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The real estate boom brought on by the pandemic is great for people who are selling their homes, but for a lot of homeowners, it simply means higher tax bills. A new study finds property taxes on single-family homes were up 4.4% nationwide in 2020, totaling $323 billion.
The average property tax in the U.S. was $3,719, according to Attom Data Solutions. Compare that to $3,561 the year before.
Total property tax payments for single-family home across the country totaled $323 billion, a 5.4% increase from 2019, reflecting larger surges in some states.
“Homeowners across the United States in 2020 got hit with the largest average property tax hike in the last four years,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer for ATTOM Data Solutions. “The increase was twice what it was in 2019. Fortunately for recent home buyers, they have mortgages with super-low interest rates that somewhat contain the cost of home ownership. But the latest tax numbers speak loud and clear about the continuing pressure on both recent and longtime homeowners to support the rising cost of public services.”
People in New Jersey are paying the most, with an effective property tax rate of 2.2%—working out to an average of $9,196 per single-family home. Hawaiians have the lowest effective tax rates, coming in at just 0.37%, but in terms of hard dollars paid, Alabama has the lowest bills, averaging $841 per home.
The most expensive states, in terms of dollars paid were:
- New Jersey: $9,196
- Connecticut: $7,395
- New York: $6,628
- New Hampshire: $6,596
- Massachusetts: $6,514
Rounding out the list were:
- Alabama: $841
- West Virginia: $849
- Arkansas: $1,147
- Tennessee: $1,202
- Mississippi: $1,241
Some counties, meanwhile, had averages of more than $10,000—sixteen, in fact. The most expensive of those were Rockland County, NY ($13,931); Marin County, Calif. ($13,257); Essex County, NJ ($12,698); Nassau County, NY ($12,386) and Bergen County, NJ ($12,348).
