Property Taxes by State: Highest and Lowest (2026)

Property taxes are wildly uneven across the country: the effective rate runs from about 0.28% in Hawaii to over 2.2% in New Jersey — an eight-fold gap. On a median home that's the difference between a few hundred dollars and nine thousand a year. Here's where every kind of state lands and why.

The short version

• Effective property-tax rates range from ~0.28% (Hawaii) to ~2.23% (New Jersey).
• New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut top the list; Hawaii, Alabama, and Colorado anchor the bottom.
• States with no or low income tax often lean harder on property tax.
• A low rate doesn't guarantee a low bill — home values matter just as much.

Which states have the highest property taxes?

These states have the highest effective property-tax rates — the annual tax as a share of a home's value:

In New Jersey, the median homeowner pays over $9,000 a year. High rates often track with two things: heavy reliance on local property tax to fund schools, and the absence of other big revenue sources.

Which states have the lowest property taxes?

At the other end, these states keep effective rates low:

Hawaii's rate is the lowest in the nation — but, as we'll see, that doesn't make it the cheapest place to own a home.

Why property taxes vary so much

The spread comes down to how states choose to fund government:

• No-income-tax states (like Texas) often make up the gap with higher property taxes.
• School funding is the biggest driver: where local property taxes fund schools (New Jersey), rates climb; where the state funds them centrally (Hawaii), rates can stay low.
• Assessment rules and caps — some states cap how fast assessed values can rise, holding effective rates down for long-time owners.

How states rank on economic freedom

Property tax is one input into the bigger economic-freedom picture, which folds in total tax burden, regulation, and business climate:

1. 1NHNew Hampshire
   10.0A+
2. 2TNTennessee
   9.8A+
3. 3SDSouth Dakota
   9.6A+
4. 4TXTexas
   9.4A+
5. 5IDIdaho
   9.2A+
6. 6FLFlorida
   9.0A+
7. 7NCNorth Carolina
   8.8A
8. 8GAGeorgia
   8.6A
9. 9NDNorth Dakota
   8.4A-
10. 10INIndiana
    8.2A-

See all 50 states ranked on Economic Freedom

See the full tax-burden & economic-freedom ranking

All 50 states ranked on total tax load, regulation, and business climate — with a color-coded map.

Low rate vs low bill

Here's the trap that catches relocating buyers: your bill is the rate times your home's value. A 0.28% rate in Hawaii sounds unbeatable, but on a $900,000 home it's about $2,500 — more than a 1.5% rate on a $150,000 home elsewhere.

So when you compare states, run the numbers on a home you'd actually buy, not the headline rate. And remember property tax is just one piece — pair this with the no-sales-tax and no-income-tax breakdowns to see the whole bill.