A family with PCS orders to Hill Air Force Base usually gets the same tip from a sponsor, a Facebook group, or a first internet search: buy in Roy. It sits closer to the flight line than any other established off-base community, the sticker prices run lower than Layton or Farmington, and the math looks settled before the moving truck even arrives.
The math isn't wrong. It's incomplete. Roy sits in Weber County, and Weber County's property tax rate runs consistently higher than Davis County's, where Clearfield, Layton, and Syracuse sit. Once that rate gets applied to an actual assessed value, a chunk of the price advantage that made Roy the obvious answer starts to shrink. Not disappear. Shrink, in a way that changes which trade-off a buyer is actually making.
The Gate That Makes Roy the Default Answer
Roy earns its reputation honestly. It sits immediately west of Hill AFB, and it has its own dedicated access point, the Roy Gate, in the northwest corner of the base. The West Gate now runs 24 hours a day, which means Roy residents heading to a day shift or a flight-line rotation tend to clear the gate before traffic from Layton or Clearfield even reaches it. For a shift worker whose main concern is minutes to the flight line, that commute advantage is real and it's the first thing most relocation guides mention.
Foreclosure.com's automated valuation model put Roy's median home value at $435,989 as of July 14, 2026, with values up 1.31 percent year over year and essentially flat month over month. That's a meaningfully lower number than what public guides have reported this year for the Davis County side of the base cluster, where Clearfield, Layton, and Syracuse have carried noticeably higher sticker prices for most of 2026. On price alone, Roy wins the comparison every time someone runs it.
What Weber County's Rate Actually Does to the Math
Here's where the comparison gets more complicated than a single median number can show. Public property tax trackers don't agree on an exact decimal, but they agree on direction: Weber County's effective rate runs higher than Davis County's. SmartAsset puts Weber at 0.61 percent against Davis at 0.48 percent. Propertytaxbystate.com has them closer together at 0.60 percent and 0.53 percent. Another tracker, citing the Utah State Tax Commission's most recent finalized data, lists Weber at 0.60 percent against Davis at 0.56 percent. The exact gap depends on which source and which tax year you're reading, but every version has Weber above Davis by several tenths of a percentage point.
Apply the middle of those ranges to Roy's actual July 2026 median of $435,989. At roughly 0.61 percent, the annual bill lands around $2,660. Move that same home across the county line into Davis County at roughly 0.53 percent, and the annual bill drops to around $2,311. That's a gap of about $350 a year, or close to $30 a month, on a dollar-for-dollar comparison where the only thing that changed is which side of the county line the house sits on.
Now stack that on top of the actual price gap. Homes in Clearfield, Layton, and Syracuse have run higher than Roy's median for most of the year, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars. A buyer choosing Roy is trading a lower purchase price and a lower mortgage payment for a higher effective tax rate on whatever assessed value they do carry. The purchase price advantage is usually large enough that Roy still comes out ahead on total monthly cost. But the gap between Roy and its Davis County neighbors is narrower on paper than the median prices alone suggest, and that narrowing shows up specifically in the tax line, not the mortgage line.
| Weber County (Roy) | Davis County (Clearfield/Layton side) | |
|---|---|---|
| Effective property tax rate | Roughly 0.60% to 0.65%, depending on source | Roughly 0.48% to 0.56%, depending on source |
| Estimated annual tax on a $435,989 home | Approximately $2,616 to $2,834 | Approximately $2,093 to $2,442 |
| Monthly equivalent | Approximately $218 to $236 | Approximately $174 to $204 |
Those figures are estimates built from countywide effective rates applied to a single home value, not a quote for any specific parcel. Every home sits in its own tax area, layered with county, city, school district, and special service district rates that get certified separately each year. The Weber County Assessor's office publishes the current breakdown by tax area, and it's worth pulling before writing an offer rather than after.
Timing matters here too. Weber County cities are certifying their tax year 2026 rates through Truth-in-Taxation hearings this fall, the same annual process every Utah taxing entity goes through. South Weber City's council, for example, held its hearing on August 11, 2026, and adopted an intended rate resolution for the coming tax year. That process is happening right now across Weber County's cities, which means a buyer closing this fall is buying into rates that are being finalized as the transaction moves through underwriting, not rates that were locked in months ago.
The School District Line You Have to Ask About Directly
Roy sits in Weber School District. Clearfield, Layton, and Syracuse sit in Davis School District. That's a structural fact, not a ranking, and boundaries can split neighborhoods that look identical from the street. A buyer weighing Roy against a Davis County suburb should confirm school assignment for a specific address directly with the district before making an offer, since attendance zones shift and don't always follow city limits in the way a listing description implies.
Where BAH, VA Loans, and Utah's Veteran Exemptions Change the Equation
The 2026 Basic Allowance for Housing rate for an E-5 with dependents at Hill AFB (Military Housing Area UT291) is $2,118 a month, up 1.9 percent from 2025. That figure climbs with rank, reaching $2,418 for an E-9 with dependents and $2,715 for an O-5 with dependents. BAH is non-taxable, and it's the number every other calculation in this post gets measured against.
The standard 2026 VA loan limit for Davis, Weber, and Tooele counties is $832,750, though veterans with full entitlement face no cap at all, meaning the limit rarely constrains a purchase anywhere in this market. For a family using a VA loan with zero down, the property tax difference between Roy and a Davis County suburb becomes part of the monthly PITI comparison a lender runs, not a separate line item to budget around later.
Utah also offers two exemptions worth knowing before closing. Active duty or reserve service members who complete 200 or more qualifying days of active duty outside Utah within a single 365 day period receive a full property tax exemption on their primary residence, up to one acre, for the following year. Disabled veterans with a VA disability rating can receive an exemption on a portion of their home's taxable value, scaled to their disability percentage. Both exemptions apply regardless of which county the home sits in, but they're worth confirming with the Weber County Assessor's office directly, since the paperwork and deadlines are handled at the county level.
What This Means If You're Comparing Roy to Clearfield or Syracuse Right Now
The honest version of this comparison isn't Roy versus Davis County. It's landed monthly cost versus landed monthly cost, once the mortgage payment, the property tax line, and the commute to whichever gate you'll actually use are all sitting on the same page. Roy usually still wins that comparison for a junior or mid-grade enlisted family working a flight-line schedule. The margin is just smaller than the sticker prices alone suggest, and a family running the numbers on price and BAH without pulling the actual tax rate for a specific parcel is making the comparison with an incomplete number.
Fall is also the specific window where this matters most. Rates are being certified across Weber County right now, and PCS season inventory in this cluster has historically tightened from March through August, according to guidance written for incoming Hill families. A buyer starting the search this fall, ahead of next year's peak season, has more room to run this exact math against specific addresses before competition picks back up.
A Few Questions Worth Settling Before You Write an Offer
Does BAH actually cover a mortgage payment on a median-priced Roy home? For an E-5 or E-6 with dependents, BAH typically covers a well-priced three or four bedroom resale home with room left for taxes and insurance, though the exact number depends on your rate, your down payment, and current interest rates. Run it with a VA-experienced lender before assuming it pencils.
When do Weber County's 2026 property tax rates become official? Cities across the county certify their rates each fall through Truth-in-Taxation hearings, the same process South Weber City completed in August 2026. If you're closing before your city's rate is certified, ask your title company how proration will be handled.
Does the flight path affect every part of Roy the same way? No. Flight patterns cross parts of town east of 1900 West more directly than the western side. If aircraft noise is a concern, confirm the specific flight pattern for an address before making an offer rather than assuming it applies uniformly across the city.
If you're weighing Roy against a Davis County address near Hill AFB and want the actual numbers run for a specific home, pay grade, and closing timeline rather than a countywide average, Justin Scott has spent years working relocation timelines for Hill AFB families and can walk through the landed cost on a specific parcel before you write an offer.
