New Jersey homeowners pay the most in property taxes in the nation, and homeowners there also find taxes make up some of the highest percentages of their total housing costs in the nation. A new study by SmartAsset, a personal finance resource, found that seven cities—five of which are in New Jersey—had property taxes that were more than 30 percent of the cost of owning a home. The average effective property tax in New Jersey is 2.19 percent, which is nearly double the national effective property tax rate of 1.19 percent.
On the other end, Alabama and Louisiana homeowners pay some of the least in real estate taxes. Nine of the bottom 15 cities in SmartAsset’s study are in Alabama or Louisiana. On average, property taxes make up less than 7 percent of housing costs for homeowners in these states.
SmartAsset ranked cities where property taxes have the biggest impact on housing costs by looking at the data on 599 cities across two factors: median property taxes paid and median housing costs. The following chart ranks where property taxes have the largest impact on housing costs.
Source: “Top Towns for Taxes,” BUILDER (April 30, 2018)
