Property taxes have been increasing in recent years—the average annual bill now is close to $3,000. That $3,000 figure no doubt seems surprisingly low to some homeowners but surprisingly high to others. That’s because property taxes vary dramatically based not only on a home’s value but also its location.
Bottom Line Personal recently asked WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo what people need to know about state-by-state personal property-tax rates…
Every state has property taxes
Some states have no state income taxes, but every state has property taxes. Property taxes are calculated based on a property’s “assessed value,” which isn’t necessarily the same as its market value, but the two figures tend to be closely related. Below is a list of property taxes by state…
| Rank | State | Effective Real-Estate Tax Rate | Annual Taxes on $303.4K Home* | State Median Home Value |
| (1=Lowest) | ||||
| 1 | Hawaii | 0.27% | $820 | $808,200 |
| 2 | Alabama | 0.38% | $1,148 | $195,100 |
| 3 | Nevada | 0.49% | $1,472 | $406,100 |
| 3 | Colorado | 0.49% | $1,479 | $502,200 |
| 5 | South Carolina | 0.51% | $1,537 | $236,700 |
| 6 | Arizona | 0.52% | $1,571 | $358,900 |
| 7 | Delaware | 0.53% | $1,607 | $326,800 |
| 7 | Idaho | 0.53% | $1,619 | $376,000 |
| 7 | Utah | 0.53% | $1,608 | $455,000 |
| 10 | West Virginia | 0.54% | $1,628 | $155,600 |
| 11 | Tennessee | 0.55% | $1,654 | $256,800 |
| 11 | Louisiana | 0.55% | $1,666 | $208,700 |
| 13 | Arkansas | 0.57% | $1,736 | $175,300 |
| 14 | District of Columbia | 0.58% | $1,750 | $724,600 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 0.58% | $1,765 | $285,100 |
| 16 | North Carolina | 0.70% | $2,123 | $259,400 |
| 17 | California | 0.71% | $2,149 | $695,400 |
| 18 | New Mexico | 0.72% | $2,181 | $232,200 |
| 19 | Indiana | 0.74% | $2,251 | $201,600 |
| 19 | Mississippi | 0.74% | $2,235 | $161,400 |
| 19 | Virginia | 0.74% | $2,259 | $360,700 |
| 22 | Montana | 0.75% | $2,275 | $338,100 |
| 23 | Kentucky | 0.77% | $2,322 | $192,300 |
| 24 | Florida | 0.79% | $2,385 | $325,000 |
| 25 | Georgia | 0.81% | $2,461 | $272,900 |
| 26 | Oklahoma | 0.82% | $2,481 | $185,900 |
| 27 | Oregon | 0.83% | $2,516 | $454,200 |
| 28 | Washington | 0.84% | $2,545 | $519,800 |
| 29 | Missouri | 0.88% | $2,655 | $215,600 |
| 30 | North Dakota | 0.99% | $3,010 | $241,100 |
| 31 | Maryland | 1.00% | $3,043 | $397,700 |
| 32 | Minnesota | 1.04% | $3,162 | $305,500 |
| 33 | South Dakota | 1.09% | $3,318 | $236,800 |
| 34 | Maine | 1.10% | $3,332 | $266,400 |
| 35 | Massachusetts | 1.11% | $3,354 | $525,800 |
| 36 | Alaska | 1.14% | $3,445 | $333,300 |
| 37 | Michigan | 1.28% | $3,897 | $217,600 |
| 38 | Kansas | 1.30% | $3,942 | $203,400 |
| 39 | Rhode Island | 1.32% | $3,993 | $368,800 |
| 40 | Pennsylvania | 1.35% | $4,089 | $240,500 |
| 41 | Ohio | 1.36% | $4,131 | $199,200 |
| 42 | Iowa | 1.43% | $4,329 | $195,900 |
| 43 | Nebraska | 1.50% | $4,542 | $223,800 |
| 44 | Wisconsin | 1.51% | $4,594 | $247,400 |
| 45 | Texas | 1.58% | $4,790 | $260,400 |
| 46 | New York | 1.60% | $4,856 | $403,000 |
| 47 | Vermont | 1.71% | $5,176 | $290,500 |
| 48 | New Hampshire | 1.77% | $5,375 | $367,200 |
| 49 | Connecticut | 1.92% | $5,813 | $343,200 |
| 50 | Illinois | 2.07% | $6,285 | $250,500 |
| 51 | New Jersey | 2.23% | $6,770 | $427,600 |
*$303,400 is the median home value in the U.S. as of 2023, the year of the most recent available data. Source: WalletHub.
The state that comes closest to a 0% property-tax rate is not a tax bargain
Hawaii has an average real estate property tax rate of just 0.27%—the lowest of any state. But don’t set sail for the Hawaiian Islands just yet—Hawaiians actually face the nation’s highest overall tax burden by some measures. Not only are Hawaii’s income and sales tax rates steep, but home values in Hawaii are also so high—the median home value is over $800,000—that even a 0.27% property tax rate produces significant annual property tax bills.
The state with the second-lowest property taxes imposes relatively modest taxes
Alabama’s 0.38% average property-tax rate is the second lowest in the nation. Combined with that state’s affordable real estate—median home value is below $200,000—Alabama has lowest-in-the-US average annual property-tax bill of just $738. West Virginia is the only other state where this figure is below $1,000. Combined with Alabama’s below-average state income tax rates, this results in an overall state tax burden below that of two no-income-tax states—Washington and Nevada.
A dozen states plus DC have property-tax rates between 0.49% and 0.58%
These states are Colorado, Nevada, South Carolina, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Delaware, West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, DC and Wyoming. Two of these 12 states—Colorado and Utah—have average annual property-tax bills above $2,400 despite their low tax rates because of the high average value of homes. DC is even worse, with an average property tax bill of nearly $4,200.
On the other hand, West Virginia, Arkansas and South Carolina combine low tax rates with low average home values, resulting in average annual property-tax bills below $1,200.
Only four of the 12 states on this list can truly be considered low-property-tax states overall. Wyoming and Tennessee offer both below-average real estate taxes and no state income tax, resulting in some of the country’s lowest state-tax burdens. Delaware combines modest property-tax rates with extremely low sales taxes to deliver relatively low overall taxes despite relatively high state income taxes…and Idaho imposes below-average property taxes, income taxes and sales taxes.
States with the highest property-tax burden are mainly in the Northeast
The nation’s absolute worst property taxes are in the Garden State—New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation average real estate property-tax rate of 2.23% combined with that state’s above-average home values results in a median annual tax bill of $9,541. And that’s just the median bill—many New Jersey homeowners face annual property tax bills well into five figures.
Following New Jersey on this highest-property-tax-rate list are Illinois, with a 2.07% rate…Connecticut at 1.92%…New Hampshire at 1.77%…Vermont at 1.71%…and New York at 1.6%. The Northeast’s high home values mean that these high rates tend to result in hefty bills—the average annual real estate tax bill in each of these states lands between $4,900 and $6,600. These high-property-tax states tend to have relatively steep state income taxes, as well, with the exception of New Hampshire, which imposes no state income taxes on most income. Next on the highest-property-tax list are Texas, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kansas, and Michigan.
Ranking state-wide property-tax rates can hide significant local variation
It’s convenient to talk about taxes in terms of state-by-state data, but property-tax rates actually are set by local municipalities and can vary sharply from one town to the next. It’s worth investigating what the rates are in a specific community before buying property there—contact the town or county assessor’s office if you can’t find this info elsewhere.
Renters don’t escape property taxes
If you rent your home rather than own it, your landlord pays the property taxes— but if that landlord faces steep property-tax bills, he/she almost certainly will pass along those costs to tenants in the form of higher monthly rent.
Property taxes are imposed on vehicles, too, in about half of the states
These vehicular property taxes aren’t a one-time tax paid only when a vehicle is purchased. They’re an annual charge and can significantly add to the ongoing cost of car ownership. The highest vehicular property-tax rates are in Virginia, 3.97%… Mississippi, 3.45%…Missouri, 2.53%…South Carolina, 2.53%…Maine, 2.4%…Nebraska, 2.3%…Massachusetts, 2.25%…and Connecticut, 2.11%. These tax rates can result in big bills in this era of ultra-high car prices. The average price of a new car is around $49,000, which in Virginia would create a property-tax bill of nearly $2,000 in the first year of ownership alone.
