Top 10 States With the Highest—and Lowest—Taxes

It is tax season again, and as everyone heads to their local accountant or fumbles around on guided computer programs, homeowners have another item to juggle: property taxes. But not every state is equal in how much homeowners owe, and where a homeowner decides to settle down can have a huge impact on that figure. For example, living in New Jersey can cost you $8,104 in property taxes, while Alabama averages a mere $572. Check out the 2020 Property Taxes by State report by WalletHub to see where your state ranks. 

Wondering how much you’re paying in property taxes relative to other states? The personal finance website WalletHub has released its 2020 Property Taxes by State report, which offers a comparison of annual property taxes across the United States.

The average American household spends $2,375 annually on real estate property taxes, and, according to the National Tax Lien Association, more than $14 billion in property taxes go unpaid each year.

In order to rank property taxes, by state, from highest to lowest, researchers compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia using U.S. Census Bureau data to determine real estate property tax rates. Researchers divided “median real estate tax payment” by the “median home price” in each state, then used the results to obtain the dollar amount paid as real estate tax on a house worth $204,900. (Note: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, $204,900 is the median value for a home in the U.S. as of 2018.)

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