How Much Does the Homestead Exemption Save in Franklin County?

Franklin County residential values went up an average of about 10 percent in this year's triennial update, per the county auditor's own announcement. Those values were mailed June 9 and get certified in December. They drive the bills you pay starting in 2027.

There is one permanent reduction sitting underneath all of that, and a lot of the people who qualify for it are not taking it. The Ohio homestead exemption removes $29,000 of market value from the tax rolls. In the City of Westerville district that is about $645 a year, every year, for as long as you own the house.

I pull the Franklin County Auditor's rate report every time I price a house, because the rate changes across a street line and the bill changes with it. One number will not cover it. What follows is the exemption priced out in eleven Franklin County districts, plus the rules that decide whether you get it.

How Much Does the Homestead Exemption Save?

Start with the mechanism, because the headline number is not the number that comes off your bill.

The exemption does not hand you $29,000. It removes $29,000 of market value from what gets taxed. Ohio assesses property at 35 percent of market value, so the taxable value that actually leaves the rolls is:

$29,000 x 0.35 = $10,150

That $10,150 is then multiplied by your district's effective residential rate. Same exemption, different dollars, depending on which side of a boundary your house sits on.

These are the Franklin County Auditor's tax year 2025 effective residential rates, from the RT102 Tax Rate by Taxing District report dated December 24, 2025.

Taxing district	Effective res. mills	Standard ($29,000)	Enhanced ($58,000)
050 City of Hilliard	73.63	$747	$1,495
110 Blendon Township	72.67	$738	$1,475
100 City of Worthington	72.64	$737	$1,475
273 City of Dublin / Dublin CSD	69.76	$708	$1,416
222 Plain Twp / New Albany Corp	69.21	$703	$1,405
025 City of Gahanna / Gahanna Jefferson	66.47	$675	$1,349
081 Westerville / Blendon Twp	64.19	$651	$1,303
080 City of Westerville	63.59	$645	$1,291
070 City of Upper Arlington	63.56	$645	$1,290
600 Columbus / Westerville CSD	55.90	$567	$1,135
040 City of Grove City	50.80	$516	$1,031

One caveat, and I would rather flag it than let you find it on your bill. The auditor publishes these rates before the non-business credit and the owner-occupancy credit are applied, which is how every rate table on this site presents them. Those credits cover qualifying levies only, so the reduction that shows up on the billed amount lands somewhat under the figure in the table. The auditor keeps an estimated reduction schedule by tax district that gives the exact number for your address. Ask for it, or call the office at 614-525-4663.

Worked, on a $400,000 house in the City of Westerville district at 63.59 mills:

1. Taxable value before the exemption: $400,000 x 0.35 = $140,000. Tax: $8,902.
2. Taxable value after the exemption: $371,000 x 0.35 = $129,850. Tax: $8,257.
3. Difference: $645 a year. About $54 a month. Roughly $6,454 over ten years.

That is not life changing money. It is also not nothing, and it costs one form.

Who Qualifies for the Ohio Homestead Exemption?

Four categories, per the Franklin County Auditor. You have to own and occupy the home as your primary residence as of January 1 of the year you apply.

1. Homeowners who turn 65 or older during the year of application, subject to the income limit.
2. Homeowners who are permanently and totally disabled, subject to the same income limit.
3. Veterans rated 100 percent service-connected disabled, who receive the enhanced $58,000 exemption with no income limit.
4. Surviving spouses of public service officers killed in the line of duty.

There is also a surviving-spouse continuation. If a homeowner who was already receiving the exemption dies, the surviving spouse can generally keep it if they were at least 59 at the time of death. Confirm your own situation with the auditor rather than with me, because that one turns on dates.

The forms split by category. DTE 105-A for the age and disability categories. DTE 105-I for veterans. DTE 105-K for surviving spouses.

What Is the Income Limit for 2026?

$41,000 of Ohio adjusted gross income, counting the owner and the owner's spouse, per the Franklin County Auditor.

That figure is indexed and it moves most years. If you were a few hundred dollars over the line once, you may be under it now. The exemption amount is indexed too. It has stepped up over the last several years, which means older write-ups, including a couple of the rate posts on this site, still quote a $25,000 exemption. The current standard figure is $29,000, and the enhanced figure is $58,000.

Social Security is excluded from the income calculation. If most of a household's money comes in that way, run the actual number before assuming you are over.

When Is the Deadline to Apply?

For real property, the application is filed on or before December 31 of the year for which the exemption is sought, per the Ohio DTE 105A form.

So the practical version is this. If you turned 65 at any point in 2026 and you own and occupy the house, you have until the end of December. Do not wait for the tax bill to remind you, because by then you are filing for the following year.

If you think you qualified last year and never filed, call the auditor and ask about a late application for the prior year. Ohio allows it in defined circumstances and the counties handle the paperwork. That is a phone call worth making before it ages out.

What Happens to the Exemption When the House Sells or the Owner Dies?

It ends. The exemption attaches to the owner, not to the parcel.

This is the version of this topic that costs people money, and it comes up in my business more than the application does. A family sells a parent's house, or inherits it and keeps it. They have watched that tax bill for a decade and they budget off what they have seen. Then the exemption comes off, the value gets updated at transfer, and the bill they inherited is not the bill they get.

If you are buying a house currently owned by someone receiving the exemption, the listed tax figure is understating what you will pay by somewhere in the range of the table above. Same house. Different owner. Different bill. I check this on every offer I write, and it is the kind of thing that never shows up in a Zillow tax estimate.

If you are selling, it cuts the other way and it is worth saying out loud in the listing conversation, because a buyer who finds it late tends to find it at the worst possible moment.

How the Exemption Interacts With This Year's Value Increase

The two move against each other, which is the reason to handle them in the same sitting.

Your value went up. The auditor put the residential average around 10 percent. The exemption takes a flat $29,000 of value back off. On a house that gained $40,000 of appraised value, the exemption offsets most of that increase but not all of it.

The other lever is the value itself. Franklin County ran informal review sessions July through September, final values get certified in December, and if it is still unresolved after that, a formal complaint goes to the Board of Revision by March 31, 2027. Those are two separate tracks: the exemption reduces what gets taxed, the appeal argues the number that gets taxed is wrong. Nothing stops you from doing both.

For the deeper version of the rate side, the Westerville property tax guide breaks out all eight districts that carry Westerville schools, and the Dublin rate post does the same across three counties. For the value itself, start with the 2026 reappraisal and appeal window and the Central Ohio property tax appeal walkthrough.

What Should You Do Before December 31?

The exemption is worth between about $516 and $747 a year in the districts above. It is worth double that for a veteran rated 100 percent service-connected disabled. It requires one form and it is due December 31. It does not survive a sale.

Most of the people it applies to already know it exists. The ones who miss it are usually the ones who just turned 65, or who just went over and then back under the income line, or who inherited a house and assumed the bill came with it.

If you are weighing a move in Westerville and you want the carrying cost after taxes, insurance and the exemption, send me the address and I will pull the district, the rate and the current exemption status on the parcel before you make an offer. If you are on the other side of it and want to know what the house is worth right now, start with a home value estimate.

Thinking about buying or selling in Westerville? Let's talk. Contact Adam Geuy at Blacktree Realty, or book a time at calendly.com/adam-geuy.

Sources: Franklin County Auditor, Tax Rate by Taxing District, tax year 2025 (RT102, December 24, 2025); Franklin County Auditor, Homestead Exemption; Franklin County Auditor, 2026 Property Value Update; Ohio form DTE 105A.

Adam Geuy, Realtor - Blacktree Realty. ABR, PSA, SRS. Greater Columbus, Ohio.