The Real Cost of Living in Pascagoula, Mississippi

The Headline Price -- and Why Pascagoula Is Genuinely the Cheapest Named Market on This Coast

Multiple independent sources agree on the basic shape of Pascagoula's home-price picture, even where they disagree on the exact number. Zillow's own home-value index puts the average Pascagoula home value at $146,072 as of June 2026, down a modest 0.6% over the prior year. Redfin's more recent trailing window (November 2025) puts the median sale price at $140,000, up 13.8% year-over-year -- a sharper move, though on a small base where a handful of sales can swing the percentage. Movoto's July 2026 snapshot lists a median list price of $166,000. None of these numbers should be read as the single settled "Pascagoula price" -- they're different measurement methods (value index vs. closed-sale median vs. active-listing median) over different windows -- but they cluster in the same general $140,000-$166,000 range, and that range is real and worth sitting with.

What makes that range meaningful is the comparison to the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast: Gulfport's median sits around $230,315, Ocean Springs around $290,000, and Biloxi around $300,000 -- meaning a typical Pascagoula home currently runs roughly 40-55% below its nearest coastal neighbors. That gap is consistent with Pascagoula's long-running reputation as a "most affordable" market on regional lists, and the underlying reason is straightforward rather than mysterious: this is a blue-collar, industrial-employment city built around shipyard and refinery wages and shift work, with a housing stock shaped by that history, not a second-home or vacation-rental market competing for buyer premium the way the beach towns further west do.

Property Tax: The 10%-of-Value Structure, the Homestead Exemption, and Pascagoula's Own Rate

Mississippi taxes owner-occupied homes at 10% of their true market value, not the full value -- so a $150,000 Pascagoula home is assessed for tax purposes at $15,000, with the applicable millage rate then applied to that smaller figure rather than the sale price. That structure is why a Mississippi combined millage rate can look large in isolation without producing a large actual bill: the assessment ratio does most of the real work. A qualifying owner-occupant can also claim Mississippi's statutory homestead exemption, which removes the first $7,500 of assessed value from taxation -- worth up to roughly $300 off an annual bill, depending on the applicable rate, and available only on a primary residence, not a second home or rental property.

Two separate aggregator sources put actual numbers on Pascagoula's rate, and they don't perfectly agree, which this page states honestly rather than picking one: Ownwell's property-tax data lists Pascagoula's median effective rate at 1.32% of value with a median annual bill around $1,076 -- essentially in line with Mississippi's own statewide median of about 1.31%, and comfortably above the roughly 1.02% U.S. median. A separate county-level rate comparison lists Pascagoula as carrying the highest effective rate within Jackson County, at 1.37%. Applying either figure to the $140,000-$166,000 sale-price range from above produces an annual property tax bill in the rough neighborhood of $1,850-$2,275 -- genuinely modest by national coastal standards, and consistent with Ownwell's own reported $1,076 median bill once the homestead exemption and Pascagoula's typically lower assessed (versus market) values are factored in. Neither figure is a substitute for pulling the actual current bill on a specific parcel from the Jackson County Tax Assessor.

Insurance: The Wind Pool, the Flood Program, and a Coast-Wide Rate Spike

As the Jackson County seat on the Mississippi Sound, Pascagoula sits inside the same insurance structure that applies across the state's coastal counties, and it's worth understanding as three separate coverages rather than one policy. A standard homeowners policy here typically excludes windstorm and hail; that coverage instead runs through the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association (MWUA), the state-created insurer of last resort for wind and hail across Mississippi's six coastal counties -- Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone, and George -- when the private market won't write a policy. Flood coverage is a third, entirely separate purchase: the City of Pascagoula participates directly in the National Flood Insurance Program and carries a Community Rating System Class 7 designation, which is worth a real, quantifiable 15% premium discount on NFIP flood policies for property inside the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area (and a smaller 5% discount outside it) -- a genuine benefit of the city's own floodplain-management practices, not a marketing claim.

The regional cost trend is worth stating plainly rather than softening: Mississippi Gulf Coast homeowners saw insurance rate increases ranging roughly 15% to 70% in 2024 depending on carrier and property, and coastal wind-pool premiums specifically are set to rise another 16% starting January 1, 2026. Statewide, Mississippi's average homeowners premiums are reported running 81-104% above the national average, with some specific coastal ZIP codes -- Gautier, immediately next to Pascagoula and sharing its school district, is cited at a state-high average around $7,816 -- running dramatically higher still. This research did not find a Pascagoula-specific average premium distinct from that broader coastal figure; anyone budgeting a specific purchase should treat the Gautier number as a nearby data point illustrating the trend, not as a Pascagoula quote, and get an actual address-specific quote from a Mississippi-licensed agent covering all three policies -- homeowners, wind, and flood -- stacked together.

Utilities and Everyday Cost of Living

Electricity is one line item where Pascagoula, like Mississippi generally, runs meaningfully below the national average: the state's residential rate was reported around 16.76 cents per kWh as of July 2026, roughly 25% below the national average of about 18.83 cents/kWh, though monthly EIA-sourced figures for the state have ranged as low as 13.47 cents/kWh earlier in 2026 -- a real spread depending on exactly which month's data is used. This research did not find Pascagoula-specific water, sewer, or gas utility rate data distinct from statewide Mississippi averages, and that gap is stated here rather than filled with an assumed number; a specific property's utility costs should be confirmed with the City of Pascagoula's utility billing department or a title/closing document rather than estimated from a statewide average alone.

HOA Costs and Neighborhood Character

Pascagoula's housing stock is overwhelmingly older, established single-family neighborhoods and working-class subdivisions built around the shipyard-and-refinery economy, rather than planned-community or resort-condo product with mandatory association dues; this research did not identify a significant HOA-governed development as characteristic of the city, and none is assumed here. As with any specific listing, an actual association, covenant, or shared-maintenance agreement should be confirmed directly through the listing agent or a title search rather than assumed present or absent.

Putting the Real Number Together

For a representative $140,000-$166,000 Pascagoula purchase -- the range spanned by Zillow, Redfin, and Movoto above -- a realistic annual recurring-cost floor looks roughly like: $1,850-$2,275 in property tax at the 1.32%-1.37% effective-rate range (before any homestead exemption further reduces that on an owner-occupied primary residence); a homeowners policy plus separate MWUA wind and NFIP flood coverage that, stacked together, likely land well above the national average given Mississippi's broader coastal insurance-cost trend, even with Pascagoula's CRS Class 7 flood-premium discount partially offsetting the flood-policy piece; below-average electricity costs; and little to no HOA exposure given the city's largely non-planned-community housing stock. The genuinely large variable in this picture is insurance, not tax or price -- a buyer should get an actual, address-specific three-policy quote before treating any of the above as a final number, and should weigh that real insurance-cost trend directly against the low headline purchase price that makes Pascagoula look so affordable on paper.