States With the Highest and Lowest Property Taxes

Homeowners in Hawaii pay an average of just 0.3% of their property value in taxes every year — the lowest effective property tax rate of any state. Nationwide, the effective property tax rate is 1.1% of the average home value. However, annual property tax collections per capita in the state are higher than in 19 states largely because of Hawaii’s high property values. The median home value in the state is the nation’s highest.

Homeowners in Alabama pay an average of just 0.4% of their home value in property taxes every year, a smaller share than in every state other than Hawaii. Property tax revenues are typically used in part for funding local public schools, and in Alabama, public school funding is just $9,511 per pupil per year, nearly $3,000 below the national average.

Louisiana has the third lowest effective property tax rate of any state. Partially as a result, the state and local governments in Louisiana derive far larger than typical shares of annual revenue from other sources, such as sales tax.

Wyoming has one of the lowest effective property tax rates of any state. Still, state and local governments derive a far higher than average share of overall tax revenue from property taxes, at 44.5%. Nationwide, states derive 31.9% of their tax revenue from property taxes, on average.

Property taxes are low in West Virginia. The state is one of only 10 nationwide where per capita property tax collections are less than $1,000. West Virginia also has the highest homeownership rate of any state, at 72.5%.