Downsizing sounds simple: sell the bigger home, buy a smaller one. In Lumpkin County a few rules decide how much of the difference you keep and what the next home costs to own each year.
Here are the four to check, with the arithmetic shown so you can redo it with your own numbers.
1. The 65-and-over exemptions
Lumpkin County’s 65-and-over application lists a $6,000 homestead exemption, a $60,000 county and/or city exemption and a $120,000 school-tax exemption, each off assessed value, for owners 65 or older on January 1.
Those are large numbers next to a typical assessed value, so they deserve a careful read. Each exemption has its own conditions. Get the form, read all of it, and ask the Assessors’ Office which ones you qualify for on the new home.
Timing matters too. Homestead exemptions depend on owning and living in the home on January 1, with the application due by April 1. A new home bought mid-year usually starts the next January 1. Confirm your dates with the Assessors.
2. The IRS gain exclusion
If you owned and lived in the home for at least two of the five years before the sale, you can exclude up to $250,000 of gain from income tax, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly.
Gain is not the sale price. It is roughly what you sold for, less what you paid and certain costs. If you have owned your home a long time, work it out before you list.
One more rule: the exclusion can generally be used only once in any two-year period. If you might sell the smaller home again within two years, talk to a tax professional before you buy it.
3. Transfer tax on the sale
Georgia’s real estate transfer tax works out to $1 per $1,000 of the price. On an example sale price of $400,000, that is 400 × $1 = $400.
By law it is owed by the seller, but the sales contract often has the buyer pay it instead. Check what your contract says.
4. Inside the city or outside it
Where the smaller home sits changes the yearly bill. Georgia taxes property on 40 percent of its fair market value unless the law says otherwise, and one mill is $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessed value.
For 2025, rates inside the City of Dahlonega add up to 26.911 mills (county 9.494, city 3.701, schools 13.716). Unincorporated, county and school come to 21.655 mills before any special-district levy. The state’s 2025 digest also lists two unincorporated special-district levies of 0.382 and 0.174 mills.
A worked example
This uses an example price, not a real listing, and leaves out every exemption so you can see the base numbers.
- Example market value: $300,000.
- Assessed value: 40 percent of $300,000 is $120,000.
- Thousands of assessed value: $120,000 ÷ $1,000 = 120.
Inside the city: 120 × 26.911 = $3,229.32 a year, before exemptions.
Outside the city, county and school only: 120 × 21.655 = $2,598.60 a year, before exemptions.
Outside the city, if both special-district levies apply to your parcel: 0.382 + 0.174 = 0.556 mills. 120 × 0.556 = $66.72. $2,598.60 + $66.72 = $2,665.32 a year, before exemptions.
We have not run the senior exemptions through this example, because which ones you qualify for and how they apply is a question for the Assessors. Ask them to run your real numbers.
The city also has trade-offs that do not show up in a tax bill, like services and walking distance to the square. Weigh those yourself.
Before you list
- Pull the county’s 65-and-over form and read it.
- Estimate your gain and check the two-year rule.
- Know who pays the transfer tax in your contract.
- Look up whether the next home is inside the city limits.
Where to go next
See the full rate picture on Lumpkin County property tax, and work through the steps in order with the sell and buy checklist.
Written by the Dahlonega Buy & Sell Editorial Team. AI tools help us draft; people check every fact before it publishes.
