The City of Decatur mailed its second-installment property tax bills on October 20, and they are due December 20. These bills are separate from what DeKalb County sends. A home inside city limits gets two tax bills from two offices, each on its own schedule. The city also notes that it does not send its bills to mortgage companies. If your taxes are escrowed, your lender may request the information, but making sure the bill gets paid is still the owner's responsibility.
For a buyer under contract this fall, the two-bill setup matters for a less obvious reason. In 2025, the three governments that tax a Decatur home each made a different choice about capping homestead values. Those choices determine how much of your future bill is protected from rising home prices. In Decatur, that share is small.
Two bills, two assessment ratios
The City of Decatur bills city and City Schools of Decatur taxes together. Its first installment is the assessed value times the combined city and school millage rate, divided in half. The second installment trues the bill up once DeKalb's digest for the year is final. Because the final digest can change assessed values, millage, or exemptions, the city warns that the second installment "may vary considerably from the first installment."
The two offices also start from different taxable values. According to the City of Decatur's taxes and fees page, DeKalb assesses at 40 percent of fair market value for its own bills, and Decatur assesses at 50 percent. Both work from the same appraisal. DeKalb appraises real estate every year at fair market value as of January 1, and for homes the main method is recent comparable sales.
The county bill for 2026 reflects millage, fair market value, the 40 percent assessment, exemptions, and the EHOST and HTRG credits. DeKalb approved its 2026 digest on July 29 and started mailing bills August 14.
Three governments, three answers on HB 581
According to the City of Decatur's HB 581 page, Georgia's HB 581 took effect January 1, 2025. It created a statewide floating homestead exemption that limits annual increases in a homestead's taxable value to the rate of inflation. Counties, cities, and school districts could each opt out, but only during a short window in early 2025. The city's November 2024 work-session presentation predicted the outcome. Because each body would decide on its own, the result would be "comparable homes having different taxable values."
This is how it played out for a home inside Decatur city limits, with 2026 millage from the DeKalb Tax Commissioner's rate sheet, revised July 15, 2026.
| Taxing body | 2026 millage in Decatur | HB 581 decision | Other value cap on homesteads |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeKalb County | 11.425 | Opted in, Feb. 25, 2025 | County assessment freeze |
| City of Decatur | 12.970 | Opted out, Feb. 3, 2025 | None listed |
| City Schools of Decatur | 20.300 | Opted out, Feb. 11, 2025 | None listed |
The city's opt-out was Resolution R-25-02. According to the February 3, 2025 commission minutes, all commissioners present voted for it. The Georgia Secretary of State's HB 581 list shows the city's filing received on February 10, 2025. Decaturish reported DeKalb County's opt-in, and separately reported the City Schools of Decatur board's opt-out.
DeKalb's older protection doesn't fill the gap. The county's property assessment freeze offsets future value increases on the county portion only. The Tax Commissioner's exemptions page says plainly that the freeze "does not affect school, city or state taxes."
The arithmetic follows from that. Of the 44.695 combined mills on the rate sheet, the city and City Schools account for 33.27, or about 74 percent. That three-quarters of the millage applies to a value that rises whenever Decatur sales prices rise. Only the county's 11.425 mills sit on a base-year value. The combined figure is a gross rate before exemptions and credits, so treat it as the structure of the bill, not as your effective rate.
Why tenure buys less here
In jurisdictions that took the floating exemption, the longer an owner stays, the further their taxable value falls below market. The city's presentation said the exemption "rewards homeowners, especially those that reside in the community for a long period of time." In Decatur, that benefit applies to the county line and nowhere else.
Neighboring cities show the difference. DeKalb's exemptions page lists Brookhaven and Tucker as granting their basic homestead exemptions "plus city assessment freeze (if applicable)." For Decatur, it says only that exemptions are applied for with the city. Homes just outside the city limits are in a different school system, and the DeKalb County School District also opted out. Decaturish reported that the board voted unanimously at its February 10, 2025 meeting, and the state list shows that filing received February 28, 2025.
The decision is fixed. The city's presentation said that once the opt-out period passed, there was no way to opt in later. A similar exemption could still come through the usual route of a local act of the General Assembly.
Millage still moves, though. City Schools adopted 20.300 mills for 2026. Its public notice called that a 0.192-mill increase over the no-tax-increase rate of 20.108 and estimated it at about $72 more per year on a $750,000 homestead. On an uncapped value, any change in either rate or market value goes straight into the bill.
What the city's own sample bill shows
Decatur publishes an example final 2025 bill for a property valued at $400,000 with the general homestead exemption.
| Fund | Taxable value | Taxes due |
|---|---|---|
| General Fund | $160,000 | $1,392 |
| Capital Fund | $160,000 | $336 |
| DDA Fund | $160,000 | $56 |
| Bond Fund | $200,000 | $122 |
| School Bond | $200,000 | $242 |
| School Fund | $200,000 | $4,060 |
| Total taxes | $6,208 | |
| With sanitation and stormwater fees | $6,957 |
The $40,000 general exemption reduces only the first three lines. The School Fund line, at $4,060, is taxed on the full $200,000 assessed value and makes up roughly 65 percent of the taxes in the example. The biggest line on a Decatur city bill gets no help from the basic exemption and has no inflation cap. This example covers city and school taxes only. The county bill comes on top of it.
What resets at closing
HB 581 made two changes that affect a sale.
First, the city's HB 581 presentation says the floating exemption's base value resets when a home sells, and an owner can't carry it to a new property. On the county line, a buyer starts from a new base, not the seller's.
Second, HB 581 removed a sentence from Georgia law that had made the price of the most recent arm's-length sale "the maximum allowable fair market value for the next taxable year." The code annotations for O.C.G.A. § 48-5-2 show it deleted effective January 1, 2025. Before that, the purchase price set a ceiling on the next year's value. That ceiling is gone, and DeKalb keeps valuing homes from comparable sales as of each January 1.
Exemptions don't come with the house either. DeKalb says exemptions "are not transferable if the applicant moves to another residence," so a buyer has to qualify on their own. The seller's bill reflects the seller's exemptions and the seller's county base year. A buyer's first bill reflects neither until the buyer files.
The January 1 rule and the two applications
For anyone closing in November or December 2026, the dates are tight. The county and the city publish these requirements as follows.
- Own and live in the home on January 1. DeKalb requires the property to be the owner's legal residence for all purposes as of January 1, including income tax filing, vehicle registration, and voter registration.
- File with DeKalb County. New applicants for the county basic homestead exemption get the assessment freeze automatically. Online applications for the current tax year run from January 1 to mid-July. The county's application page says exemptions are not automatic.
- File separately with the City of Decatur. The general homestead exemption is form GH-1 on the city's homestead exemption page. The city's deadline for new 2027 exemptions is March 15, 2027. It accepts applications for the current year through April 1 but encourages filing by March 15 so the exemption appears on the first-installment bill.
The city exemption also unlocks two credits. Homeowners with City of Decatur exemptions receive the state's Homestead Tax Relief Grant for 2026 automatically, though the city says it may or may not be authorized again in future years. Any EHOST deduction is applied automatically and shown on the bill.
This post is general information about how these programs work, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Confirm your own situation with a tax professional or the offices linked above.
FAQ
Does the seller's homestead exemption stay with the house? No. DeKalb says exemptions are not transferable, and the HB 581 base value resets on sale. The buyer has to apply with both DeKalb County and the City of Decatur.
Where can I see a specific property's city tax history? The city runs decaturgatax.com, which shows tax information for City of Decatur properties for the current year and the seven years before it.
Who handles value disputes? The City of Decatur gets its assessments from the DeKalb County Board of Tax Assessors, and the city directs appraisal questions to the county assessor's office at 404-371-0841.
If you're getting ready to list in Decatur, a buyer's agent is likely to raise these tax questions. Good Living Real Estate can walk through how your city and county bills are built and price your home with them in mind. Start with a free home valuation.
