Nebraska property tax: Omaha rates and homestead exemption

Who sets the value and the rate?

• The county assessor values real property. Residential property is taxed at its actual value (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-201), as of January 1 (§ 77-1301). Farmland is the main exception, valued at 75% of actual value.
• Each taxing unit sets a levy: the county, the city, the school district, the community college, the natural resource district, and others such as a transit authority. Rates are quoted per $100 of taxable value.
• The county treasurer sends the bill.

Your bill is (taxable value ÷ 100) × the total rate for the units that cover your address.

What is the rate in Omaha?

The Department of Revenue publishes each taxing unit’s 2025 rate, the latest adopted year it lists. Across Douglas County, taxes levied divided by value gave an average of 2.0381% for 2025, down from 2.0462% in 2024.

Your own rate depends on your school district and on special districts. A home in Omaha Public Schools (district “Omaha 1”) pays these 2025 rates:

This is an illustration for a $300,000 assessed value, not an average home. Other Omaha-area districts (Millard, Elkhorn, Westside, Ralston, Douglas County West) have different school rates, and a lot in a sanitary and improvement district (SID) pays an extra district levy. The tax year 2026 rates were not yet in the Department’s published list when this was checked.

Is there a homestead exemption?

Yes, but it is targeted. Under §§ 77-3507 and 77-3508, the exemption covers homesteads of:

• Category 1: owners 65 or older before January 1 of the application year.
• Categories 2, 3 and 6: veterans totally disabled by a non-service-connected condition, owners with certain severe physical disabilities, and owners with a developmental disability.
• Categories 4V, 4S, 5 and 7: certain disabled veterans and their surviving spouses, with no income or home-value limit (§ 77-3506).

You must own the home and live in it from January 1 through August 15. A property held only by a company does not qualify (Department of Revenue guide).

For categories 1, 2, 3 and 6, the share of the exemption depends on household income. For 2026 applications, a single owner 65 or older gets 100% up to $37,000 of household income and 0% from $54,301; a married owner gets 100% up to $43,400 and 0% from $64,501. The table steps down in 10% increments. Disabled owners have higher thresholds.

The exempt amount is capped. For Category 1 it is the lesser of the home’s taxable value or 100% of the county’s average assessed single-family value; for Categories 2, 3 and 6 it is 120%. The 2026 average in Douglas County is $302,282, so the caps are $302,282 and $362,738. The exemption shrinks by 10% for each $2,500 a home’s value exceeds the “maximum value” and disappears at $20,000 over it. That maximum is $604,564 for Category 1 and about $680,100 for the others (§§ 77-3505.02, 77-3506.03).

Example: a single 65-year-old in Omaha Public Schools with $36,000 of household income and a $300,000 home would have the whole value exempt, saving about $6,170 a year at the rates above.

Is there a cap on yearly increases?

The statutes read for this article value property at actual value as of each January 1 and describe no percentage limit on how much a home’s value can rise in a year. Protest your value if it looks too high.

How do I protest and when are taxes due?

A protest must include your requested value and documentation to support it, or it is dismissed (§ 77-1502).

Separately, the state credits some of the bill. For tax year 2026 the real property credit is $118.87 per $100,000 of valuation, plus a school district credit (Department of Revenue, September 15, 2026). The example above does not subtract it.

When you buy, see closing costs in Nebraska for prorations, the Omaha guide for the city, and escrow accounts for how lenders collect the tax.