RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY TAXES IN THE UNITED STATES
 
by Benjamin H. Harris and Brian David Moore, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center November 18, 2013
 
ABSTRACT
 
This brief presents an overview of residential property taxes in the United States. The brief considers recent trends in aggregate property tax revenues and examines the property tax at the county level. Property taxes are an important source of revenue for local governments, though effective property tax rates vary substantially by state and region. The counties with the highest property tax burdens tend to be in New York and New Jersey, while the counties with the lowest property tax burdens are located in Alabama and Louisiana. Most counties levy property taxes that are around $1,000 per homeowner and below 1 percent of house value....

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Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), this brief provides an overview of self-reported property taxes in the United States, including aggregate trends and
variation across localities. Several important results emerge. One, most self-reported property tax burdens are between 0.5 percent and 1.0 percent of the home value, amounting to between $500 and $2,000. Two, these self-reported burdens vary substantially by region, with especially high rates in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest. Three, while property tax burdens vary substantially across counties—with property taxes as a share of home values ranging from 0.2 percent (Maui County, Hawaii) to 3.1 percent (Wayne County, New York) in 2011—most of the variation is due to variation across rather than within states, in part reflecting state laws and dependence on property taxes versus other state and local revenue sources....

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Self-reported residential property tax burdens vary by state. Most states have average per household property tax revenues between $1,000 and $3,000, but a handful of states fall out of this range. Over 2007–2011, ten states had average property tax collections in excess of $3,000.  Eight states, almost all in the south, had average property taxes of $1,000 or less (table 1). As a share of housing values, residents in all but 14 states paid between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent in taxes. Residents in three states, Delaware, Hawaii, and Louisiana, paid 0.5 percent or less, while residents in 11 states, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New York, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin, paid more than 1.5 percent....

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