Shelter Allowances by County
The State Tax Board defines the Shelter Allowance as "the amount necessary to sustain life at subsistence level that is not part of property wealth." Shelter allowances are calculated using U.S. Housing and Urban Development data on rents for efficiency apartments. These data are tabulated at the county level, so shelter allowances are the same for all residences within a county, but differ among counties.
In the proposed assessment regulations, the shelter allowance is to be subtracted from the market value of a homeowner's primary residence. Shelter allowances can thus be compared to the homeowner's estimate of the selling price of his/her property. For example, a house with a selling price of $100,000 in Adams County, where the shelter allowance is $18,100, would have an assessment of $81,900.
The following table of shelter allowances is taken from the Department of Local Government Finance, 2002 Real Property Assessment Manual, p. 23.
Click here for an Excel spreadsheet with the county shelter allowances.
| County | Shelter Allowance | County | Shelter Allowance |
| Adams | 18,100 | Lawrence | 16,000 |
| Allen | 18,100 | Madison | 20,600 |
| Bartholomew | 22,700 | Marion | 20,600 |
| Benton | 16,000 | Marshall | 18,900 |
| Blackford | 16,000 | Martin | 16,000 |
| Boone | 20,600 | Miami | 16,000 |
| Brown | 16,000 | Monroe | 20,900 |
| Carroll | 16,000 | Montgomery | 18,600 |
| Cass | 16,000 | Morgan | 20,600 |
| Clark | 18,100 | Newton | 16,700 |
| Clay | 16,300 | Noble | 18,400 |
| Clinton | 19,700 | Ohio | 17,700 |
| Crawford | 16,000 | Orange | 16,000 |
| Daviess | 16,000 | Owen | 16,000 |
| Dearborn | 17,700 | Parke | 16,000 |
| Decatur | 16,000 | Perry | 16,000 |
| DeKalb | 18,100 | Pike | 16,000 |
| Delaware | 16,800 | Porter | 21,600 |
| Dubois | 16,000 | Posey | 18,100 |
| Elkhart | 21,100 | Pulaski | 16,000 |
| Fayette | 16,900 | Putnam | 17,400 |
| Floyd | 18,100 | Randolph | 16,000 |
| Fountain | 16,000 | Ripley | 16,000 |
| Franklin | 16,000 | Rush | 16,500 |
| Fulton | 17,600 | St. Joseph | 18,200 |
| Gibson | 16,000 | Scott | 18,100 |
| Grant | 16,900 | Shelby | 20,600 |
| Greene | 16,000 | Spencer | 16,000 |
| Hamilton | 20,600 | Starke | 16,000 |
| Hancock | 20,600 | Steuben | 19,500 |
| Harrison | 18,100 | Sullivan | 16,000 |
| Hendricks | 20,600 | Switzerland | 16,000 |
| Henry | 16,000 | Tippecanoe | 19,700 |
| Howard | 19,400 | Tipton | 19,400 |
| Huntington | 18,100 | Union | 16,000 |
| Jackson | 19,600 | Vanderburgh | 18,100 |
| Jasper | 16,000 | Vermillion | 16,300 |
| Jay | 16,000 | Vigo | 16,300 |
| Jefferson | 16,000 | Wabash | 16,000 |
| Jennings | 16,700 | Warren | 16,000 |
| Johnson | 20,600 | Warrick | 18,100 |
| Knox | 16,300 | Washington | 16,000 |
| Kosciusko | 16,000 | Wayne | 16,000 |
| LaGrange | 16,300 | Wells | 18,100 |
| Lake | 21,600 | White | 16,000 |
| LaPorte | 16,300 | Whitley | 18,100 |