Median property tax by state: all 50 states ranked for 2025

Last updated 2026-07-09

Why do property tax rates vary so much from state to state?

Property tax is a local and state creation, top to bottom. The federal government collects none of it. So you get 50 states with 50 systems, and inside each one, thousands of counties, cities, and school districts stacking their own levies on top. The spread runs from Hawaii's 0.28% median effective rate to New Jersey's 2.23%, close to an 8x gap on the same-priced house. ^[1]

Three levers explain most of the difference. How a state defines assessed value (some assess at full market value, others at a fraction). What exemptions shrink the taxable base (homestead, senior, veteran, agricultural). And what local governments are allowed to spend. States that pay for schools mostly through property taxes, like Illinois and New Jersey, land at high effective rates. States that fund schools through income or sales taxes, like Hawaii and Alabama, look cheap. ^[2]

Assessment ratios do a lot of work here. Texas has no state income tax, so school districts lean hard on property. Texas also assesses at 100% of market value with a modest homestead exemption of $100,000 off appraised value for school taxes (up from $40,000 in 2023). ^[3] New Hampshire has no state income or sales tax and funds government partly through property, which pushes its effective rate above 1.9%. ^[1]

When you compare states, use the effective rate. That's actual taxes paid divided by the home's market value, not the nominal rate printed on a rate sheet. In states with partial assessment ratios, those two numbers can differ by a factor of two or more.

What is the median property tax rate in every state?

The table below uses Tax Foundation 2024 data, which draws on U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates, for median effective property tax rate and median annual tax paid. ^[1][4] ACS figures are rolling estimates, so other sources may show slightly different numbers. The ranking runs by effective rate, lowest to highest.

Rank	State	Effective rate	Median annual tax
1	Hawaii	0.28%	$1,971
2	Alabama	0.41%	$587
3	Colorado	0.51%	$1,868
4	Louisiana	0.55%	$983
5	West Virginia	0.57%	$719
6	South Carolina	0.57%	$980
7	Wyoming	0.58%	$1,380
8	Utah	0.60%	$1,912
9	Arkansas	0.62%	$744
10	Delaware	0.63%	$1,466
11	Tennessee	0.68%	$1,202
12	Mississippi	0.68%	$823
13	Arizona	0.72%	$1,648
14	Idaho	0.73%	$1,817
15	California	0.76%	$4,279
16	New Mexico	0.80%	$1,320
17	Nevada	0.84%	$1,889
18	Montana	0.84%	$2,084
19	Virginia	0.87%	$2,842
20	North Carolina	0.88%	$1,668
21	Georgia	0.92%	$1,760
22	Kentucky	0.93%	$1,257
23	North Dakota	1.05%	$1,893
24	Indiana	1.00%	$1,308
25	Florida	1.02%	$2,338
26	Missouri	1.02%	$1,570
27	Oklahoma	1.06%	$1,274
28	Alaska	1.06%	$3,650
29	Oregon	1.07%	$3,352
30	Maryland	1.09%	$3,633
31	Minnesota	1.11%	$2,517
32	Washington	1.13%	$4,526
33	South Dakota	1.22%	$2,101
34	Massachusetts	1.23%	$5,091
35	Maine	1.36%	$2,970
36	Kansas	1.41%	$2,135
37	Michigan	1.54%	$2,551
38	Iowa	1.57%	$2,401
39	Pennsylvania	1.58%	$3,022
40	Ohio	1.59%	$2,447
41	Rhode Island	1.63%	$4,483
42	Nebraska	1.73%	$2,886
43	Texas	1.74%	$3,797
44	Wisconsin	1.85%	$3,472
45	Vermont	1.90%	$4,340
46	New Hampshire	1.93%	$6,036
47	Connecticut	2.15%	$6,484
48	Illinois	2.23%	$4,942
49	New Jersey	2.23%	$8,797

A few states sit on nearly identical effective rates, so you'll see small position swaps across data sources. California's low effective rate (0.76%) reflects Proposition 13, which caps annual assessment increases at 2% for existing owners. ^[5] Its median tax of $4,279 runs high because home prices run high, not the rate.

Want to see how these numbers move year over year? The property tax by state 2024 and property tax by state 2025 pages track the changes. Curious whether any state truly has no property tax? The answer is messier than it sounds: see states with no property tax.

Which states have the highest property taxes?

New Jersey is the most expensive state for property tax as a share of home value, by a real margin. Its 2.23% effective rate puts roughly an $8,920 annual bill on a $400,000 home before any exemptions. ^[1] Illinois matches New Jersey on the effective rate but has lower median home prices, so its median dollar bill ($4,942) comes in lower.

Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont fill out the top five. All three are northeastern states with heavy public-service spending, limited reliance on state income tax (New Hampshire most of all), and thinner homestead programs than you find in the South. ^[1]

Texas belongs in any high-bill conversation even though its effective rate (1.74%) sits below New Jersey's. Median home prices above $215,000 plus that rate push the median annual bill near $3,797. ^[1][3] Texans get a formal protest process with a May 15 deadline most years, and it's one of the most-used appeal systems in the country. See how to appeal property taxes in Texas for the step-by-step.

For a full ranked comparison, states ranked by property tax goes deeper on where the data sources disagree.

Which states have the lowest property taxes?

Hawaii wins on effective rate at 0.28%, though its $1,971 median bill reflects sky-high home prices. Alabama is the real bargain. A 0.41% effective rate on lower home values yields a median annual bill of just $587, the lowest dollar figure in the country. ^[1]

Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, and Wyoming come next. Most of these states pair low rates with meaningful homestead exemptions. Louisiana exempts the first $75,000 of a primary residence's market value from parish (county) taxes, a rule written into Article VII, Section 20 of the Louisiana Constitution. ^[6]

The low-rate club sits mostly in the South and Mountain West. Live in one of those states and your bill still stings? Check your local exemptions. Plenty of Alabama homeowners are over 65 and qualify for a full county property tax exemption they've never claimed.

For the states that come closest to no property tax at all, see what states don't have property tax.

How is a property tax rate actually calculated?

Your bill comes out of one formula:

Taxable value x Mill rate = Tax due

Taxable value isn't the same thing as market value. The county assessor estimates market value, applies the state's assessment ratio to reach assessed value, then subtracts exemptions to reach taxable value. In California, Proposition 13 can hold assessed value far below current market value for long-time owners. In Texas, it has to equal 100% of appraised value minus exemptions. ^[5][3]

The mill rate (or millage) is the levy in dollars per $1,000 of taxable value. One mill equals $1 per $1,000. A home with $200,000 taxable value at 15 mills owes $3,000. County, city, school district, and special districts each set their own millage, and those layers add up to your total.

Those rates reset annually or on a fixed cycle, depending on the state. Many states run countywide reassessments every one, two, or four years. California reassesses only at sale or new construction. That cyclical reassessment is where over-assessments sneak in, and it's why appeal windows open right after notices go out. ^[2]

What is the difference between effective rate and nominal rate?

The nominal rate is the mill rate on paper. The effective rate is what you actually pay as a percentage of your home's market value. They split apart whenever a state assesses at less than 100% of market value.

Take Mississippi. A county's nominal rate might read 120 mills. But Mississippi law assesses residential property at 10% of true value. ^[7] So a $200,000 home has a $20,000 assessed value, and the $2,400 bill works out to 1.2% of assessed value but only 0.68% of true market value. That 0.68% in the table above is the apples-to-apples number.

This is why comparing nominal rates across states is close to useless. Use effective rates for any real comparison. The Tax Foundation, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the U.S. Census Bureau all publish effective rate data. ^[1][4]

For property tax percentage by state in more detail, including how partial-assessment states throw off misleading nominal rates, that page works through the math by region.

How does my local area compare to the state median?

State medians hide big county-level swings. Cook County (Chicago), Illinois runs an effective rate near 2.1% on residential property, close to the state median. Kendall County, out in the Chicago exurbs, can run closer to 2.8%. ^[4] In New York, the statewide median sits around 1.7%, but Nassau County on Long Island tops 2.6%, while many Manhattan co-op and condo owners pay well under 1% because of how New York City classes residential property. ^[8]

Florida shows the same within-state spread. Miami-Dade County's effective rate runs about 1.02%, near the state median. Broward County often sits a bit higher. And any Florida homeowner who has held a homestead property for years gets the Save Our Homes cap, which limits assessment increases to 3% a year. ^[9]

Here's the point: your county assessor's website is the ground truth for your real effective rate. Most assessors publish current mill rates and assessment ratios. Checking your notice against those published numbers is step one of any appeal.

For county-specific research, shelby county property tax and washington county mn property tax show how to read a local notice against state benchmarks.

What drives your property tax bill up even when the rate stays flat?

The mill rate can hold steady while your bill jumps 15% in a year. That happens when the assessor raises the market value estimate, which flows into a higher taxable value even under the same rate.

That's the story across most U.S. markets from 2021 through 2023. Home prices climbed 40% or more in many metros, and reassessments chased them. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy found residential property tax revenues rose 6.9% in 2022, the biggest single-year jump since 2006. ^[10] Plenty of homeowners got notices set at 2021 or 2022 peak values, and in some counties those assessments never corrected down even after prices softened.

That lag is your opening. If your assessment still carries a peak value that no longer matches the market, you have grounds to appeal. You need comparable sales (comps) from around your assessment date showing your home wouldn't fetch what the assessor claims. That's a winnable argument, and no law firm required.

The TaxFightBack DIY appeal kit walks you through pulling comps and building your evidence packet, the same way a contingency firm would, except you keep 100% of the reduction.

For the wider view on what states have the highest property taxes, that page also covers what happens to bills when assessments reset after a hot market.

How do property tax exemptions change the real cost by state?

Exemptions are the hidden variable that muddies state comparisons. Two states with identical effective rates can hand the same household wildly different bills, depending on their exemption programs.

The most common is the homestead exemption, offered in nearly every state for primary residences. Texas raised its school district homestead exemption to $100,000 in 2023 under Proposition 4, which voters approved in November 2023. ^[3] Florida's runs $50,000 (the first $25,000 applies to all taxes, the second $25,000 applies to all taxes except school district levies). ^[9]

Senior exemptions stack on top of homestead exemptions in many states, sometimes freezing assessed value outright after a certain age. Georgia offers a school tax exemption for homeowners 62 or older, removing the school district levy (often the biggest single line on the bill) for those who qualify. ^[11]

Veteran exemptions, disability exemptions, and agricultural-use (current-use) exemptions can also cut the effective rate hard for qualifying properties. If you've never audited which exemptions apply to you, that's often the fastest way to lower your bill without filing a formal appeal.

See how to appeal property taxes in Georgia for a full breakdown of Georgia's layered exemptions, some of the more generous in the South.

Can you appeal your property tax assessment, and what does it cost to do it yourself?

Yes. Every state has a formal appeal process, and no state's law forces you to hire a representative. ^[2] The process usually runs like this: you get an assessment notice, you have a window (often 30 to 90 days from the notice date) to file a formal appeal or ask for an informal review, you present evidence that the assessor's value is too high, and a board or hearing officer either adjusts it or doesn't.

The strongest evidence is recent comparable sales of similar homes near yours that sold for less than the assessor's value. Grab your property record card too (free from the assessor) to catch errors in square footage, bedroom count, or condition that could be inflating your value.

Contingency firms charge 25% to 40% of one year's tax savings, often locked in for several years. On a $4,000 bill cut by 15%, you'd hand a firm $150 to $240 for work you can copy in a few hours with the right template.

Deadlines don't bend. Illinois runs a roughly 30-day window after assessment notices that varies by county and tax year cycle. New York has formal Grievance Day in most jurisdictions, usually the fourth Tuesday in May. New Jersey's county tax board deadline is April 1 (or 45 days from the mailing of the assessment notice, whichever is later). ^[12] Miss the deadline and you wait a full year.

For state-specific deadlines and procedures: how to appeal property taxes in Illinois, how to appeal property taxes in New Jersey, how to appeal property taxes in New York, and how to appeal property taxes in Florida each cover the local process in full.

Does personal property get taxed the same way as real property?

No, and the split matters. Real property tax (the subject of this article) hits land and the structures on it. Personal property tax hits movable assets: vehicles, boats, business equipment, and in some states, household furnishings.

Around 43 states levy some form of personal property tax, though most have exempted household goods. Business tangible personal property gets taxed in about 38 states. Virginia is the well-known example, with an annual car property tax that varies by county and city. ^[13]

The rates and assessment methods for personal property often differ entirely from real property rules inside the same state. Same local assessors, different statutes.

For which states tax vehicles and other personal property, see car property tax by state and personal property tax by state.

Frequently asked questions

What state has the lowest property tax rate?

Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate at about 0.28% of market value. Its median annual bill still runs near $1,971 because Hawaii home prices are so high. For the lowest dollar amount paid, Alabama wins: a 0.41% rate on lower home values produces a median annual bill around $587, the least of any state.

What state has the highest property tax rate?

New Jersey and Illinois both carry effective rates near 2.23%, the highest in the country. New Jersey's median annual bill of $8,797 is the largest dollar amount of any state. Connecticut and New Hampshire follow close behind. All four are northeastern states where local governments fund heavy public services through property levies instead of income or sales taxes.

What is the average property tax rate in the United States?

The national average effective property tax rate is roughly 1.1% of home market value, based on Tax Foundation analysis of Census Bureau data. The median annual dollar bill is about $2,795. Both figures hide big variation: a New Jersey homeowner pays more than 15 times what a comparable Hawaii homeowner pays as a share of home value.

How often do property tax assessments change?

It depends on the state. Some require full countywide reassessments every year (Florida assesses annually, for instance). Others run on 2-year, 4-year, or longer cycles. California reassesses only at sale or new construction under Proposition 13. Check your state's department of revenue or local assessor's site for the reassessment schedule, because the timing shapes when an appeal makes the most sense to file.

Can I lower my property tax without hiring a lawyer or contingency firm?

Yes. Every state's appeal process is open to homeowners without representation. You need your property record card, a handful of recent comparable sales near you that support a lower value, and a completed appeal form from your local assessor or review board. The evidence rules aren't complicated. Most appeals settle at the informal review level, well before any formal hearing.

What is a homestead exemption and do I have to apply for it?

A homestead exemption reduces the taxable value of your primary residence, lowering your bill. Most states make you apply once, though a few apply it automatically. Texas requires an application with the county appraisal district. Florida also requires one, usually by March 1 of the tax year. Check your county assessor's site to confirm you already receive any exemptions you qualify for.

Why is California's property tax bill so high even though the rate is low?

California's effective rate is about 0.76%, one of the lower rates nationally, because Proposition 13 (1978) caps annual assessment increases at 2% for existing owners. But median home prices in California rank among the highest in the country, so even a 0.76% rate on a $550,000 median home produces a bill near $4,200 a year. The rate is low. The base is enormous.

Do property tax rates differ within a state, or is there one rate per state?

Rates differ a lot within a state. Each county, city, school district, and special district sets its own levy, and they all stack. In Illinois, Cook County (Chicago) and a rural downstate county follow the same state law but land at very different total effective rates based on local budgets. State medians help for broad comparison, but your actual rate comes from your local assessor and can sit well above or below the state median.

What is the deadline to appeal a property tax assessment?

Deadlines vary widely by state. New Jersey's county tax board deadline is April 1 or 45 days from the assessment notice, whichever is later. New York's formal Grievance Day falls on the fourth Tuesday in May in most jurisdictions. Texas sets its protest deadline at May 15 or 30 days from the appraisal notice, whichever is later. Miss it and you wait a full year. Find your deadline through your county assessor's website right after your notice arrives.

Are property taxes deductible on my federal income tax return?

Yes, but with a real limit. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 capped the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which includes property taxes plus state income or sales taxes, at $10,000 per year ($5,000 for married filing separately). That cap is set to expire after 2025 unless Congress acts. For homeowners in high-tax states like New Jersey or Connecticut, the cap wipes out most of the federal deduction value.

What evidence do I need to win a property tax appeal?

The strongest evidence is recent comparable sales: homes close in size, age, condition, and location that sold near your assessment date for less than your assessed value. Three to five solid comps usually do it. Get your property record card too, to catch factual errors (wrong square footage, extra bathrooms, condition rating). An independent appraisal strengthens your case but adds cost and is usually only worth it on high-value properties.

Does a lower property tax rate always mean a lower bill?

No. Your bill is the tax rate times your taxable value. A state with a low rate and very high home prices can produce a bigger bill than a state with a higher rate and modest prices. Hawaii is the cleanest example: the lowest effective rate in the country (0.28%) still generates a $1,971 median bill because homes are expensive. Look at both the rate and the assessed value when you compare.

How do I find my property's current assessed value?

Your county assessor's office publishes assessed values, usually through a searchable online database. Search for your county assessor's website (or the county auditor or appraiser, depending on your state's terminology) and find the property search tool. You'll see the assessor's market value estimate, any exemptions applied, the taxable value, and often the prior year's value for comparison. That record also lists lot size and building square footage worth checking for errors.

What is the SALT deduction cap and how does it affect high-property-tax states?

The SALT cap limits the federal deduction for state and local taxes (including property taxes) to $10,000 per household per year. Before 2018, the deduction was unlimited, which made high-property-tax states like New Jersey and Illinois more bearable for federal taxpayers. Now a New Jersey homeowner paying $9,000 in property taxes plus state income taxes gets almost no added federal benefit. The cap is scheduled to expire after December 31, 2025 absent Congressional action.

Sources

1. Tax Foundation, 'Property Taxes by State and County': Effective property tax rates by state ranging from 0.28% (Hawaii) to 2.23% (New Jersey); median annual dollar bills by state
2. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 'Significant Features of the Property Tax': States set their own assessment rules, ratios, and exemption structures; appeal rights exist in all states
3. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, 'Residence Homestead Exemption': Texas assesses residential property at 100% of appraised value; Proposition 4 (November 2023) raised school district homestead exemption to $100,000
4. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey: Median real estate taxes paid and median home value estimates used to derive effective property tax rates by state and county
5. California State Board of Equalization, 'Proposition 13 Overview': California's Proposition 13 caps annual assessment increases at 2% for existing owners and reassesses at market value only upon sale or new construction
6. Louisiana Department of Revenue, 'Homestead Exemption': Louisiana exempts the first $75,000 of market value of a primary residence from parish property taxes under Article VII, Section 20 of the Louisiana Constitution
7. New York City Department of Finance, 'Property Tax': New York City residential property is divided into tax classes; Class 1 (1-3 family homes) and co-op/condo Class 2 are taxed at different rates producing wide effective rate variation within New York State
8. Florida Department of Revenue, 'Property Tax Exemptions': Florida's homestead exemption is $50,000 total; the Save Our Homes assessment cap limits increases to 3% annually for homestead properties
9. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, '50-State Property Tax Comparison Study': Residential property tax revenues rose 6.9% in 2022, the largest single-year increase since 2006
10. Georgia Department of Revenue, 'Property Tax Exemptions': Georgia offers a school tax exemption for homeowners age 62 or older that removes the school district levy for qualifying properties
11. New Jersey Division of Taxation, 'Property Tax Appeal': New Jersey property tax appeal deadline is April 1 or 45 days from the mailing of the assessment notice, whichever is later
12. Virginia Department of Taxation, 'Personal Property Tax': Virginia levies an annual personal property tax on vehicles that varies by county and city