New York State ranks 7th in U.S. for highest real estate property taxes (2024)

FAQs

What US state has the highest property taxes? ›

Hawaii is the state with the lowest real estate property tax rate, while New Jersey is the state with the highest, according to personal finance site WalletHub. In a report released Feb. 20, WalletHub determined the states with the highest and lowest property taxes.

New York's effective property tax rate was 1.46% in 2023, the fourth-highest in the nation. Communities in states like New York rely heavily on property taxes to fund local governments and schools. Average bills are thousands more a year in New York than many places in the South, for example.

What Contributes to Upstate New York's High Property Taxes and What Can You Do? Taxes are imposed by town and county governments and school districts. Those budgets have tended to increase despite declines in population and school enrollments in many areas over past few years.

New York's tax system ranks 49th overall on our 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index.

New Jersey has the highest property tax rate at 2.47%, followed by Illinois, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont. There are 14 counties with an estimated median property tax above $10,000 across California, New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

Property taxes vary by state

New Jersey had the largest median property tax bill for singe-family homes in 2023. Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts rounded out the top five states with the most expensive median property tax bill.

The city of Syracuse had among the lowest tax rates in the state in 2022 at $7.67. That ranked 51st statewide out of 62 cities. Among the large Upstate New York cities, only Buffalo had a lower rate at $5.86. You can see data on 2022 full value property tax rates for every city in New York in the table below.

The lowest effective tax rate in the state was $3.93 per $1,000, levied on homes and businesses in the Sagaponack school district portion of the Suffolk County town of Southampton — one of the wealthiest communities in the state.

All owners of the property must be 65 or older, unless the owners are spouses or siblings. If you own the property with a spouse or sibling, only one of you must meet this age requirement. The total combined annual income of the property owner and spouse or co-owner cannot exceed $58,399.

Are property taxes higher in NY or CT? ›

Connecticut had a total effective tax rate of 1.57 percent for single-family homes, putting it far ahead of neighbors like New York, which had an effective tax rate of 1.26 percent.

Upstate New York is considered cheap because of lower housing costs compared to places like NYC. Upstate New York does, however, have some very high property taxes.

For 2023, states with high income tax rates include California at 13.3%, Hawaii at 11%, and New York at 10.9%, with several others not far behind.

In 2021, the top 1 percent of tax filers accounted for 48 percent of NYC PIT liability, a share that has grown from 40 percent in 2019. While a small number of people pay a large share of personal income tax, the same top 1 percent of tax filers also earned 43 percent of all the income in 2021.

Sadly for investors, the answer is no, there are no states without property tax. This is because property tax is a useful way for local governments to fund public services such as schools, fire and police departments, infrastructure and libraries.

Key Findings. Real estate taxes are over $10,000 annually in San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, CA. This is the highest average annual payment of real estate taxes studywide. Meanwhile, average home values range from $1.36 million to $1.58 million in these cities.

Limited State Income Tax and Reliance on Property Taxes:

Unlike other states that collect income taxes to fund public services and infrastructure, Texas relies heavily on property taxes as a primary source of revenue. The burden of funding essential services falls on homeowners, leading to higher property tax rates.