The annual tax figure on a Gahanna listing this fall comes from a bill based on the old values. The Franklin County Treasurer labels the current collection as 2025 property-tax rates for 2026. The county's 2026 value update is still tentative, final notices are expected by mid-December, and the new values first show up on bills payable in 2027. A buyer who closes this winter will own the home when that bill arrives. The seller's bill only shows what the seller paid.
Three Gahanna numbers are moving at three different speeds: sale prices, the Auditor's assessed values, and the tax bill, which runs on rules that have little to do with either of the other two. Once you see how far apart the three are, the bill on the listing stops looking like a forecast.
The bill on the listing is built from the seller's situation
Every line on a current Franklin County bill reflects conditions that won't carry over to a buyer.
The value is the old one. The tax year is 2025. The credits belong to the seller. Under the Franklin County Auditor's rules, the owner-occupied credit requires the owner to own and occupy the property as a primary home on January 1 of the tax year. If a seller qualified and a buyer plans to rent the home out, the next bill could look different even if values stayed flat. Homestead exemptions work the same way. The Auditor's Homestead page lists $29,000 of appraised value exempt for eligible seniors and disabled persons and $58,000 for eligible disabled veterans and qualifying surviving spouses. A seller who qualified for one of those may be showing a bill that a new owner won't match.
So the listing's tax figure belongs to the person leaving, under last year's values. The rest of this post covers what replaces it.
Three numbers, three speeds
Here is how fast each number moved in the Gahanna-Jefferson City School District area, which is the geography both the Auditor and Columbus REALTORS® report on.
| Measure | Period | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price, single month | September 2026 vs. September 2025 | $381,500 to $461,000, up 20.8% |
| Median sale price, year to date | Through September 2026 vs. 2025 | $413,250 to $435,000, up 5.3% |
| Tentative residential value, Auditor's 2026 update | 2026 vs. 2025 | Up about 9% |
| Tentative residential value, Franklin County average | 2026 vs. 2025 | Up 10.1% |
Sources: Columbus REALTORS® September 2026 Gahanna-Jefferson report and the Franklin County Auditor's preliminary 2026 table.
Read the September jump carefully. It rests on 47 closed sales, and the year-to-date median rose a much smaller 5.3%. The pace of the market also slowed in September 2026. Days on market rose to 31 from 23, sellers received 96.8% of original list price compared with 99.6% a year earlier, and inventory climbed to 91 homes from 81. The city of Gahanna on its own showed the same pattern on a smaller base. It had 26 September closings, a $400,000 median that was up 18.3%, and 26 days on market, double the year before.
In September, prices moved faster than the Auditor's values, and the district's 9% residential update came in below the county's 10.1% average. Bexley and Grandview Heights districts were tentatively up 14%, and Olentangy was up 11%. This cycle is also much milder than the last one. The New Albany-Gahanna Beacon reported that the 2023 full reappraisal raised residential values about 41% countywide. The Gahanna-Jefferson figures came from an Auditor presentation to Gahanna City Council on June 1.
Why a 9% value increase isn't a 9% tax increase
The tax bill doesn't track either of the other numbers, because Ohio doesn't tax the full sticker rate on the full value. The Beacon summarized the formula: tax is calculated on 35% of the Auditor's appraised value, multiplied by the local taxing district's levy rate. The rate itself is heavily discounted.
The Auditor's 2025 rate sheet lists the City of Gahanna–Gahanna Jefferson district, code 025, at 135.29 gross mills. A Class 1 residential reduction factor of 0.5087 brings that down to an effective rate of 66.467938 mills. In other words, reduction factors already strip about half of the voted rate on homes in this district. The Treasurer's office says the same thing more broadly: bills reflect local rates and value, and reduction factors, credits, levies and exemptions all change the result.
State law added another limit in 2025. The Ohio House describes HB 335 as capping growth in inside-millage collections at the inflation rate over the previous three years during a reappraisal or triennial update, with relief beginning January 2027. That lines up with the first bill that uses 2026 values.
For a sense of scale, at the 2025 effective rate every $100,000 of Auditor-appraised value in district 025 works out to about $2,326 before rollback credits and exemptions. That's 35% of $100,000, which is $35,000, multiplied by 66.467938 mills. The arithmetic shows how the formula works. It doesn't predict any home's 2027 bill, because the 2026 rates haven't been set.
One city, two tax districts
The rate sheet also shows that "Gahanna" isn't a single tax rate. Directly below district 025 is district 026, City of Gahanna–Columbus CSD. That covers parcels inside the city but in the Columbus City Schools taxing district. It has an effective Class 1 rate of 61.014395 mills and a reduction factor of 0.547203.
Using the same $100,000 of appraised value, district 026 works out to about $2,136 before credits, roughly $190 less than district 025 at 2025 rates. Two homes with the same Gahanna mailing address and similar values can carry different bills because their parcels sit in different taxing districts. The district code on the parcel record decides which rate applies. The city name doesn't.
Owner-occupied and rental homes get taxed further apart each year
This is the part that matters most to buyers planning to rent a Gahanna home. HB 186, signed December 19, 2025 and effective March 20, 2026, phases out the 10% nonbusiness rollback on residential property and raises the owner-occupancy rollback over the same four years. The Legislative Service Commission's final analysis lays out the schedule:
- Tax year 2026: nonbusiness rollback 7.5%, owner-occupancy rollback 5.70%
- Tax year 2027: nonbusiness 5%, owner-occupancy 8.92%
- Tax year 2028: nonbusiness 2.5%, owner-occupancy 12.15%
- Tax year 2029: nonbusiness 0%, owner-occupancy 15.38%
By the end of the phase-in, the total credit for an owner-occupied home rises from 12.5% to 15.38%. Residential property leased to renters, or otherwise not the owner's primary home, loses the rollback entirely. The changes start in tax year 2026, which is the bill payable in 2027. The same Gahanna house, under the same value and the same levies, will carry a different bill depending on who lives in it, and the gap widens every year through 2029.
HB 186 also created an Inflation Cap Credit. The Ohio Department of Taxation says it applies only when specific school-district revenue tests are met in a county's reappraisal or update year, so it isn't a credit every parcel receives.
The dates that decide the 2027 bill
With values still tentative, a buyer in contract this winter should know these dates:
- Already passed: The Auditor's informal review sessions closed September 5, and document submissions closed September 12.
- November 3, 2026: Franklin County's certified issue list shows Gahanna items 18 through 27 as charter amendments. No Gahanna-Jefferson school levy or Gahanna city property-tax levy is among them.
- Mid-December 2026: Final values and notices are expected from the Auditor.
- January 1, 2027: The Auditor's rule requires the owner to own and occupy the home on January 1 of the tax year. For the 2026 bill payable in 2027, that date was January 1, 2026, so it reflects the seller. January 1, 2027 sets eligibility for tax year 2027, the bill payable in 2028.
- March 31, 2027: This is the deadline to file a tax-year-2026 complaint with the Franklin County Board of Revision. The board reviews valuation, not the tax dollars charged.
Any home's tentative 2026 value can be looked up on the Auditor's Know Your Home Value site. Once final values post in December, that figure replaces the 9% area average for estimating a specific property.
FAQ
Is the tax amount on a Gahanna listing what I'll pay? Usually not. It reflects tax-year 2025 values and rates and the seller's own credits and exemptions. The 2026 update and HB 186's rollback changes first apply to the bill payable in 2027.
Did Gahanna values go up as much as sale prices? It depends on the window. The Auditor's tentative residential change for Gahanna-Jefferson CSD is about 9%. The district's September 2026 median sale price rose 20.8% on 47 sales, while the year-to-date median through September 2026 rose 5.3%.
Is every Gahanna home taxed at the same rate? No. At 2025 rates, district 025 had an effective residential rate of 66.47 mills and district 026 had 61.01 mills, even though both are in the City of Gahanna.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm the tax picture for any specific property with the Franklin County Auditor, a tax professional or your lender.
Pricing a Gahanna home this winter means accounting for a market that's moving faster than the tax rolls. Buyers are reading list prices next to bills that are already out of date. If you're thinking about selling, The Agency Real Estate Group can show you where your home sits among recent Gahanna-Jefferson sales and how to present it so the numbers make sense to buyers. Get your instant home valuation.
