U.S. Property Tax Report 2026

Executive summary

Estimated effective residential property-tax rates still vary widely across the 50 states. In this vintage, Illinois is the highest-rate state and Hawaii is the lowest. On a $500,000 home, that gap is about $7,950 per year.

Key findings

• The highest-rate state in the current dataset, Illinois, has an estimated effective tax rate of 1.88% — about 6.5 times that of Hawaii (0.29%).
• On a $500,000 home, the modeled annual tax difference between Illinois and Hawaii is approximately $7,950.
• The NMC national benchmark effective rate is 0.90%, or about $4,500 per year on a $500,000 home. It is not an average of the 50 state rates.

Home-value comparison

On a $500,000 home, modeled annual tax is $9,400 in Illinois and $1,450 in Hawaii. The national benchmark is $4,500.

County coverage

The dataset covers 3,070 counties, parishes, boroughs, and Connecticut planning regions — every county with a usable ACS median home value and median tax bill. 676 of them have a dedicated page; the rest are estimated in the calculator and listed on their state page. County leaderboards appear on state pages where local coverage is meaningful.

The full county table, keyed by FIPS code, is available as a downloadable CSV.

Historical trends

A second compatible vintage is not yet published. Trend charts will appear here only after comparable years are validated. We will not invent year-over-year change.

Methodology and data

Effective-rate rank #1 is the highest estimated effective residential rate among the 50 states. Dollar-tax rankings on a selected home value are labeled separately and are not called “highest property taxes” when they only reflect that modeled bill.

Download the dataset · Full methodology