Methodology and data sources

The short version

For every area we divide the median real estate taxes paid by the median home value of owner-occupied homes. The result is the effective property tax rate: what homeowners actually pay each year as a share of what their homes are worth.

Data sources

All data is from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), downloaded from the Census Bureau’s public summary files:

• B25103: median real estate taxes paid, total and by mortgage status (owner-occupied housing units).
• B25077: median value of owner-occupied housing units.
• B25003: tenure (owner-occupied vs renter-occupied homes).
• B19013: median household income.

States, counties and cities use the 2020–2024 ACS 5-year estimates, the most recent release. Trend charts use ACS 1-year estimates for 2015–2019 and 2021–2024, which the Census Bureau publishes only for areas with 65,000 or more people. The 2020 1-year estimates were not released as standard tables because of the pandemic, so that year is missing from the charts.

County neighbors come from the Census Bureau’s county adjacency file. Connecticut appears with its nine planning regions, which replaced its counties in Census statistics from 2022.

Which cities get a page

We publish a city or town page only when the place has at least 2,000 owner-occupied homes and the margin of error on its median tax is no more than 20% of the estimate. Smaller places have survey estimates that are too noisy to be useful. Places that cover nearly all of a county (such as some Virginia independent cities) are shown on the county page instead. A place is listed under the county that holds most of its owner-occupied homes. Places marked as unincorporated communities are Census-designated places, which don’t have their own city government or city tax.

The $10,000 cap

The ACS records real estate taxes only up to “$10,000 or more.” Where the median reaches that cap (17 counties and several hundred cities, mostly in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Illinois and California), we show $10,000+ and an effective rate of at least the calculated figure. The real median bill and rate are higher. These areas are left out of rankings. Home values are similarly capped at $2,000,000.

Limits

• Not your bill. These are medians across all owner-occupied homes. Your bill depends on your assessed value, local tax rates at your address, and exemptions (homestead, senior, veteran, disability and others).
• Survey data. The ACS is a sample survey with margins of error. Homeowners report taxes from memory or their records, so some answers are approximate.
• Time lag. 5-year estimates pool responses from 2020 through 2024, so they trail current bills, especially where values or rates changed quickly.
• Effective vs legal rates. Local governments set legal rates (often in mills) against assessed values that may be a fraction of market value. The effective rate is easier to compare across places but is not a rate you can apply to an assessment notice.

Updates

The Census Bureau publishes new ACS estimates every September (1-year) and December (5-year). We rebuild the site from the new files after each release.

Corrections

Spotted something wrong? Email pa@ahdeck.com.