Property Tax by State 2026: Effective Rates and County Bills

What the Census number is, and what it is not

The ACS asks owners for the total real estate tax on the whole property, "including special assessments, school taxes, county taxes", converted to a yearly amount (ACS 2024 Subject Definitions). The value is "the respondent’s estimate of how much the property" would sell for. We divided the median tax (table B25103) by the median value (table B25077) to get an effective rate. The Census does not publish that ratio, and a ratio of two medians is not the median of each owner’s own ratio. It compares states well; it is not a quote for one house.

Four limits matter for a reader choosing where to live:

• Vintage. Each owner pays on a value fixed at a different date. In California the constitution caps the tax at "One percent (1%) of the full cash value" and sets that value at the price when a property is "purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership has occurred", rising "not to exceed 2 percent for any given year" (article XIII A, sections 1 and 2). In Florida a homestead’s yearly change cannot exceed the lower of "Three percent of the assessed value of the property for the prior year" or inflation, and the home is reset to market value "the year following a change of ownership" (Florida Statutes 193.155). The long-time owner’s median bill is below what a buyer pays this year.
• Value is self-reported, and the median owner is not the median buyer.
• Top code. A median in the open-ended top interval, $10,000 or more, appears in the data file as $10,001. We mark those counties and treat their rates as floors.
• Sample. County figures pool 2020 through 2024, and small counties carry large margins of error. We ranked only counties with at least 50,000 owner-occupied homes (380 of 3,144). The full file of 3,144 counties is a separate download: all 3,144 counties (CSV).

Our landlord-side page, Rental Property Calculator, uses the same ACS state figures as inputs; this page adds the mortgage split, the county view and the bill at a given price, for someone buying or downsizing a home.

All 50 states and DC, ranked by effective rate

"Rate" is median tax divided by median value for all owners. The next two columns split owners with and without a mortgage. The three bill columns multiply the with-mortgage rate by the price shown (our arithmetic), because owners with a mortgage tend to be more recent buyers. This is an approximation: it assumes your assessor values the home at its price and applies the state-wide median ratio.

Median tax: ACS 2024 1-year table B25103; median value: B25077 and, for the mortgage splits, B25097. Rates and bills are our arithmetic. Puerto Rico is excluded.

Who pays less than the price implies

Homes without a mortgage have a lower rate than homes with one in 29 of the 51 places. The gap is widest in Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, California and Louisiana, where the no-mortgage rate is under 80% of the mortgage rate (our arithmetic); in Texas it is 1.08% against 1.49%, in California 0.56% against 0.77%. Part of that is assessment limits and exemptions that reward staying put, like the California and Florida rules above; the Census data cannot separate it from other causes, so we do not assign it. For the age-based relief that sits on top, see our table of senior property tax relief by state.

For a buyer the practical reading is to take the with-mortgage column, not the headline rate, and to ask the county assessor what the home would be assessed at after the sale.

Counties: highest and lowest rates among large counties

Of 3,144 counties, 380 have at least 50,000 owner-occupied homes. 14 of them have a median bill of $10,000 or more and are listed separately, because the Census reports no number above that.

Highest effective rates

Lowest effective rates

ACS 2020-2024 5-year, tables B25103, B25077 and B25003; rate is our arithmetic.

The same state, very different counties

Counties with at least 50,000 owner-occupied homes and a median tax under the $10,000 top code; ratio is our arithmetic.

Counties where the typical bill is $10,000 or more

The median tax of each is in the $10,000-or-more interval, shown as $10,001 in the file; the rate uses that figure, so it is a floor (our arithmetic).

Cook County, Illinois, which many investors ask about, is in the full county file; our guide to the Cook County property tax appeal covers the process, and the general rules are in property tax appeals for investment property.

How much of the bill you can deduct in 2026

Three rules in 26 U.S.C. 164 decide whether a high bill costs you after tax. For a tax year beginning in 2026 the applicable limitation amount is $40,400 (164(b)(7)(A)(ii)). It is reduced by 30 percent of the excess of modified adjusted gross income over a threshold, $505,000 for 2026, and cannot fall below $10,000 (164(b)(7)(B)). The cap covers property tax together with state income or sales tax. Property tax "paid or accrued in carrying on a trade or business or an activity described in section 212", which includes a rental, is outside the cap (164(b)(6)).

At $600,000 the cap is $40,400 minus 30% of $95,000, or $28,500, leaving $11,900; the $10,000 floor is reached at about $606,334 of modified AGI. Before 2030 that is the rule; for taxable years after calendar year 2029 the statute sets the limitation amount back at $10,000. For a reader with $250,000 or more of investable assets moving to a high-rate state, the question is therefore less "what is the rate" than "does my income put me above $505,000". Our page on the mortgage interest deduction limit works the same cap next to the $750,000 mortgage limit.

What a reader can do with this

First, compare states on the with-mortgage rate and the bill at your price, not on the all-owner rate. Second, price the tax on your own purchase: the Census figures describe a typical owner, so a new buyer should ask the county assessor how the property is reassessed on sale before using any state rate. Third, check which relief applies at your age, and whether it is tied to income, with our senior relief table. Fourth, if you plan to rent the home, use the landlord inputs in the rental property calculator and the metro view in gross rent multiplier by metro. Fifth, if the move also changes your estate-tax state, compare it with the list of states with estate or inheritance tax.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 22, 2026: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 table-based summary file, 1-year (states) and 5-year 2020-2024 (counties), tables B25103, B25077, B25097 and B25003, with the table shells and the ACS 2024 Subject Definitions; 26 U.S.C. 164 (Legal Information Institute text); California Constitution article XIII A (Internet Archive copy of the legislative information site); Florida Statutes section 193.155. Rates, bills and the SALT cases are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.