Highest property tax bills by city

Most rankings show the highest property tax rates. But a rate is only half the story — what you actually write a check for is rate times home value. Ranked by the real dollar bill on each city's median home, Newark, NJ tops the list at about $11,750/year — and the cities near the top look nothing like the highest-rate list.

The 10 highest property tax bills

Estimated annual property tax on each city's median-priced home. Expensive-housing metros dominate — a "modest" rate on a million-dollar home still produces a five-figure bill.

High rate ≠ high bill

The cities with the steepest rates are mostly older Northeast/Midwest metros with cheap housing — so their actual dollar bills land far lower than you'd expect. Here are the five highest-rate cities and where each ranks by dollars paid:

See the full picture the other way around in our property tax rates by city ranking — same 102 cities, sorted by effective rate instead of dollars.

The 10 lowest property tax bills

Affordable-housing metros with low-to-moderate rates — where the median homeowner's annual property tax stays modest in absolute terms.

All 102 cities, by dollar bill

Sorted by the annual tax on the median home. Sort any column or filter to find your city, then open its calculator to run a specific home value.

Methodology

Each city's annual bill is its county-level effective property tax rate applied to its median home value — annual tax divided by market value, from Census ACS, Tax Foundation, and county assessor data for 2023–2025. We use the primary assessing county per city. Individual school districts, exemptions, and special taxing zones shift the exact figure; this is the median-home estimate. Rates refresh annually.

Free to cite with attribution to TheHousingCalc. Related: property tax rates by city, property tax calculator, and why California's low rate still means big bills.