moneywatch.com / Cash Flow / Ask the Agent

How Do Your Property Taxes Stack Up?

By Alison Rogers | Oct 29, 2009 |

Property taxes can be the bane of a homeowner’s existence. When times are good, your home’s value goes up, and your taxes go up. When times are bad, as Moneywatch editorial director Eric Schurenberg has noted, property taxes … go up.

But now there’s a new report on property taxes from the Tax Foundation that lets you know just how bad you really have it. By comparing a county’s average property tax to its median income, the report measures the “bite” of property taxes.

The conclusion: the Top Ten most expensive counties for property taxes are in the New York City suburbs. Taking the prize is Passaic County, New Jersey — see chart below.

Having owned a home in Nassau County, which ranks number three overall, I can easily believe this. Property taxes there average a whopping 8 percent of income, so that one dollar out of every twelve the average homeowner earns goes to pay the property tax.

If you’re seeking refuge from property taxes, head to Louisiana instead. The median property tax in Vernon Parish is just $120, which averages out to .25% of a homeowner’s income.

Let me tell you, as a real estate agent in New York City, I pay a commuter tax that’s higher than that … and, drum-roll, I ride the subway.

Enough chattering; charts! Check out the Top Ten and the Bottom Ten property tax counties below. For comparison’s sake, the National median taxes paid are $1,854, for a bite of 2.85% of income.

Highest Property Tax Bite Relative to Income

(County, Median Taxes Paid, Tax as Percentage of Income)

1. Passaic County, NJ … $7,095 … 8.34%
2. Essex County, NJ … $7,676 … 8.12%
3. Nassau County, NY … $8,306 … 8.00%
4. Bergen County, NJ … $7,997 … 7.89%
5. Union County, NJ … $7,058 … 7.80%
6. Rockland County, NY … $7,798 … 7.61%
7. Westchester County, NY … $8,404 … 7.55%
8. Hunterdon County, NJ … $8,347 … 7.50%
9. Suffolk County, NY … $6,842 … 7.24%
10. Hudson County, NJ … $6,155 … 7.20%

Lowest Property Tax Bite Relative to Income

(County, Median Taxes Paid, Tax as Percentage of Income)

1. Vernon Parish, LA … $120 … 0.25%
2. Vermillion Parish, LA … $138 … 0.26%
3. Allen Parish, LA … $119 … 0.26%
4. Evangeline Parish, LA … $127 … 0.26%
5. Beauregard Parish, LA … $132 … 0.27%
6. Webster Parish, LA … $125 … 0.27%
7. Jefferson Davis Parish, LA … $127 … 0.28%
8. DeSoto Parish, LA … $129 … 0.28%
9. St. John the Baptist Parish, LA … $163 … 0.28%
10. Lafourche Parish, LA … $152 … 0.28%

 
Reply to Story

MoneyWatch TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

  •  
    1

    TaxedInNOLA

    10/30/09 | Report as spam

    RE: How Do Your Property Taxes Stack Up?

    Those figures on Louisiana property taxes are a bit misleading(although they may be accurate). In Louisiana, the first $75,000 of the value of your home is exempt from property taxes. Those Parishes (counties) are largely rural and have high poverty rates, so a large percentage of homes there are valued below, or only slightly above, the $75,000 homestead exemption. The property tax rates there could be very high, but the high number of low valued homes makes it seem like the rates are low on average. Most Parishes do not have particularly low property tax rates. For instance, in Orleans Parish, my home has an assessed value of $365,000 and I pay around $3,500 in property taxes. That's not terrible, by itself, but I certainly don't get much bang for my buck either (thanks to our brilliant mayor & council....see: sarcasm). That's not the only tax-like expenses I have though. Because our tax dollars don't seem to be used to keep our neighborhoods safe or our streets in good repair, many neighborhoods like mine are forced to pay for their own security patrols and street repairs (police NEVER patrol my neighborhood & GIANT potholes take decades to be fixed if you wait for the city to fix them). So, I have to pay an additional $2,400 in neighborhood association fees or lose my home. So my total tax & tax related costs are around $5,900. That's between 6% & 7% of my income. Certainly no bargain.

  •  
    2

    Courispolard

    10/30/09 | Report as spam

    RE: How Do Your Property Taxes Stack Up?

    It limits increases in taxes by individual taxing districts to 1 percent annually. For example, if a city received $1 million in property taxes one year, it can only receive $1.01 million the next year, plus any tax revenues generated by new construction added to the tax rolls in the past year.

    Absolute Acai Berry

  •  
    3

    emyvote

    10/31/09 | Report as spam

    RE: How Do Your Property Taxes Stack Up?

    I live in TX (#1 on the list above), and my parents live in AL (#49 on the list). In fact I pay around double the property taxes they pay. That doesn't sound too crazy until you realize that I live in a 792 SF condo and they live in a 10,000SF house worth almost 10 times what my property is valued! But thank God I don't live in NY or NJ where people who inherit paid off homes are forced to sell because they can't afford the property taxes. Virility Ex

Please add your comment:
  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  4.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)

Active MoneyWatch What are folks in the community talking about

advertisement
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
advertisement
Click Here

Alison Rogers

Since graduating from Harvard summa cum laude, Alison Rogers has been a reporter, an editor, a real-estate agent, a Wall Street desk jockey, a columnist, a failed flipper, and a landlady. A member of the National Association of Realtors, she currently sells and rents luxury co-ops in Manhattan for the Chelsea-based firm DG Neary. (If you've got $27,500 a month, the firm has an apartment for you!) Her book, Diary of a Real Estate Rookie, was called "a valuable guide for rookie buyers" by AOL/Walletpop, "beach-read fun" by the New York Observer, and "witty" by Newsweek.

Alison Rogers

track your portfolio