States With the Highest Property Taxes

In certain states, homes can be cheap, property tax rates are less than half of 1% and the average property tax payment is just a few hundred bucks per year.

In the most expensive states, however, rates soar over 2%, homes are pricey and average annual property tax bills routinely creep as high as $10,000 per year. 

Using data from the Tax Foundation, GOBankingRates ranked the states with the highest property taxes in America, including the percentage rate, the average dollar amount paid and the average home value. We ranked the top 15 in ascending order from least expensive to most. For context, the national average effective property tax is 1.04%, the U.S. average home value is $349,015 and the average annual property tax bill is $3,630.

See which states are the most expensive to own real estate in. 

• Average effective property tax: 1.32%
• 2022 average home value: $210,447
• Average annual property tax paid: $2,778

Kansas’s property taxes are actually low compared to the others on this list but are still considered high compared to the rest of the U.S.

• Average effective property tax: 1.38%
• 2022 average home value: $370,445
• Average annual property tax paid: $5,112

New York ties with Michigan for states with the highest property taxes, though New York’s are $1,966 higher, significantly higher.

The average home value is also quite a bit higher in New York than the other states, but its residents still pay a relatively low property tax rate. 

• Average effective property tax: 1.38%
• 2022 average home value: $228,708
• Average annual property tax paid: $3,156

Michigan ties with New York for the #13 spot, even though the property taxes and home values are quite a bit different, but they both share a 1.38% property tax rate. 

• Average effective property tax: 1.49%
• 2022 average home value: $265,724
• Average annual property tax paid: $3,959

Pennsylvania’s property taxes are actually relatively low compared to some of the other states even lower on this list, but it has a higher property tax rate.

• Average effective property tax: 1.50%
• 2022 average home value: $197,330
• Average annual property tax paid: $2,960

Iowa’s another state where the property taxes themselves aren’t actually all that high, though the tax rate is because the average home value is lower here than in other states.

• Average effective property tax: 1.58%
• 2022 average home value: $212,757
• Average annual property tax paid: $3,362

While the effective property tax rate is high in Ohio, the average home value is low, so property taxes are not as high as other states on this list.

• Average effective property tax: 1.61%
• 2022 average home value: $244,619
• Average annual property tax paid: $3,938

Nebraska’s average home value falls around the middle of the states on this list, but its property tax rate is creeping up past 1.6%.

• Average effective property tax: 1.63%
• 2022 average home value: $266,908
• Average annual property tax paid: $4,351

Wisconsin’s property tax rate is over 1.6%, which, at an average home value of $266,908, translates to property taxes that are closing in on $4,500 per year.

• Average effective property tax: 1.66%
• 2022 average home value: $308,392
• Average annual property tax paid: $5,119

With a property tax rate edging up to 1.7%, and an average home value of over $300,000, Texas homeowners are paying over $5,000 in taxes each year.

• Average effective property tax: 1.82%
• 2022 average home value: $366,246
• Average annual property tax paid: $6,666

The New England state of Vermont sees a pricey jump in property tax rate from Connecticut. At over 1.8% property tax rate, even though its average home value is lower than Connecticut, that additional percentage pushes taxes here to a significant level.

• Average effective property tax: 1.96%
• 2022 average home value: $443,793
• Average annual property tax paid: $8,698

New England holds three spots on this list, with New Hampshire almost at 2% property tax rate. Its average home value price is also the second most expensive on this list, and the annual property taxes are the second highest on this list.

• Average effective property tax: 2.05%
• 2022 average home value: $262,134
• Average annual property tax paid: $5,374

Illinois may be the first state to crack the 2% mark in property tax rate, but due to its low average home value, the annual taxes here won’t break homeowners’ banks.

• Average effective property tax: 2.21%
• 2022 average home value: $470,981
• Average annual property tax paid: $10,409

New Jersey earns the top spot as highest property taxes not only in the property tax rate, which is over the 2% mark but in the actual dollars spent on property taxes; here the average home value is the highest on the list.

Andrew Lisa contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: For this piece GOBankingRates looked at Tax Foundation’s Property Tax data to find (1) effective average property tax for each state. Once this was gathered GOBankingRates also found each state’s (2) March 2022 average home value from Zillow and (3) average annual property tax paid. Only factor (1) was considered in the final rankings. All data was collected on and up to date as of Jan. 23, 2023.