Property tax is the homeownership cost that never ends — a bill that arrives every year for as long as you own, scales with what your home is worth, and varies more by location than almost any other cost. Nationally it averages about $4,271 a year, an effective rate of roughly 0.89% of home value (NAHB analysis of the 2024 American Community Survey). But that average hides an enormous spread — and, more usefully, it hides a distinction most people get wrong. (For where this sits among all the costs of owning, see the full cost of buying a home.)
The rate isn’t the bill
The single most useful thing to understand about property tax is that the state with the highest rate is not the state with the highest bill — because home values differ. The bill is the rate times the home’s assessed value, so a high rate on an inexpensive home can cost less than a modest rate on an expensive one.
The 2024 data shows it cleanly: Illinois has the highest effective rate (about 1.79%), but New Jersey has the highest average bill ($9,767) — New Jersey’s pricier homes carry a slightly lower rate to a bigger dollar total. At the other end, Hawaii has the lowest effective rate (about 0.31%), yet its high home values keep its bill well off the bottom; West Virginia has the lowest average bill ($1,044). So “low-tax state” depends entirely on which number you mean — the percentage you pay, or the dollars you write.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. average annual bill | $4,271 | NAHB, 2024 ACS |
| U.S. average effective rate | 0.89% ($8.88 per $1,000) | NAHB, 2024 ACS |
| Highest average bill | New Jersey — $9,767 | NAHB, 2024 ACS |
| Second-highest bill | New York — $7,573 | NAHB, 2024 ACS |
| Lowest average bill | West Virginia — $1,044 | NAHB, 2024 ACS |
| Highest effective rate | Illinois — ~1.79% | NAHB, 2024 ACS |
| Lowest effective rate | Hawaii — ~0.31% | NAHB, 2024 ACS |
Why it varies so much
Two levers drive the spread, and they’re the same mechanics behind the property-tax differences in our other guides. First, the rate — set locally to fund schools, services, and infrastructure, so it ranges from well under 1% to nearly 2% depending on the state and even the district. Second, the assessed value the rate is applied to. New construction is assessed at full current market value, while many states cap how fast an existing home’s assessment can rise (California’s Proposition 13 is the classic example), so two identical homes can owe very different tax depending on when each was last assessed. (This is the same assessment-lag dynamic that can make an older existing home cheaper to hold than a new build — see new construction vs existing home.)
The regional pattern
Effective rates run highest in the Northeast (NAHB) — New Jersey, New York, and their neighbors anchor the top. The single highest rate, though, is Illinois, a Midwest outlier at about 1.79%, and other high-tax states like Texas sit in otherwise lower-tax regions — so region is a rough hint, not the answer. And because the bill also depends on home values, even a low-rate state can hand you a large annual number where homes are expensive.
Find your state’s number
The figures above are the documented anchor points — the national average and the verified high and low ends. For your exact state, the complete per-state table (every state’s average bill and effective rate, 2024 ACS) is published by NAHB and built on Census American Community Survey data; both are linked in the sources below. We anchor on the figures we can cite precisely and point you to the full dataset rather than reproduce 50 numbers we can’t individually verify here.
What this means for your money
- Property tax is permanent and compounding. Unlike a mortgage, it never retires, and it rises with your home’s value — which is why it’s one of the largest lifetime costs of owning (see the full cost of buying a home).
- Compare the bill, not just the rate, when you weigh locations — and remember a long-held existing home may carry a lower assessment than a new build next door (new vs existing).
- Fold it into the real decision. Property tax is one line in the bigger buy-versus-rent math; run your actual number through the buy-vs-rent calculator.
Figures: 2024 ACS (latest available), reviewed June 2026 — property-tax data lags, so the most recent published year is 2024.