NJ Homeowners Pay Highest Property Taxes In US, Study Says

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Is isn’t cheap to own a home in New Jersey.

Financial information website WalletHub released a new study on Tuesday that gave the Garden State a dubious distinction: it’s the state with the “highest real estate property taxes” in the entire nation.

In order to determine the states with the highest and lowest property taxes, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia by using U.S. Census Bureau data to determine real-estate property tax rates and applying assumptions based on national auto-sales data to determine vehicle property tax rates.

Read more about the study’s methodology.

With a monstrous 2.47 percent “effective real estate tax rate,” New Jersey ranked dead last in the study. Across the U.S., the median homeowner paid about $5,064 in real estate taxes on a home valued at $204,900. But in the Garden State, the median homeowner with a property valued at $327,900 shelled out $8,104, researchers said.

According to WalletHub, the next-highest taxed states were:

• 50 - Illinois (2.3% effective real estate tax rate)
• 49 – New Hampshire (2.2% effective real estate tax rate)
• 48 – Connecticut (2.11% effective real estate tax rate)
• 47 – Wisconsin (1.91% effective real estate tax rate)
• 46 – Vermont (1.88% effective real estate tax rate)

Send feedback and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Sign up for Patch email newsletters.