Breaking Down Property Tax Rates by State

When you’re choosing a state to live in, you want to consider a couple of key factors. And one of the big one: property taxes. Property tax rates vary widely by state, with some states requiring more than double the amount in property taxes than others. So if you’re trying to keep costs at a minimum in your new home, it’s always a good idea to see how much you’ll be expected to pay in property taxes every year.

What are property taxes?

Before we get into the numbers, it’s helpful to go over what property taxes are and what they do. After all, you’re going to have to pay them either way—it helps to know what you’re paying for.

In addition to things like federal, state, and local income taxes, homeowners must pay taxes on their property. This applies to structures like houses and other buildings, as well as vacant land. Some states even charge taxes on other types of property, such as cars, boats, and RVs.

Each municipality has their own property tax rates, which are a percentage of your home’s worth. When it comes to assessing that worth, your town or city may consider the market value of your home, its assessed value, or its appraised value. They may also use a ratio of your home’s assessed value to its market value to determine what amount you’re going to be taxed on.

As for where your property tax dollars go, that varies too, though they’re primarily used for things like education, roads, recreation, public transportation, pensions, and local government staff salaries. If you fail to pay your property taxes, you could face steep fines and penalties, and you may even be evicted from your home.

Property tax rates by state

Here are the median property tax rates by state, ranked from lowest to highest and based on 2023 data from tax-rates.org.

Louisiana: 0.18%
Hawaii: 0.26%
Alabama: 0.33%
Delaware: 0.43%
District of Columbia: 0.46%
West Virginia: 0.49%
South Carolina: 0.5%
Arkansas: 0.52%
Mississippi: 0.52%
New Mexico: 0.55%
Wyoming: 0.58%
Utah: 0.6%
Colorado: 0.6%
Tennessee: 0.68%
Idaho: 0.69%
Kentucky: 0.72%
Arizona: 0.72%
Virginia: 0.74%
Oklahoma: 0.74%
California: 0.74%
North Carolina: 0.78%
Montana: 0.83%
Georgia: 0.83%
Nevada: 0.84%
Indiana: 0.85%
Oregon: 0.87%
Maryland: 0.87%
Missouri: 0.91%
Washington: 0.92%
Florida: 0.97%
Alaska: 1.04%
Massachusetts: 1.04%
Minnesota: 1.05%
Maine: 1.09%
New York: 1.23%
South Dakota: 1.28%
Kansas: 1.29%
Iowa: 1.29%
Pennsylvania: 1.35%
Rhode Island: 1.35%
Ohio: 1.36%
North Dakota: 1.42%
Vermont: 1.59%
Michigan: 1.62%
Connecticut: 1.63%
Illinois: 1.73%
Wisconsin: 1.76%
Nebraska: 1.76%
Texas: 1.81%
New Hampshire: 1.86%
New Jersey: 1.89%

You probably notice some patterns, particularly that property tax rates tend to be lower in the south and west corners of the country and higher in the north, Midwest, and Northeast. It’s worth noting again that individual municipalities set their own property tax rates, and the information for each state is based on the median of the rates of all the municipalities within that state. So if you live in Ohio, for example, you’ll likely pay either a bit more or a bit less than the median rate of 1.36%.

How to calculate property taxes

There’s a lot of math that goes into calculating property tax amounts, but fortunately you can use an online property tax calculator to do the hard work for you. You just have to plug in the value of a property and the applied tax rate and the calculator will do the rest.

What if you’re just planning to move so you don’t know the value of your next home yet? While you won’t be able to get a concrete amount, you can get a general idea regarding how much you’ll spend in property taxes every year by typing in the expected value of the home you’ll buy. Be sure to research the specific property tax rate in the town or city you’re looking to move to instead of going off just the median property tax rates by state.

For budgeting purposes, it can be helpful to play around with a property tax calculator and see what you’d have to spend based on a variety of different home values. This will help you determine what you can afford in a state once you account for property tax rates.

Is there any way to lower property taxes?

It can be a tough pill to swallow if you’re living in—or planning a move to—a state with a high property tax rate. And while there are no guaranteed means to lowering property taxes, there are steps that you can take to see if you might be able to pare down your property tax bill a little bit.

The main thing you have to do to reduce your property taxes is show that the assessed value of your home is actually lower than what your property taxes were based off of. Local assessors are human and they do make mistakes, so it could pay to look into the data.

Start by looking over any documents your local government has sent you on the topic. These assessment letters generally break down the factors that play in to the value of your home, such as lot size and number of rooms. If you see a mistake, you can appeal the assessment in the hopes of lowering your property tax bill.

A good next step is to compare your home’s assessed value to the values of the homes around you. For the most accurate information you’ll have to ask your neighbors directly, but if you’re not quite ready to do that you can always just search online to see what you can find in terms of market values. If there’s a big discrepancy between what your home is valued at and what other homes nearby are valued at, it could be due to human error.

A final note on property tax rates

Ultimately, you don’t have a ton of control over the amount you’re going to pay in property taxes each year aside from being sure that you purchase a home within your budget. If you’re considering a move to another state, do take property tax rates into consideration so that you’re not completely surprised when the bills come due (which generally happens twice a year).

And even in states where property taxes are high, it’s worth keeping in mind that you do get direct benefits from them. While they might be a pain to pay, look on the bright side: we can all agree that it’s important for localities to have money to support their infrastructures and community.