below. There is also one thing the cap never does: verify that your Real Market Value, the number the county assigns your home every year, is correct. That part is entirely on you to check.
How Are Property Taxes Calculated in Oregon?
Oregon's system runs on three numbers, and confusing them is the source of most homeowner frustration. Real Market Value (RMV) is the county assessor's estimate of what your home would sell for, updated every year. Maximum Assessed Value (MAV) is the capped figure created by Measure 50, recalculated each year at 103% of the greater of the prior year's assessed value or prior MAV. Assessed Value (AV), the number your taxes are actually computed on, is simply the lesser of RMV and MAV.
The rate side works differently than in most states. Measure 50 converted Oregon from a levy-based system, in which districts set budgets and back-calculated rates, to a rate-based system: every taxing district has a permanent rate that has been fixed since 1997. Your bill is your AV multiplied by the sum of the permanent rates of the districts your home sits in, plus any voter-approved local option levies and bond levies, which sit outside those permanent rates. Counties value all property annually, so there is no multi-year reassessment cycle to wait out. The numbers move every year, on the same schedule, statewide.
Oregon Measure 50: The 3% Assessed Value Cap
Measure 50 is the reason Oregon avoided the assessment shocks that hit homeowners in uncapped states during the last decade's price run-up. When market values jumped sharply in a year, Oregon MAVs kept marching up at 3%, and the taxable gap between RMV and MAV simply widened. That gap is genuine protection. It also comes with a catch explained further down: the gap can close as well as widen, and when it closes, a bill can climb faster than 3% while the cap is working exactly as designed.
The cap applies to all real property, not only primary residences, and it follows the property rather than the owner. Only a short list of events allows MAV to grow more than 3% in a year: new construction, major remodeling or additions, subdividing the land, or rezoning. Notably absent from that list is a sale. Unlike California's Proposition 13, Oregon's cap does not reset to market value when a home changes hands.
What Is Oregon's Property Tax Rate in 2026?
There is no single Oregon property tax rate, because your rate is the stack of permanent district rates, local option levies, and bonds specific to your tax code area. What every property shares is the ceiling set by Measure 5, passed in 1990: taxes for general government cannot exceed $10 per $1,000 of Real Market Value, and taxes for education cannot exceed $5 per $1,000 of RMV, for a combined limit of $15 per $1,000, or 1.5% of RMV. On a home with an RMV of $300,000, that ceiling works out to $4,500 in combined general government and education tax. When the rates in your area would push a bill past those limits, a mechanism called compression reduces the bill back down to the cap.
In practice, effective rates vary meaningfully by county and by tax code area within a county. Portland-area homeowners in Multnomah County tend to sit toward the higher end of the state because of the number of overlapping districts, local option levies, and bonds on the rolls there, which is also why compression shows up more often around Portland than in rural counties. The exact rate for your property is printed on your tax statement, and your county assessor publishes rates for each tax code area. Check those rather than leaning on a statewide average, which can be well off for any individual home.
Caps and rate limits only control how fast your bill can grow. Nothing in them checks whether the number underneath is right. Assessors in Oregon set values with mass-appraisal models that price thousands of homes at once, and nobody reviews yours unless you challenge it.
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Do Property Taxes Go Up When a House Is Sold in Oregon?
No, not because of the sale itself. This is one of the most misunderstood points in Oregon property tax, partly because so much national advice is written with California in mind. In California, a sale resets taxable value to the purchase price. In Oregon, Measure 50's MAV belongs to the property and carries over to the new owner unchanged. If you buy a home whose MAV is $280,000 while its RMV is $450,000, you are taxed on $280,000, exactly as the seller was, and the 3% cap keeps running from there.
What can change your taxes around the time of a purchase is what often comes with one: a remodel, an addition, or new construction on the lot. Those are exception events that add value to MAV beyond the 3% cap. The transaction itself does not trigger a reset, and any guide telling you Oregon caps reset on sale is simply wrong.
Why Did My Property Taxes Go Up More Than 3%?
Several legitimate mechanisms can push an Oregon bill past 3% in a single year. The most common is voter action: a new local option levy or bond in your district adds tax outside the permanent rates, and the 3% cap on MAV does nothing to stop it. The second is an exception event on your own property, meaning new construction, a major remodel, a subdivision, or rezoning, each of which adds assessed value beyond the cap.
The third is subtler. If your RMV had fallen below your MAV, say during a market dip, you were being taxed on the lower RMV. As the market recovers, your assessed value can climb back toward the MAV ceiling faster than 3% per year, because the 3% limit constrains MAV, not the year-over-year change in your bill. A related effect happens with compression: if Measure 5 had been holding your bill down and rising RMV loosens that compression, previously suppressed tax comes back. In both cases the system is working as written, which is cold comfort when the statement lands. If none of these explain your increase, the remaining suspect is the RMV itself, and that number you can challenge.
Did Property Taxes Go Up in 2026?
For most Oregon homeowners, yes, by roughly the familiar 3%, because counties value property every year and MAV ratchets up annually by design. Oregon does not have surprise revaluation years the way multi-year-cycle states do. The increase arrives steadily, every fall, when tax statements go out in late October.
On the legislative front, the 2025 session produced targeted relief rather than structural change. HB 3139, which passed the Legislature unanimously, limits assessed value spikes for wildfire survivors who rebuild destroyed homes, with relief applied for through the county assessor. Reporting at the time had it awaiting the governor's signature, so confirm its current status with the state or your assessor before relying on it. A companion bill, SB 1520, created a tax exemption for wildfire lawsuit settlement awards, though that is income tax relief rather than a property tax change. Neither alters the Measure 50 or Measure 5 framework that governs everyone else's bill.
Is There a Homestead Exemption in Oregon?
No general one. Unlike Texas or Florida, Oregon does not knock a flat amount off every owner-occupied home's taxable value. Relief is limited to specific programs: a property tax deferral program for qualifying senior and disabled citizens, which postpones rather than erases the tax, and an exemption for qualifying disabled veterans or their surviving spouses. If you fit one of those categories, apply through your county assessor and confirm the current qualification rules there, since program terms are administered county by county. Everyone else's protection is structural, the MAV cap and the Measure 5 rate limits, which is precisely why the accuracy of your underlying values matters more in Oregon than in states where a broad exemption cushions errors.
What you can do about it
How to Appeal Your Assessment in Oregon
If your Real Market Value looks high, or your bill jumped and none of the mechanics above explain it, Oregon gives you a clean annual path to challenge it. Homeowners petition the county Property Value Appeals Board, or PVAB, formerly the Board of Property Tax Appeals or BOPTA, by filing with the county clerk in the county where the property sits. The window opens when tax statements are mailed in late October and closes December 31, extended to the next business day if December 31 falls on a weekend or holiday. A mailed petition counts as filed when postmarked.
Because the county values your home every single year, you get this opportunity every single year. The board is weighing evidence of what your home was actually worth on the assessment date, so comparable sales are the currency that moves the number. Even in a year when your AV equals your MAV and a small RMV correction would not change the current bill, knocking down an inflated RMV can matter later, because RMV drives compression under Measure 5 and sets the ceiling a recovering assessed value climbs toward.
A real AppealDesk order, Contra Costa County, California
In May 2026, a homeowner in Contra Costa County, California ran the check. The county had their home on record at $1,485,691, while recorded sales of comparable homes supported about $976,571: an over-assessment of $509,120, worth roughly $6,660 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.
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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 Oregon property taxes increase this year?
Your Maximum Assessed Value can grow at most 3%, and in a typical year that translates to roughly a 3% bill increase. Your total bill can rise more if voters approved new local option levies or bonds in your districts, if you added new construction or completed a major remodel, or if your assessed value is climbing back toward its MAV ceiling after a stretch when market value sat below it.
Does the 3% cap reset when I buy a home in Oregon?
No. Measure 50's MAV stays with the property and transfers to the new owner intact. A sale does not reset taxable value to the purchase price in Oregon. Only new construction, major remodeling, subdivision, or rezoning can push MAV up more than 3% in a year.
How often is my property valued in Oregon?
Every year. County assessors update Real Market Value annually, and MAV is recalculated each year at 103% of the greater of the prior year's assessed value or prior MAV. Your taxable assessed value is always the lesser of RMV and MAV.
What is compression on my Oregon tax statement?
Compression is the enforcement mechanism for Measure 5's rate caps. If the combined taxes in your area would exceed $10 per $1,000 of Real Market Value for general government or $5 per $1,000 for education, the bill is compressed down to those limits. When rising market values loosen compression, previously suppressed tax can return, which is one reason a bill sometimes jumps more than 3%.
When is the deadline to appeal my Oregon property assessment?
December 31, with the window opening when tax statements are mailed in late October. You file a petition with your county clerk for the Property Value Appeals Board, formerly BOPTA, and a mailed petition is considered filed on its postmark date. If December 31 falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
Related Resources
If you think your Real Market Value is too high, start with our step-by-step guide to how to appeal property taxes in Oregon. Not sure the effort pays off? See is it worth appealing property taxes for how the math usually shakes out, and what evidence you need for an appeal for what actually persuades a review board.
This article provides general information about Oregon property tax laws as of July 2026. Tax laws change frequently, and local rules vary. Consult your county assessor or a tax professional for advice specific to your situation.