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

This report does not publish a national county ranking. The calculator currently includes 77 sourced county records. County leaderboards appear on state pages where local coverage is meaningful.

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