Property Taxes in Georgetown, SC: The Ratio, the Millage, and the 2025 Reassessment

Start With the Ratio, Not the Rate: South Carolina's 4% vs. 6% System

Before any millage rate is even applied, South Carolina reduces a property's market value to an assessed value using a ratio tied to how the property is used. An owner-occupied primary residence is assessed at 4% of value; a second home, investment property, or commercial parcel is assessed at 6%. That's not a minor technicality -- it roughly halves the effective tax rate for an owner who legally resides in the home compared to an owner who doesn't, on the identical property. Crucially, a new buyer in Georgetown County is automatically placed at the higher 6% ratio at closing and stays there until they file proof of legal residency (typically a South Carolina driver's license and voter registration at that address, among other documentation) with the Georgetown County Assessor's Office. Anyone planning to make a Georgetown purchase their primary residence should file that paperwork promptly rather than assuming the lower rate applies automatically -- and anyone buying a second home or investment property here should budget for the 6% ratio as the real, ongoing number, not a temporary placeholder.

Two Governments, Two Millage Rates, Plus Schools

Once assessed value is set, the City of Georgetown and Georgetown County each apply their own millage rate to it, and the county school district applies a separate rate on top of both -- meaning a city-limits property's total bill is the sum of at least three independently set rates, not one. The City of Georgetown's Council approved, then partially rolled back, its FY2025-26 operating millage in October 2025: the proposed rate was 133.9 mills, and after a public hearing on the millage adjustment ordinance, the city rolled it back to 129.6 mills, following the state-mandated practice of adjusting millage after a reassessment so the increase in property values doesn't automatically translate into a windfall in tax revenue. City officials characterized the rollback as producing little to no net impact on individual taxpayers relative to the prior year, since it offsets the reassessment's value increase rather than adding new revenue on top of it.

Georgetown County Council, separately, cut its own countywide operating millage by roughly 8.2% in the same 2025 reassessment cycle -- again a rollback tied to rising assessed values rather than a spending cut -- while approving a slight increase specifically earmarked for law enforcement funding. Neither the city's 129.6 mills nor the county's rolled-back operating rate by itself represents a complete property tax bill; this page did not independently confirm a single current combined city-plus-county-plus-school mill figure applicable to a specific Georgetown parcel, and any aggregator site's cited 'average' rate for Georgetown County (some older sources cite figures like an average effective rate of roughly 0.46% of market value, with a stated median annual bill near $804 on a roughly $174,700 home) should be treated cautiously, since aggregator data of that kind is frequently stale relative to a fresh reassessment cycle.

The 2025 Reassessment: What Actually Changed

South Carolina law requires counties to reassess property values periodically, and Georgetown County's most recent reassessment cycle took effect in 2025, updating assessed values to reflect current market conditions across the county. That reassessment is the direct reason both the City of Georgetown and Georgetown County adjusted their millage rates downward in the same year -- state law generally requires a rollback in the operating millage tied to the reassessment's value increase, so that a jurisdiction doesn't collect a windfall simply because assessed values rose. This is the same mechanic (higher assessed values, lower nominal millage, roughly comparable total revenue) that shows up in property tax systems elsewhere on this site, but the specific numbers -- 133.9 rolled back to 129.6 for the city, roughly an 8.2% operating cut for the county -- are Georgetown-specific and shouldn't be assumed to match any other South Carolina county's 2025 reassessment outcome.

What This Page Does Not State

This page deliberately does not state a single all-in combined millage figure, a dollar-per-$100,000-of-value estimate, or a specific school-district mill rate for Georgetown, because none of those were confirmed at a level this page is comfortable presenting as current. It also does not state South Carolina's homestead exemption details (the state does offer a homestead exemption program for qualifying owners, generally tied to age or disability status, but this page did not independently verify current eligibility thresholds or dollar amounts for this build) or any circuit-breaker or elderly tax-relief program specifics. A prospective buyer should treat any property tax figure seen on a real estate listing site as a starting point for a conversation with the Assessor's Office, not as a confirmed number -- especially for a property sold within the last year or two, where the assessed value on file may still reflect a pre-reassessment or pre-sale figure.

What a Buyer Should Actually Do

Before closing on any Georgetown property, pull the parcel's current assessed value and most recent tax bill directly from the Georgetown County Assessor's Office (not from a listing site), confirm which assessment ratio -- 4% or 6% -- will apply based on intended use, and ask specifically whether any additional special district assessment (drainage, fire service, or similar) applies to that exact address. If the purchase will be a primary residence, file the legal-residence application with the Assessor promptly after closing rather than assuming the lower ratio applies automatically from day one -- a delay in filing can mean paying at the higher 6% ratio for longer than necessary.