Mortgage Tips

first-time buyers Georgia

Georgia Homestead Exemption: How to Apply by April 1

Dale Corley · November 6, 2026 · 9 min read

If you’re buying a home in metro Atlanta, the Georgia homestead exemption can lower the property tax part of your monthly payment, and you get it with a short form from your county.

I’m a mortgage broker, so I shop hundreds of lenders and you don’t have to. Send me your county and your price range, and I’ll build your payment with the exemption in it. This post covers how to apply, the dates that matter, what the exemption is worth on a real price, and how it changes what you pay each month.

Key takeaways

You must own the home and live in it on January 1, and you apply by April 1. Close and move in before January 1, and you file by April 1 of the next year.

The state takes $2,000 off your taxable value. Cobb and DeKalb add more, and DeKalb’s basic exemption is $12,500 for school taxes.

On a $720,000 example home at an example 30-mill rate, a $10,000 exemption saves about $25 a month. Your real savings depend on which local taxes the exemption covers.

Your lender collects property tax in your monthly payment, so a lower bill lowers the payment once the lender reviews it.

I shop hundreds of lenders so you don’t have to.

On this page: How to apply · Dates · What it saves · Floating exemption · County by county · Your payment · 62 and older · Whiz Advice

How do I apply for the Georgia homestead exemption?

You file one application with your county, and the pages I read for Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb list no fee. A homestead exemption is a tax break on the home you live in. It lowers the value your county taxes. Here are the steps.

Find your county’s filing site. Fulton County takes applications at fultonassessor.org (opens in a new tab) or in person at any of its Board of Assessors offices. Gwinnett uses GwinnettTaxCommissioner.com/apply (opens in a new tab). Cobb uses cobbtax.org (opens in a new tab). DeKalb takes applications by mail, in person, by drop box or online at dekalbtaxga.gov (opens in a new tab).
Fill out the application. The same form covers the basic exemption and the age-based ones.
Add your proof of residence. DeKalb says your driver’s license and your vehicles must be registered to the home before you apply. Cobb asks for a letter if you had exemptions in another county or state, saying they were removed.
File on time. You can file as soon as you own the home and live in it. The deadline is in the next section.
Check your first tax bill. It should show the exemption. If it doesn’t, call your county tax office.

An approved exemption usually carries over from year to year, so you don’t refile every spring unless your status changes.

When do I need to own the home, and when is the deadline?

You need to own the home and live in it on January 1 of the tax year, and you file by April 1. That is the rule from the Georgia Department of Revenue. Fulton, Gwinnett and Cobb all list April 1 as their deadline.

Here is what that means for your closing date:

You close and move in	First year you can claim it	Apply by
By December 31, 2026, and you live there on January 1, 2027	2027 tax year	April 1, 2027
In 2027, after January 1	2028 tax year	April 1, 2028

DeKalb’s 2026 information sheet says July 13, but the state date is April 1. Ask DeKalb which applies, and file by April 1 to be safe.

Georgia property tax bills are usually due around the end of the year. The Department of Revenue says December 20 is the normal due date in most counties.

What does the homestead exemption save on a metro Atlanta home?

On its own, the $2,000 state exemption saves about $5 a month on this example. A larger county exemption saves more. Here is the math for a $720,000 home with 15% down.

Georgia taxes a home at 40% of its value. That 40% is called the assessed value, and here it is $288,000. Property tax is the taxable value after exemptions, times your local rate. The rate is measured in mills, and one mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value. I used 30 mills as an example rate. Real bills split the rate by government, and not every tax is reduced by every exemption, so your bill will use your local rates.

Exemption	Taxable value	Tax per year	Tax per month	You save per month
None	$288,000	$8,640	$720	$0
State, $2,000	$286,000	$8,580	$715	$5
Cobb basic, $10,000 (includes the $2,000 state piece)	$278,000	$8,340	$695	$25

Example only, not a quote. The loan is $612,000 on a 30-year fixed loan at an example rate of 6.875%, which makes the principal and interest payment $4,020 a month.

A yearly rise in your home’s value matters more. If this home’s value rose 8% to $777,600, the taxable value would rise by $23,040, and at 30 mills the bill would go up $691 a year, or about $58 a month. In a county with no cap, the bill follows the new value. In a county with a cap, the cap slows the rise. The next two sections list what I could confirm, and your tax bill shows which governments at your address apply a cap.

What is the floating homestead exemption, and does my county use it?

The floating homestead exemption caps how fast your home’s assessed value can rise each year, but only where your local government has kept it. The Georgia Department of Revenue says a 2024 law, House Bill 581, gave every homestead a “floating” exemption unless the county, city or school district opted out. It holds your home’s assessed value, the 40% figure your tax is based on, to a base-year value that grows only with inflation, so it slows increases and does not stop them. The state set the first inflation rate for 2026.

Many local governments chose to opt out. The Tax Foundation counted 316 of them statewide as of April 2025, including 47 counties (Georgia has 159), 123 school districts and 141 cities. In metro Atlanta, the Tax Foundation lists the Cobb and Gwinnett county governments and school districts, Fulton County Schools and DeKalb Schools among them, and says all five of Georgia’s largest cities opted out.

Governments can change their choice, so a status can differ from what I’ve listed. Ask your county assessor or look at your tax bill to see which governments at your address use the floating exemption.

What extra savings do Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb offer?

Each county has its own exemptions on top of the state one. The Georgia Department of Revenue lists local valuation-freeze exemptions in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and the City of Atlanta. A valuation freeze holds your home’s assessed value, the 40% of your home’s value that gets taxed, at a set base year’s level, for the taxes of the government that offers it.

County	What the county says	Where to read it
Fulton	Two new exemptions are available, one for homeowners in the Fulton County School District and one for homeowners in Atlanta Public Schools. Assessors apply them to those who qualify.	Fulton County, March 2026
Gwinnett	The notice I found gives no dollar amount, so ask the Tax Commissioner what your exemption is worth.	Gwinnett Tax Commissioner, 2022 notice
Cobb	A $10,000 basic exemption. Late applications count for the following year.	Cobb new resident checklist
DeKalb	A $12,500 basic exemption for school taxes and $10,000 for county taxes, plus an assessment freeze on county taxes for homes with a homestead exemption.	DeKalb 2026 exemption sheet

Some of these pages are a few years old, so confirm the amounts with the county when you file.

How does the exemption change my monthly mortgage payment?

The homestead exemption lowers the tax part of your payment. Your lender collects one-twelfth of your yearly property tax with each payment and holds it in an escrow account, which is money the lender keeps to pay your tax bill and insurance for you. The tax bill is the one the county sends.

In the example above, the $10,000 exemption cuts the tax part from $720 to $695 a month. On a $4,020 principal and interest payment, that is $4,740 before homeowners insurance and mortgage insurance, versus $4,715 with the exemption. In my experience, your first-year escrow can start from an estimate or the seller’s old bill. After your exemption shows up on a bill, your lender’s yearly review can lower the payment to match.

What if I’m 62 or older?

Georgia and its counties have extra exemptions at 62, 65 and 70, and some have income limits. The state lists a $4,000 exemption at 65 if your income is $10,000 or less, and an education tax exemption at 62. Cobb lists an exemption from county school taxes at 62. DeKalb lists senior exemptions at 62, 65 and 70. Your county tax office has the current income limits.

Whiz Advice

Here is how I would play it:

File even if the savings look small. A small exemption still costs you one short form and nothing more, so file it.
Ask your county whether your home gets a cap. The exemption is a fixed dollar amount. Where a cap on yearly increases applies, it can save more over the years than the exemption does.
Treat the seller’s tax bill as a starting point. Ask the title company for the property’s current bill, and send it to me. I’ll build your payment with it and show you a range, since your own bill will differ.

Why use a mortgage broker?

I shop your rates with other lenders, so you don’t have to.

Shopping for a mortgage on your own means applying again and again, sending the same documents over and over, and waiting on every quote. I do that part for you, with one application.

What you get when you work with me:

One application, one credit pull. I compare hundreds of lenders for you, including most of the big banks and big lenders.

More loan options than one bank can offer. VA, jumbo, bank statement, DSCR and other non-QM (non-traditional) loans. A single bank can only offer its own programs.

Pricing from a large wholesale platform. I’m a mortgage broker with NEXA Lending, the largest brokerage in the country by loan officer headcount. In my experience, that volume helps me get wholesale pricing that many banks can’t match.

Help when your file isn’t standard. If you’re self-employed, have unusual income or have a lower credit score, I know which lenders fit.

A real person from start to finish. I answer your questions and make sure your application is accurate, so there are no surprises later.

Start your loan application here, and let me go to work! (opens in a new tab)

How do you get ready to buy in metro Atlanta?

Here is what you can do this week:

Pick your county and city first. Your address decides your exemptions, so know them before you make an offer. Two homes close together can sit in different cities or school districts.
Save your county’s filing page. The list is in the first section, so you can file the week you move in.
Get pre-approved before you shop. A pre-approval is a lender’s letter that says how much you can borrow. Start your application here (opens in a new tab). Then see how much house you can afford with my affordability tool and the mortgage calculator.
Get your credit cards low. Aim for under 10% of your limits, and no higher than 30%, so your debt-to-income ratio stays healthy.
Put everything on the application and tell me your concerns up front. My job is to find the loan program that fits your situation best and make sure the application is accurate. My post on negotiating with sellers shows how to ask for more at closing.

Pick your next step:

Ready to get pre-approved? Start your loan application (opens in a new tab). It’s the fastest way to find out what you can buy.
Have a one-of-a-kind situation? Book a 15-minute call (opens in a new tab) and we’ll talk it through.
Just have a question? Email me at [email protected] with your scenario, and I’ll write back.

I’m a mortgage broker with NEXA Lending, and I work with borrowers all over Georgia, including Atlanta. As a broker, I can shop your loan across hundreds of lenders instead of being stuck with one bank’s programs. Programs, rates and approval depend on your full file.

Dale Corley | NMLS #1547543 | Licensed in CA, CO, TX, FL, GA, NC, SC, TN, VA | This is not a commitment to lend.