A buyer comparing a $770,000 home in Farragut against a similarly priced home inside Knoxville's city limits is looking at two different tax bills, and the gap has nothing to do with square footage or finish level. It comes down to which side of an invisible municipal line the address sits on, and this year's countywide reappraisal has made that line unusually easy to see.
Knox County just finished its 2026 reappraisal, and the numbers that came back were large enough to change how any neighborhood comparison should be read right now. Property values across the county rose by roughly 60 percent since the last reappraisal in 2022, according to Jim Weaver, chief deputy for the Knox County Property Assessor's Office. That increase happened over four years, not overnight, but it landed on every mailbox at once this spring, which means every buyer cross-shopping neighborhoods this fall is working from freshly reset numbers rather than the slow drift they might expect.
A Reappraisal That Moved the Ground Under Every Listing
The Tennessee Comptroller explains that state law requires a new certified tax rate after a countywide reappraisal, calculated so that total collections stay roughly flat rather than rising just because assessed values did. In mid-September, Knoxville City Council voted to set the city's certified rate at $1.3956 per $100 of assessed value, down from the previous $2.1556. That drop looks dramatic on its own, but it is a mathematical response to the 60 percent value jump, not a tax cut. Whether an individual homeowner's bill goes up, down, or stays flat depends on whether their specific property's value moved more or less than that countywide average.
Knox County's own certified rate, which applies whether or not a home also sits inside a city, had not been finalized as of the most recent reporting available this summer. The county's pre-reappraisal rate was $1.5540 per $100, and preliminary estimates tied to the reappraisal put the new county rate somewhere near $1.00 to $1.10 per $100, though that figure still had to go through County Commission before it became official.
Three Tax Lines, One Housing Market
What makes this year's numbers worth pausing on for a neighborhood comparison is that Knox County isn't one tax jurisdiction. It's three, layered depending on the address:
- Unincorporated Knox County (areas like Hardin Valley or Karns): pays the county rate only, no municipal add-on.
- Inside Knoxville city limits (Sequoyah Hills, Bearden, Fourth & Gill, Old North Knoxville among them): pays the county rate plus the city's own rate, stacked together.
- Town of Farragut: pays the county rate only, because Farragut does not levy a municipal property tax at all. That's a structural feature of how the town is set up, not a temporary discount.
Before this year's reappraisal, a City of Knoxville address paying both layers faced a combined rate of $3.7096 per $100 of assessed value, county and city added together. A Farragut or unincorporated county address paid the $1.5540 county rate and nothing more. That gap existed before 2026. What the reappraisal does is reset every dollar figure in the comparison at once, so a buyer looking at two listings side by side this fall is seeing the size of that gap in fresh numbers rather than numbers that had been quietly aging since the last reset.
What the Median Price Doesn't Show
Named Knoxville neighborhoods carry very different price points in 2026, and pairing those prices with tax jurisdiction tells a fuller story than the price alone.
| Neighborhood | Character | Reported Median (2026) | Tax Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sequoyah Hills | Historic, river-fronting Fort Loudoun Lake | $1,025,000 | City of Knoxville (county + city stacked) |
| Farragut | Suburban, newer construction | Approximately $777,000 | Town of Farragut (county rate only) |
| Bearden | Established, in-town | $558,000 | City of Knoxville (county + city stacked) |
| Fourth & Gill | Historic district | $530,000 | City of Knoxville (county + city stacked) |
| Old North Knoxville | Historic, in-town | $385,000 | City of Knoxville (county + city stacked) |
Sequoyah Hills is Knoxville's rare in-town waterfront address, its streets running down to Fort Loudoun Lake rather than a subdivision entrance, and its median price reflects that. But it's also inside city limits, which means its owners carry both tax layers. Farragut's median sits well below Sequoyah Hills on paper, and its owners pay county tax only. Run the stacked city rate against a Farragut-priced home and the annual gap between the two jurisdictions runs into real money, money that a median-price comparison alone never surfaces.
Fourth & Gill and Old North Knoxville tell a related story at a lower price point. Both are historic, walkable, inside city limits, and both carry the full stacked rate despite median prices well under $600,000. A buyer comparing one of these neighborhoods against a similarly priced home in unincorporated Knox County is making the same kind of jurisdictional trade, just further down the price scale.
The Timeline Every Comparison Shopper Should Track
The reappraisal isn't a single event. It's a sequence, and knowing where things stand in that sequence changes how much weight to put on any number currently printed on a listing sheet.
- April to May 2026: Reappraisal notices mailed to every property owner in Knox County, reflecting value changes from 2022 through the assessor's valuation date.
- June 2026: Informal appeal window opened with the Knox County Board of Equalization for owners who believed their new value didn't match market reality.
- Mid-September 2026: Knoxville City Council certified its new rate at $1.3956 per $100, down from $2.1556.
- Pending: The county's own certified rate, still headed to County Commission as of the most recent reporting, with preliminary estimates near $1.00 to $1.10 per $100.
- Going forward: Knox County has shifted from a four-year to a two-year reappraisal cycle, with the next reappraisal set for 2028 rather than a longer gap.
Anyone comparing neighborhoods before the county's rate is locked is working with half the equation. The city side is settled. The county side, which applies to every address in the comparison regardless of which of the three jurisdictions it falls into, is still an estimate.
What This Means If You're Comparing Neighborhoods Right Now
The practical move is to stop treating the tax line on a listing sheet as a fixed number and start treating it as a placeholder tied to a specific moment in an unfinished process. A property tax figure printed in August reflects a rate that has since changed on the city side and hasn't yet been confirmed on the county side.
It also means asking a more specific question than "what's the median here versus there." The better question is which of the three jurisdictions an address actually sits in, since neighborhoods with similar names or adjacent ZIP codes can straddle city limits, unincorporated county land, and Farragut's boundary without much visible difference from the curb. Two houses a few streets apart can carry different tax structures even when they look and price the same.
Quick Answers for Comparison Shoppers
Does this same tax gap apply if I'm looking in Hardin Valley or Karns instead of Farragut? Yes. Both are unincorporated Knox County, so the math is identical to Farragut's, county rate only, no municipal layer stacked on top. Neither carries Farragut's specific no-tax policy by name, but the structural result for a buyer is the same.
My property value went up. Does that mean my tax bill is definitely rising too? Not automatically. Because the certified rate is designed to keep total collections roughly flat, a property that gained less than the countywide 60 percent average could see its bill hold steady or even drop, while one that gained more than average would see an increase.
Is there any relief available for buyers who are 65 or older? According to AppealDesk, Tennessee funds a property tax relief program for qualifying elderly and disabled homeowners, covering taxes on the first $32,700 of market value for those who meet income limits, set at $37,530 for the 2026 program year. It's worth asking about early if retirement timing is part of the decision.
Comparing Knoxville neighborhoods this fall means looking past the number on the sign and asking which tax jurisdiction that number actually sits inside. If you're weighing a move between Farragut, the city's historic districts, or unincorporated Knox County and want help running the real comparison, Natalie Gascay is happy to walk through it with you.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
