Property Tax by State (2026): Highest & Lowest Ranked

A homeowner in Hawaii and a homeowner in New Jersey can own identical $400,000 houses and pay roughly $7,000 apart in property tax every year. Same price, same square footage, completely different bill. Anyone trying to make sense of property tax US data quickly runs into this: the sticker price of a home tells you almost nothing about what you'll actually pay in taxes on it.

This guide is a full property tax by state comparison for 2026 - every state ranked from highest to lowest, what changed in the past year, and the specific steps that lower a bill that's too high. Property tax is the largest source of state and local government revenue in the country, and the median US bill sits at $3,500 a year and has climbed steadily for several years running (Realtor.com, 2024 data). Where you buy determines whether your share of that is a rounding error or a second mortgage payment.

Whether you're searching for property taxes by state 2026, comparing property tax rates by state, or simply trying to find the best states for property taxes before you buy, the property tax US numbers below are the ones that actually decide your monthly payment.

Property tax is a recurring local tax based on your home's assessed value. The formula behind every property tax bill in the country is the same, even when the outcome doesn't feel that way:

Property Tax = Assessed Value × Effective Tax Rate

A $350,000 home taxed at a 1.2% effective tax rate owes $4,200 a year, or $350 a month. That amount gets folded into your monthly mortgage payment through escrow, alongside principal, interest, and homeowners insurance - which is why your property tax payment rarely shows up as a separate bill you write a check for once you have a mortgage. Two buyers purchasing the same $350,000 home in different states could see a $300 to $600 monthly difference in their total payment, and none of that gap comes from the loan itself. Every property tax US bill follows this same basic math, no matter which state, county, or school district is doing the billing.

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Assessed value and market value aren't the same number, and mixing them up is the most common reason homeowners misjudge what they'll pay.

Some states assess homes at 100% of market value. Others assess at 70% to 90%, which is part of why you can't calculate property tax accurately just by looking at a listing price.

You'll also see rates expressed as "mills" in official county documents rather than as a plain percentage. A mill is one dollar of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. Eighteen mills on a $350,000 home works out to $6,300 a year - the same math as an effective tax rate of 1.8%, just written differently. If you want to calculate effective tax rate yourself, divide the annual bill by the home's market value; that's the number worth comparing across counties, not the nominal mill rate, since assessment ratios differ by state. Getting assessed value and market value confused is the part of the property tax US system that trips up most first-time buyers, more than any other single detail.

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Effective rates are typically calculated as median property tax paid divided by median home value, using U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data. Different outlets report figures that vary by a few tenths of a percentage point for the same state, usually because they're pulling from different survey years or rounding methods. Treat any single-state figure here as directionally accurate rather than exact to the decimal - that caveat applies across almost every property tax US ranking you'll find online, not just this one.

Here's how the property tax rates by state break down for 2026, from the states with the highest property tax burden to the states with the lowest. The property tax US map skews heavily toward the Northeast at the top of this list, for reasons that have more to do with school funding models than with anything unique about the region's homes. Anyone comparing average property tax by state figures will notice the same regional pattern repeat across almost every national dataset.

If you searched what states have the highest property taxes, what state has the highest property tax, or a top 10 highest property tax states list, this table is the core answer - and it holds up whether you're looking at 2025 data or the highest property taxes by state 2026 figures below.

New Jersey property tax bills are the highest in the country by dollar amount, not just by rate - its 2.2% effective rate combined with above-average home values produces a median bill over $9,000 a year in several recent surveys. New Jersey tax rate discussions online almost always lead with this number, and it holds up: no other state combines a high rate with high home values quite the same way. For anyone tracking states with highest property tax rates year over year, New Jersey and Illinois have held the top two spots consistently.

Illinois property tax and Illinois real estate taxes follow a similar pattern to New Jersey, driven mostly by heavy reliance on property tax to fund local schools rather than state-level funding.

New York property tax, and the new york city tax rate specifically, run high enough that New York consistently lands in national top-ten lists, even though its effective rate is lower than New Jersey's or Illinois's. Home values in and around New York City do a lot of the work.

Texas property tax is a special case worth its own callout. Texas real estate taxes and the Texas property tax rate remain among the highest in the country because Texas has no state income tax, so property tax and sales tax carry more of the load for schools and local government. State of Texas property taxes did drop for many homeowners after November 2025's homestead exemption increase (more on that below), but homeowners taxes in Texas are still well above the national median for most properties. Texas's placement near the top of the property tax US table often surprises buyers relocating from a no-income-tax state, expecting a matching break on property tax that never arrives.

Massachusetts and California show up on some "highest bill" lists too, but for a different reason than New Jersey or Illinois: their tax rates are close to the national average, and it's high home values doing the work, not the rate itself. A high property tax bill and a high property tax rate are not always the same thing, and that distinction is worth remembering any time you're comparing a highest property tax states list, a states with the highest property taxes ranking, or an highest property taxes in us search result to your own numbers. Anyone specifically shopping the states with highest property taxes 2026, highest property tax states us 2026, or us states with highest property tax rates 2026 data will land on this same seven-state group at the top.

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On the other end, the searches are just as common: states with lowest property tax, lowest property tax states, states with the lowest property taxes, states with low property tax, what states have the lowest property taxes, which states have the lowest property taxes, what state has the lowest property taxes, and state with lowest property tax all point to the same table below. At the other end of the property tax US spectrum, the picture looks very different, and rate alone won't tell you what a state actually costs to own a home in.

State of Hawaii property tax is the clearest example of why rate and dollar amount tell different stories. Property tax in Hawaii carries the lowest rate in the country, but median home values above $800,000 mean the actual annual bill still lands in the $2,000 to $2,300 range for a typical Hawaii property - not the rock-bottom number the rate alone would suggest. Hawaii's spot at the bottom of the property tax US rate table depends entirely on which metric you're reading, rate or dollars - and it's why Hawaii tops nearly every lowest property taxes in usa and cheapest property taxes in us list despite its high home prices.

South Carolina property tax and Colorado real estate taxes both land solidly in the cheapest property taxes and low property tax states group, alongside Alabama and Louisiana. Florida real estate taxes run moderate rather than rock-bottom. Florida property tax sits closer to the middle of the pack once you account for rising home values, even though Florida has no state income tax.

CA property taxes deserve a specific note: California's rate is close to the national average, but Proposition 13 limits how fast assessed values can rise for long-term owners, so two neighbors can pay very different bills depending on how long ago they bought.

West Virginia consistently posts the lowest median property tax bill nationally in dollar terms, at under $900 a year, thanks to a combination of a modest rate and low median home values. Among the top 10 states with cheapest property taxes by rate, Hawaii, Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, and West Virginia show up most consistently across national rankings, though the exact order shifts slightly depending on which year's data a given ranking uses. If you're specifically hunting for states with lowest property tax rates 2026 or the broader us states with lowest property tax rates 2026 picture, this same group of ten states is the one worth bookmarking, and several of them would fairly be called the best states for property taxes for a budget-conscious buyer.

County property tax and county real estate tax rates matter more than the state average in most of these states, since counties and school districts set the actual millage rate, not the state government.

Beyond a simple highest-to-lowest ranking, it helps to look at average property tax by state and average property taxes by state side by side with the effective property tax rate by state, since the two numbers tell different stories - one is the typical dollar bill, the other is the rate applied against home value. For 2026 planning specifically, the property tax rates by state 2026 and property tax rate by state 2026 figures above are the ones worth using, rather than older survey data. Looking further out, the average property tax rate by state us 2026 and average effective property tax rate by state 2026 trend lines both point toward modest increases nationally, with the effective property tax rates by state 2026 table above serving as the current baseline. For buyers comparing markets side by side, the highest property tax rates by state us 2026 and us states with highest property tax rates 2026 figures are the same New Jersey-Illinois-Connecticut cluster referenced earlier in this guide.

No state in the country charges zero property tax. Nowhere in the property tax US system does a state actually charge nothing, no matter what the search results for "states with no property tax" seem to promise. Every state funds some portion of local services through real estate taxation, and states with no property tax simply don't exist as a category - the confusion almost always comes from mixing up "no state income tax" with "no property tax," which are unrelated.

Texas, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, and Washington are the states without income tax, and several of them still carry above-average property tax rates because property tax does more of the heavy lifting where there's no income tax states revenue to fall back on. Florida state tax and Florida state income tax specifically don't exist at the state level, but Florida property tax absolutely does. The same logic applies to income tax in Texas: there isn't any, but that doesn't make Texas a low-property-tax state.

If your actual goal is lowering total housing cost, the more useful question isn't "which states with no state tax exist," since none do in the property tax sense, but "which states with low property taxes fit the home price you're shopping for."

Two changes are worth knowing if you're buying or already own in the affected states, and they help answer a question a lot of people are searching right now: did property taxes go up in 2026, and is there any relief coming.

• Texas. Voters approved Proposition 13 in the November 2025 election, raising the general homestead exemption for school district property taxes from $100,000 to $140,000, retroactive to the 2025 tax year. A companion measure raised the additional exemption for seniors and homeowners with disabilities, bringing their combined exemption to $200,000. Independent estimates put average homeowner savings around $490 a year, with seniors and disabled homeowners seeing more (Texas Tribune, Ownwell).
• Florida. A 2024 constitutional amendment ties part of the state's homestead exemption to inflation going forward, so the exemption grows automatically in years when inflation is higher, rather than requiring a new ballot measure each time.

These are the two biggest property tax US policy shifts worth tracking into 2026, and both work in the homeowner's favor rather than adding pressure.

Beyond these two, most states offer some combination of homestead, senior, veteran, or disability exemptions administered at the county level. Eligibility rules, dollar amounts, and application deadlines vary significantly by county, not just by state, so checking your local assessor's office directly is worth more than any national summary, including this one.

Will property taxes go down in 2026 nationally? Most forecasts point the other way - continued moderate increases driven by ongoing assessment catch-up and local budget pressure, even where relief programs like Texas's expanded homestead exemption are working to offset some of it for individual homeowners.

Appealing an assessment is more routine than most homeowners assume, and success rates are meaningful when the evidence is solid.

1. Check your assessment notice against reality: Square footage, lot size, and condition are the details most often recorded incorrectly, and even small errors can lower your taxable value.
2. Pull comparable sales: Recent sales of similar homes nearby, and their assessed values, are the core evidence in almost every successful appeal.
3. Start informally: Many assessors will correct clear errors after a phone call or short meeting, before you ever file a formal appeal.
4. File formally if the informal route doesn't work: This usually means a written application with your county's board of review or assessment appeals board, sometimes with a modest fee.
5. Show up prepared: Bring your comps, your photos, and a clear explanation of why the assessed value overstates the home's condition or market position.
6. Claim every exemption you actually qualify for: Homestead, senior, veteran, and disability exemptions typically need to be applied for, and some require annual renewal.

Illinois, Maryland, and California each run appeals through county-level boards with their own forms and deadlines, so the steps above are a starting point, not a substitute for checking your specific county's process. The property tax US appeal process follows a similar pattern in nearly every county, even where the paperwork and terminology differ.

Lenders don't calculate your monthly payment from principal and interest alone. Your property tax bill gets escrowed monthly alongside your mortgage payment and insurance, and it counts against your debt-to-income ratio the same way your loan payment does. Your lender treats property tax US obligations as a fixed part of that monthly number, not an afterthought added at the end.

That $500 monthly gap on an identical home price can be the difference between qualifying for your target loan amount and needing a larger down payment to bring your ratios in line. It's one of the reasons getting prequalified before you fall in love with a specific address matters more in high-tax states than in low-tax ones - the number that changes your affordability isn't always the price tag, and it's rarely the one buyers check first.