The Tax Foundation

December 15, 2008

New Census Data: From 2005 to 2007, New York, New Jersey Counties Rank Highest in Property Tax on Homeowners; Louisiana Parishes Rank Lowest

American Community Survey Data Now Includes Three-Year Averages in Places with Populations Greater than 20,000

Washington, DC, December 15, 2008 - New data released today by the Census Bureau show that over a three-year period (2005, 2006 and 2007) average homeowners in New York and New Jersey counties paid the most in property taxes while those in Louisiana parishes paid the least.

In Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 157, "New Census Data on Property Taxes on Homeowners," Tax Foundation Senior Economist Gerald Prante and Analyst Mark Robyn use newly updated Census data from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) to rank counties across the country according to various property tax measures.

"The ACS will still be providing annual estimates of hundreds of variables for those places with populations greater than 65,000," Prante and Robyn explain. "However, it is also publishing estimates for places whose population exceeds 20,000, albeit on a three-year average basis."

For a chart of real restate taxes paid on owner-occupied housing for each of the more than 1,800 countries with populations greater than 20,000 for the years 2005, 2006 and 2006, see the following Tax Foundation web sites: http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/24052.html for the complete table of rankings of median real estate taxes paid by dollar amount, and http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/24051.html for rankings by median real estate taxes as a percentage of the median home value and as a percentage of the median income for household-owning units.

Fiscal Fact No. 157 can be found at: http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/24053.html.

The first two tables show a list of the top 20 counties ranked by two different measures: by actual dollar value and as a percentage of median home value:

Top 20 Counties in Median Real Estate Taxes Paid
2005-2007 Average
(Population of 20,000 or More) 

Top 20 Counties in Median Real Estate Taxes as a Percentage of Median Home Value
2005-2007 Average
(Population of 20,000 or More)

The second two tables show a list of the bottom 10 counties ranked by the same measures:

Bottom 10 Counties in Median Real Estate Taxes Paid
2005-2007 Average
(Population of 20,000 or More)

Bottom 10 Counties in Median Real Estate Taxes as a Percentage of Median Home Value
2005-2007 Average
(Population of 20,000 or More)

The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937.

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