Oregon Property Taxes

It’s Oregon Property Tax Time and… I’m conjuring up mental images… your bill is either green or… wait, it’s coming to me…  yellow! 

You may not have realized there were two colors (since you only see one tax bill at a time) and that these colors have significance. 

If your bill is green, think, “Go!”, as in go get your checkbook or debit card and pay the county. (See Oregon Property Tax Rules, below, for more on this.)

If your bill is yellow, slow down!  Someone else – most likely your mortgage loan servicer – is paying the bill. This is not an act of benevolence on their part, by the way. A portion of each monthly mortgage payment you’ve made has been saved in an escrow account.  These monthly contributions are timed to accumulate to cover your taxes and/or insurance when they come due.

(If you receive a green bill but your mortgage servicer is deducting monthly payments, make sure to get to the bottom of this.  Clerical errors can occur.  For example, if your servicer changed, a mistake could have occurred.  It’s up to you to follow up with the servicer and county to make sure that all is well.)

Interesting fact: a loan servicer will sometimes write one big check to a county to cover the combined tax bill for all its clients in one fell swoop.

Oregon Property Tax Rules

State law requires all Oregon property tax bills be sent out by October 25.

Once received, you have three payment options, all with a November 15^th first payment:

• If you pay the entire bill on November 15^th, you receive a 3% discount.
• If you pay 2/3 of the bill on this date, you receive a 2% discount. The remaining 1/3 is due by May 15^th.
• Your final option is to pay 1/3 on November 15, 1/3 on February 15^th, and the final 1/3 on May 15^th.

Of course, if your mortgage loan servicer is paying the bill, you don’t need to worry about these dates.  If anyone asks, just tell them that ‘your people’ are seeing to it.