How Much Are Your Property Taxes?
We’ve recently touched upon things to do before you retire (5 Steps BEFORE You Retire) which included investigating the property taxes of a potential retirement location (because property taxes are always due, and they NEVER go down – only up).
There certainly are parts of the country with much higher property taxes than others and there are even counties and towns within counties that have higher property taxes. Some states rely on property taxes because they don’t have income tax or sales tax, etc.. So decisions have to be weighed out. Some states simply overcharge in ALL areas!
I thought it would be interesting to anonymously (if you wish) comment with your annual property taxes and list the state that you reside in. You can simply enter anon (or whatever) if you don’t want others to know that it’s ‘you’ ;)
Obviously there will be differences in property taxes based on one’s home (size, evaluation, etc..) but it should still prove interesting to discover if there are any trends…
Sound interesting?
Okay, lets get started…
Comment below.
I will eventually build a results list and post when we’re about through with responses…
UPDATE:
Okay, given the results as of this update, I’ve quantified some of the numbers.
Note: Most of one’s property tax is based on where one lives, one’s home valuation, with lesser weight on outbuildings, and lesser weight on the land itself – to an extent. Given all of the variations it is nearly impossible to actually compare property taxes, however, I did anyway ;)
Note: Even within a given state, property tax can be exceedingly high in the city versus rural (common sense I suppose).
Note: States like California make it more difficult to analyze due to Prop-13 skewing long-time homeowners vs. new homeowners.
After throwing out the highest and the lowest property tax I came up with an average property tax being paid across the country by those who have submitted their data.
Average property tax: $2,889
Average home size: 1,972 square feet
The following list is sorted by state based on reader input data:
(If square footage was not given, I listed as 2,000)
| State | Tax | Sq.’ home |
| Alabama | $ 404 | 2100 |
| Arizona | $ 650 | 1600 |
| Arizona | $ 1,200 | 1800 |
| Arkansas | $ 1,400 | 1300 |
| California | $ 1,400 | 2520 |
| California | $ 1,500 | 980 |
| California | $ 1,786 | 1073 |
| California | $ 3,000 | 1900 |
| California | $ 4,500 | 1400 |
| California | $ 26,000 | 2000 |
| Colorado | $ 329 | 2400 |
| Colorado | $ 625 | 2700 |
| Colorado | $ 765 | 1000 |
| Colorado | $ 1,043 | 1080 |
| Connecticut | $ 3,800 | 1000 |
| Delaware | $ 501 | 1800 |
| Florida | $ 950 | 1200 |
| Florida | $ 1,250 | 1700 |
| Florida | $ 1,750 | 1200 |
| Florida | $ 4,000 | 2700 |
| Georgia | $ 480 | 1800 |
| Georgia | $ 1,800 | 1800 |
| Hawaii | $ 1,600 | 2000 |
| Idaho | $ 3,200 | 4200 |
| Illinois | $ 1,800 | 3000 |
| Illinois | $ 4,100 | 1900 |
| Illinois | $ 6,300 | 2000 |
| Illinois | $ 12,900 | 2600 |
| Kentucky | $ 1,050 | 1200 |
| Maine | $ 2,200 | 2200 |
| Maine | $ 2,500 | 2000 |
| Michigan | $ 3,000 | 1800 |
| Michigan | $ 4,200 | 3800 |
| Minnesota | $ 220 | 1200 |
| Mississippi | $ 375 | 1800 |
| Missouri | $ 846 | 1600 |
| New Hampshire | $ 4,300 | 1900 |
| New Jersey | $ 10,866 | 2006 |
| New Jersey | $ 13,000 | 2000 |
| New Mexico | $ 500 | 2100 |
| New Mexico | $ 2,124 | 1825 |
| New York | $ 2,900 | 1000 |
| New York | $ 4,800 | 2800 |
| North Carolina | $ 800 | 1200 |
| Ohio | $ 1,300 | 2000 |
| Ohio | $ 1,800 | 1200 |
| Ohio | $ 4,300 | 3800 |
| Oregon | $ 2,500 | 1000 |
| Pennsylvania | $ 5,000 | 3700 |
| Tennessee | $ 295 | 700 |
| Tennessee | $ 1,551 | 1900 |
| Texas | $ 2,800 | 1700 |
| Texas | $ 3,200 | 3600 |
| Texas | $ 4,300 | 1850 |
| Texas | $ 7,800 | 2000 |
| Utah | $ 1,800 | 2000 |
| Utah | $ 3,895 | 3600 |
| Vermont | $ 2,700 | 1700 |
| Vermont | $ 6,000 | 2000 |
| Virginia | $ 3,200 | 3200 |
| Washington | $ 1,650 | 980 |
| Washington | $ 5,700 | 2400 |
| Wyoming | $ 584 | 1000 |