Property tax by state: the full ranking for 2026

New Jersey homeowners pay the highest property tax in the country, and Hawaii homeowners pay the lowest, but the gap between those two states says less about your own bill than you might expect. A typical New Jersey owner hands over about $9,590 a year, roughly 2.11% of a median home worth $454,400. In Hawaii the typical bill is $2,239, or 0.27% of a home worth $839,100. The Hawaii house is worth almost twice as much and still costs a quarter of the tax.

Those figures come from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024, which asks homeowners what they actually paid in real estate taxes. We divide the median tax paid by the median home value to get a typical effective rate. It is not the rate printed on any bill, but it is the fairest way to compare places that tax in completely different ways.

Across the whole country, the median homeowner pays $3,119 a year on a home worth $332,700. That works out to an effective rate of about 0.94%.

The ten highest states

The top of the list is dominated by the Northeast and the industrial Midwest. New Jersey (2.11%) leads, followed by Illinois (2.01%), Connecticut (1.81%), New Hampshire (1.66%), Vermont (1.59%), New York (1.55%), Texas (1.49%), Nebraska (1.49%), Wisconsin (1.42%) and Iowa (1.39%).

Most of these states share one habit: local schools are paid for mainly from local property tax rather than from state income or sales tax. New Hampshire and Texas go further and have no broad state income tax at all, so the property tax carries more of the load. That is why a Texas home worth $283,800 still carries a typical bill of $4,232, well above the national median.

The ten lowest states

At the other end sit Hawaii (0.27%), Alabama (0.38%), Nevada (0.47%), Arizona (0.48%), Colorado (0.48%), South Carolina (0.48%), Idaho (0.49%), Delaware (0.50%), Tennessee (0.50%) and Utah (0.52%).

A low rate does not always mean a low bill. Colorado’s rate is less than half the national figure, but home values are so high that the typical bill, $2,602, is not far below the national median. Alabama is the only state where both the rate and the bill are very low: the typical owner pays $788 a year.

Rate or bill: which one matters?

If you already own a home, the rate tells you how much of each dollar of value goes to tax, and the bill tells you what leaves your bank account. If you are moving, the bill on the kind of home you plan to buy is the number that matters. A 1.5% rate on a $250,000 house costs less than a 0.7% rate on a $700,000 house.

There is a third number worth checking: tax as a share of income. In New Jersey the typical bill equals about 9.3% of the median household income. In Alabama and West Virginia it is closer to 1.2% to 1.5%. Our state pages show all three numbers side by side.

Why your county can look very different

State averages hide wide gaps. In Texas, the typical effective rate runs from about 1.5% in Travis County to more than 2% in El Paso County. In New Jersey, Salem County’s rate is close to 2.9%, while Cape May County sits near 1.2%. School districts, city taxes and special districts all change the result, which is why every county has its own page with its own numbers.

Common questions

Which state has the highest property tax? New Jersey, with a typical effective rate of about 2.11% and a typical yearly bill near $9,600.

Which state has the lowest property tax? Hawaii has the lowest rate at about 0.27%. Alabama has the lowest typical bill, under $800 a year.

Is this the rate I will see on my tax bill? No. Bills show a nominal rate or millage applied to your assessed value after exemptions. The effective rate is what you pay compared with your home’s market value, which is what makes states comparable.

How often are these numbers updated? The Census releases new five-year survey figures each December, and the rankings are refreshed then.