• Discover how much you'll pay in property taxes to be a homeowner in Quantico, Virginia.Shockoe Slip, Richmond, Virginia image by Christopher Martin from Fotolia.com
  
  Located within the greater Washington, D.C. area, the town of Quantico, Virginia, maintains an official population of fewer than 600 people. This is due to the fact that the town is largely surrounded by the massive Marine Corps Base Quantico, which stretches across around 100 square miles. The town is situated in Virginia's Prince William County and falls under the tax assessment office of that county. Unlike other towns in Virginia, Quantico taxes remain low in comparison to other Prince William County locations.
  
  

Assessment

• Property taxes in all of Prince William County are assessed based on a series of criteria. Assessors take into account the property as compared to similar properties, replacement cost, estimated repair and maintenance costs for the property and even investment value were the property to be rented. Tax assessors will typically visit the property and then consider its individual features and place those in comparison to features in other area properties. As with any municpality, properties are reassessed annually to determine if the tax assessment should stand or if any changes have occurred that will affect the value of the property. The assessment office notes that taxes can either increase or decrease during assessment, although it is most common for property taxes in the Quantico area to continue rising gradually.
  
  

Rate

• The assessment office that supports Quantico shows that during the year 2009, property taxes were calculated at $1.55 per $100. To calculate the tax rate, property owners can multiply the appraised value of their property by .0155. In other words, the property taxes on a piece of property appraised at $150,000 would be $2,325 per year.
  
  Appraised value of a property is not always equivalent to the market value of that property. That is to say, while an assessor will take market value into account, appraised value might vary from it. For example, the same property appraised at $150,000 could very well have a market value of $175,000 or more or just the opposite.
  
  

Median

• In 2009, the median tax appraisal for a single-family home in Prince William County was around $290,000. This means, of course, that the average annual property tax in the county was $4495. Property taxes inevitably vary within cities and in individual neighborhoods within cities, so the actual tax rate is different by location. In fact, the city of Quantico has a lower per capita income than other cities in the county and, as a result, has a much lower median property tax. According to 2008 records, the annual property tax in Quantico was under $1000, though it is possible that property taxes could be much higher in some parts of the town and more closely reflect the countywide median.