Roanoke, VA · Updated Oct 2026

What a Roanoke house pays

Property tax, water, trash and energy from public rates. Look up your address to make it yours, and see how to pay less.

Sent only to free public map services to find who serves it. Not stored unless you save your house.

Example · a Roanoke house

$9,242a year · $770 a month

Starts at $253,173 of value before exemptions. Typical use.

A typical Roanoke house pays about $9,200 a year: $3,180 property tax and charges, $1,320 water and sewer, $110 trash, $3,300 electricity and gas, $1,330 home insurance. Estimated from public rates, not anyone's actual bill.

Rates checked Oct 21, 2026. Insurance: what you enter, or a typical premium until you do. Sources are listed at the bottom.

Ways to pay less

Nothing here applies to every house automatically. These are worth checking:

Seniors 65+ or disabled, income up to $51,200: freeze your real estate taxTax frozen at the amount when you apply
Homeowners 65 or older, or totally and permanently disabled and under 65, can have their real estate tax frozen at the amount assessed when they apply. The home must be their principal residence, combined gross income of everyone living there can't exceed $51,200 (some income excluded), and combined net worth can't exceed $160,000, not counting the home.
How: Apply between April 1 and May 31 each year with the Commissioner of the Revenue (540-853-2523).
Tax-freeze homeowners: solid waste fee of $60 a year$60 a year instead of $109.20
Homeowners who qualify for the elderly or disabled tax freeze may pay only $60 a year for the solid waste fee instead of $109.20 for a single-family house.
How: Ask the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue: 540-853-2523.
Disabled veterans rated 100%: no real estate tax on your homeFull exemption
The home of a veteran rated by the VA with a 100% service-connected, permanent and total disability is exempt from real estate tax. The exemption also applies to the veteran's surviving spouse.
How: Apply any time of year with the online application or at the Commissioner of the Revenue's Office, Room 213 of the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building.
Cut your stormwater fee by up to 50%Up to 50% off the stormwater fee
Owners of single-family and two-family homes can get a credit of up to 50% on the stormwater utility fee.
How: Read the Residential Credit Manual and apply by June 1 for the credit to start on the next (October) bill. Questions: Stormwater, 540-853-5900.
Renovating a house 30+ years old: rehabilitation tax exemption5 or 7 year program
For a house at least 30 years old: if the work raises the building's value by at least 40%, an exemption equal to the increase in assessed value from the work is subtracted from your assessment before taxes are figured. It is a 5- or 7-year program, depending on where the property is, and it does not freeze your taxes.
How: Pay a $125 non-refundable application fee and file the application at the City Assessor's office before work starts (an appraiser inspects first; you need a current building permit). Finish the work within two years of applying, and keep all taxes paid and current.
Keep water use low in January to March to cut sewer all yearLower sewer volume charges
Western Virginia Water Authority bills residential sewer volume on your average water use in the January, February and March billing months, from April through the next April; if you use more than that average, sewer is billed at the average. Fixing leaks and using little water in those months lowers sewer costs all year.
How: Nothing to sign up for: residential sewer customers get it automatically. Wait until April or later to fill a pool or water heavily.
Weekly bulk and brush pickupUp to 3 bulky items a week
The city picks up bulk and brush weekly on your trash day: up to three bulky items and about one pick-up truck load of brush each week.
How: Set items at the curb after 7 p.m. the night before and before 7 a.m. on collection day. Questions: 540-853-2000, option 1.

Money dates

Jan 5 · Feb 4in 74 daysReassessment notices are mailed January 5; the deadline to appeal an assessment to the Office of Real Estate Valuation is February 4.
Apr 5Second installment of the real estate tax is due to the Treasurer's Office.
Apr 8Deadline for appealing an assessment to the Board of Equalization.
May 31Deadline for filing the elderly/disabled tax freeze application.

Who serves this house

Water: Western Virginia Water Authority; Western Virginia Water Authority monthly water rates for October 1, 2026, plus the City of Roanoke's 12% consumer utility tax on water service
Property tax: 1.22% of value; FY2027 (July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027), City of Roanoke
Garbage: City of Roanoke Solid Waste Management; Weekly trash pickup in one city-provided blue can; recycling every other week; fee billed on the real estate tax bill
Sewer: Western Virginia Water Authority; Monthly sewer base charge by meter size plus a volume charge per 1,000 gallons; residential sewer volume is capped at your January to March average water use
Electricity: Appalachian Power; Schedule R.S. residential service: $7.96 basic service charge a month
Gas: Roanoke Gas; Residential service (RS): $17.00 monthly charge from October 1, 2026

Pay or manage your bills

Your water

Source: Primary sources of drinking water are Carvins Cove, Spring Hollow and Crystal Spring; which one serves you depends on your address and can vary.
Hardness: Calcium plus magnesium hardness averaged 46 ppm (as CaCO3) at Carvins Cove, 160 ppm at Spring Hollow and 140 ppm at Crystal Spring in 2022 or the latest testing.
PFAS: GenX (HFPO-DA) is the only PFAS compound detected at the Spring Hollow Reservoir; the Authority treats it with granular activated carbon. Weekly-to-monthly tests of treated Spring Hollow water in 2025 ranged from non-detect to 5.9 ppt, averaging 1.36 ppt; 2026 results through April were non-detect to 2.4 ppt. EPA set a 10 ppt limit for HFPO-DA in 2024; on May 18, 2026 it announced a proposed rule, for public comment, that would rescind it.

How these numbers are made

Property tax: the City of Roanoke rate of $1.22 per $100 of assessed value (100% of market value), which the FY2026-2027 adopted budget keeps unchanged. Roanoke is an independent city, so there is no separate county or school district rate. The starting value is an estimate of about $253,000: the adopted budget's FY2027 single-family assessment total ($7.46B) divided by its 29,466 single-family housing units (a class average, not a median; we found no published 2026 median). Virginia has no general homestead exemption; relief for seniors, disabled owners and disabled veterans is in the tips. The Downtown and Williamson Road service district taxes apply only in those districts and are not included. Car (personal property) tax is not included. The city's solid waste page gives a $42,000 income limit and an April 1 to June 30 window for the elderly/disabled tax freeze; the tip uses the Commissioner of the Revenue's relief page ($51,200, April 1 to May 31).
Stormwater: the city's stormwater utility fee is billed on the real estate tax bill at $1.55 a month per 500 sq ft of impervious surface (the city's stormwater page; the budget's fee table still lists $1.45). We use the city's own example of 2,477 sq ft, 5 billing units, $93 a year; your fee depends on your impervious area. Trash is the $109.20 yearly solid waste fee for a single-family house, also on the tax bill, shown as $9.10 a month.
Water and sewer: Western Virginia Water Authority rates from the authority's schedule published for October 1, 2026 (an archived copy, web.archive.org, because the authority's site refuses automated downloads; that copy labels the October 1, 2026 column 'proposed', and a later version of the schedule we could not download labels them approved). Water: $18.05 a month for a 5/8-inch meter, $3.65 per 1,000 gallons up to 4,000 gallons, $5.50 up to 8,000 and $6.00 above, each raised 12% for Roanoke's consumer utility tax on water. Sewer: $25.90 a month plus $4.50 per 1,000 gallons; the winter-average cap on residential sewer volume depends on each household and is not modelled; the $5.00 second-tier sewer rate (above 4,000 gallons on the current schedule) is not modelled, so sewer runs slightly low for higher use. The authority's $10-a-month capital assessment charge applies only to some connections and is not included.
Electricity: Appalachian Power Virginia Schedule R.S. as of September 24, 2026: the $7.96 basic service charge and the company's all-riders total of $0.16189 per kWh (its select-charges sheet, which excludes taxes), plus Roanoke's consumer utility tax ($0.0078 per kWh up to 1,000 kWh, $0.0045 above; a $15 heating-season cap for homes heated mainly by electricity is not modelled) and Virginia's consumption tax ($0.001595 per kWh up to 2,500 kWh, $0.001085 above). Starting use is 1,032 kWh a month, EIA's 2024 average for Virginia homes.
Gas: Roanoke Gas residential (RS) rates effective October 1, 2026 ($17.00 a month; $1.335830 per therm for the first 54 therms, $1.151888 above), plus Roanoke's $0.13 per CCF consumer utility tax and Virginia's $0.0135 state and $0.004 local consumption tax per CCF, converted to therms at 1.037 therms per CCF. Not included: the SAVE infrastructure rider (a flat monthly line item, $0.69 a month for RS on the tariff's February 2020 sheet; it changes each October), the October-May rule that for homes heated mainly by gas and occupied by the gas customer the consumer utility tax does not apply to the part of the charge above $15 a month, the weather normalization adjustment and the special regulatory tax (up to $0.0026 per CCF). Starting use is about 49.9 therms a month: EIA's 2024 Virginia residential gas deliveries per residential consumer. Insurance is the 2022 Virginia average HO-3 premium (NAIC).
Nothing here is legal, tax or insurance advice.

Sources

How Roanoke compares

A typical Roanoke house against the 15 Virginia cities we cover, using the same default numbers as the total above.

Per year	Roanoke	Median	Where it falls
Property tax rate	1.22%	1.06%	higher than 12 of the other 14 Virginia cities we cover
Water	$641	$614	higher than 9 of the other 14 Virginia cities we cover
Sewer and utility-bill fees	$674	$784	lower than 9 of the other 14 Virginia cities we cover
Trash	$109	$234	lower than 9 of the other 12 Virginia cities we cover
Electricity and gas	$3,304	$3,304	in the middle of 14 other Virginia cities we cover
Home insurance	$1,332	$1,332	in the middle of 13 other Virginia cities we cover
Total	$9,242	$10,361	lower than 9 of the other 14 Virginia cities we cover

Cities bill differently (some put trash on the tax bill, some cover more services), so a higher number isn't necessarily worse. The property tax rate is compared instead of dollars because house values differ.

Questions to ask your candidates

Each one starts from a number above. Any candidate can answer them.

1. Property tax rate

The fact: Roanoke's property tax rate is 1.22%, higher than 12 of the other 14 Virginia cities we cover. The rate adds up every agency on the bill, not only the city.

Ask: "Property tax in Roanoke is 1.22%, higher than 12 of the other 14 Virginia cities we cover. What should that money pay for first, and would you change anything about how it is set?"

2. Trash

The fact: Trash pickup here costs about $109 a year for the standard cart, lower than 9 of the other 12 Virginia cities we cover. Where trash is billed through the tax bill or a separate hauler, it is not counted here.

Ask: "Trash pickup here costs about $109 a year for the standard cart, lower than 9 of the other 12 Virginia cities we cover. What drives that cost, and would you change anything about the service or the price?"

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Common questions about Roanoke house costs

What is the property tax rate in Roanoke?

About 1.22% of the value before exemptions a year (FY2027 (July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027), City of Roanoke), plus flat charges on the same bill (Stormwater utility fee (city example: 2,477 sq ft of impervious surface, 5 billing units) $93).

How much is property tax on a $500,000 house in Roanoke?

About $6,193 a year on $500,000 of the value before exemptions, including $93 of flat charges.

How much is the water bill in Roanoke?

About $110 a month for water and sewer at typical use (7,000 gallons a month) on Western Virginia Water Authority.

How much does trash pickup cost in Roanoke?

$9 a month for a house.

When is property tax due in Roanoke?

Apr 5: Second installment of the real estate tax is due to the Treasurer's Office. Oct 5: First installment of the real estate tax is due to the Treasurer's Office; the bill is mailed by August 31.

Can seniors lower their property tax or bills in Roanoke?

Yes. Seniors 65+ or disabled, income up to $51,200: freeze your real estate tax: Homeowners 65 or older, or totally and permanently disabled and under 65, can have their real estate tax frozen at the amount assessed when they apply. The home must be their principal residence, combined gross income of everyone living there can't exceed $51,200 (some income excluded), and combined net worth can't exceed $160,000, not counting the home.

How much does a house in Roanoke cost to run each year?

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