Report: Westchester, Rockland Tops In Property Tax Burden Nationwide

IRVINE, CA—A recently released report on property tax burden in cities and counties nationwide confirmed that New York and counties in the Hudson Valley region are or are among the highest in the nation.

Property database curator firm AATOM Data Solutions reported that Westchester and Rockland counties came in at number one and two in terms of the highest property taxes among 1,414 U.S. counties included in the report. Among 1,414 U.S. counties with at least 10,000 single family homes, those with the highest average property taxes on single family homes were all in the greater New York metro area, led by Westchester County, ($17,179), Rockland County ($12,924), Essex County, NJ ($11,878), Bergen County, NJ ($11,585), and Nassau County, New York ($11,415).

Other counties in the HGAR market area came in under the $10,000 threshold. Putnam County’s average property tax on a single-family home registered slightly under the $10,000 threshold at $9,591, while Orange County’s annual property tax burden on a single-family house last year was $7,907, according to the AATOM Data Solutions report.

Other counties with average property taxes of more than $10,000—the cap on state and local tax deductions for federal income taxes under the tax reform legislation signed into law by President Donald Trump in December—on single-family homes were: Marin County, CA ($11,295), Union County, NJ ($10,863), Fairfield County, CT ($10,612) and Morris County, NJ ($10,294).

The property tax analysis for more than 86 million U.S. single family homes, showed that property taxes levied on single family homes in 2017 totaled $293.4 billion, up 6% from $277.7 billion in 2016 and an average of $3,399 per home—an effective tax rate of 1.17%.

The average property taxes of $3,399 for a single-family home in 2017 was up 3% from the average property tax of $3,296 in 2016, and the effective property tax rate of 1.17% in 2017 was up from the effective property tax rate of 1.15% in 2016.

States with the highest effective property tax rates were New Jersey (2.28%), Illinois (2.22%), Vermont (2.19%), Texas (2.15%), and New Hampshire (2.06%).

Other states in the top 10 for highest effective property tax rates were Pennsylvania (2.02%), Connecticut (1.99%), New York (1.92%), Ohio (1.72%), and Wisconsin (1.67%).

Among 217 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest effective property tax rates were Scranton, PA (3.93%); Binghamton, NY (3.14%); Rockford, IL (3.03%); Rochester, NY (2.93%); and El Paso, TX (2.63%).

Out of the 217 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report, 125 (58%) posted an increase in average property taxes above the national average of 3%, including Los Angeles (7% increase), Dallas (11% increase), Houston (10% increase), Philadelphia (4% increase), and Miami (5% increase).

The report analyzed property tax data collected from county tax assessor offices nationwide at the state, metro and county levels along with estimated market values of single-family homes calculated using an automated valuation model (AVM). The effective tax rate was the average annual property tax expressed as a percentage of the average estimated market value of homes in each geographic area.