States With the Highest and Lowest Property Taxes

Homeowners in South Carolina pay an average of only about half a percent of their home value in property taxes per year, well below the average effective property tax rate of 1.1% nationwide. Property taxes are often used to fund public school systems, and in South Carolina, per pupil education spending is lower than in most other states.

The typical home in Colorado is worth $373,300, about $150,000 more than the national median home value. Partially as a result, Colorado has relatively high property tax collections per capita, despite having one of the lowest effective property tax rates of any state.

With an effective property tax rate of 0.58% — well below the 1.1% national average — Delaware is one of only 10 states nationwide where annual per capita property tax collections are less than $1,000. Partially as a result, just 18.9% of state and local tax revenue in the state come from property taxes, well below the 31.9% national average.

Utah is one of three Western states in the continental U.S. to rank among the 10 states with the lowest effective property tax rates. Property taxes are often used to fund public school systems, and in Utah, per pupil education spending at the elementary and secondary levels is just $7,179, lower than in every other state.

With one of the lowest median home values in the country and one of the lowest effective property tax rates of any state, property tax collections per capita in Arkansas are just $740, less than half the $1,617 national average. Just 18.5% of state and local tax revenue in Arkansas comes from property tax, the second smallest share of any state.